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What is the Most Effective Way to Screen & Qualify Franchise Prospects?

By Michael Webster on June 4, 2017 7:58 PM | 0 Comments

Personality Assessment for Franchisees

Which are the most effective personality assessment tools for Franchisees?

Can you screen out in advance prospects who will be bad owners?

What has worked for you?

Any suggestions?

Joe Caruso You may want to start with this article - "Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs"

The author Merve Emre has some interesting and shocking things to say about relying Myers-Briggs.

http://digg.com/2015/myers-briggs-secret-history?utm_content=buffer5bf84&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Speaker MB is good. But IMO. The DISC. Profile is simpler - easier - more fun - and results oriented. Just saying.
Joe Caruso One of the common criticisms of Myers-Briggs is that a person can take the test on Monday and again on Thursday and get two very different assessments.
Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Speaker Yes. And 99% of the time DISC nails it every time You're right joe.
Michael Biggins I am struggling a bit to apply these profiling tools to franchisees. But I am open and willing to be convinced. (Just sayin'). I agree that being a franchisee is not a good choice for everyone and there are certain characteristics and capabilities that make a real and important difference. I see way too many people buy into a franchise that is not 'right' for them or when they are simply not prepared for what it will take. Thoughts?
Joe Caruso Not sure that DISC is any more reliable than Myers-Briggs.

"Personality Scores and Job Performance

Are scores on personality tests highly predictive of performance? There is a long history of research showing: maybe. That is, if the employee has all the other performance elements necessary to do the job, and the personality test is job-related, personality can make a difference. Self-descriptive test scores represent how the applicant wants to present themselves -- it may not be reality. So, even if an applicant tells an interviewer he/she is organized, it's no guarantee he or she will be good with details. It is just bad science to claim the DISC (or any other personality test) will accurately predict managerial performance, capability for organization, character, or personal responsibility." http://www.eremedia.com/ere/dissecting-the-disc/
Nancy Friedman, Keynote Customer Service Speaker Disc is not a personality test. Its work style. Pretty accurate in my life time. Always room for improvement as we know. But pretty good
Monique Hernandez When it comes to discovering individual and organizational personalities, I highly recommend the Myers Briggs personality assessment. Given the persons being assessed understands that the questionnaire is not going to be spot on but everyone has a preference. That preference is key to receive accurate results. I've turned to this assessment when I've noticed a team is having difficulty understanding one another, or the team is not understanding myself. The time spent doing this and openness brings everyone together. I suggest Myers Briggs ! True believer
Michael (Mike) Webster @Monique, what have you used MBI for? Thanks.
Greg Nathan A couple of thoughts. The Myers Briggs is an awesome tool for leadership and personal development. It is useful as an adjunct in recruitment, but will not predict performance. Just how someone will probably approach their work.
DISC is also a great tool for management development. Be careful using it as a predictor of performance. Again it will tell you how someone will approach their job, not the outcomes they will get.
There are several profiling tools that have been developed from solid research into franchisee performance. We have one at the Franchise Relationships Institute that is part of a total recruitment system called The Nathan Profiler, and Fred Berni has one that I think is called The FranchiZe Profile.
Don't rely on a personality profiles alone. Structured interviews, on the job trials and past performance are also useful to consider when trying to predict future performance.
By the way I am a registered psychologist with 35 years up my sleeve working with a range of these types of tools, so I speak from experience, not hearsay.
Vivienne Beech Love the Nathan Profiler but also really like Ripe Strategies system by Lynne Schinella
Michael (Mike) Webster Vivienne, what do you use these profilers for? Thanks.
Michael (Mike) Webster Greg, what we have seen in the franchisor sales departments is an extreme reluctance to do anything which would cut down their pipeline.

It makes sense to filter using a tool which assesses expected performance, like your tool & Fred's assessment, but we have found sales departments very reluctant to employ them as part of their screening process.

So, I wonder if these predictive assessment tools aren't more usefully deployed right now as part of the onboarding process, by the operational folks.
Mary Clapp In my experience the personality assessments can be useful if they go both ways. The tools are supposed to help people understand how to communicate better with each other. For a franchisor to understand if a franchisee is likely to be a good fit for the system's style of communicating and making decisions, the franchisor has to understand the personalities of the decision makers and key ops folks in the franchise system, as well as those of the franchisee. Sometimes a change in the zor management is necessary. If the franchisor isn't considering that as a possibility, it probably won't matter what the zee assessments say.
Bernie Moscovitz Think the best application is A DISC/PIAV or Behaviors and Motivators. Goes beyond the basic personality assessment and adds personal interests, attitudes and values.
Greg Nathan Michael - your observations are correct. The priority for most franchise sales folks is to hit their recruitment numbers. Better quality operators factor in franchisee suitability as an equally high priority. Having operations folks also involved in the recruitment process acts like a conscience and balances the short term and longer term perspectives. (The ops folks have to live with the franchisee long after the recruitment folks have handed them over, so to speak). And I agree, using profiling tools for onboarding, coaching and improving communications is very useful.
Mary Clapp's comments are, in my view, all spot on.
Mariel Miller The FranchiseAdvisor I've been in organizational devel for franchisors since 2000, have seen many products in this space...I'd be happy to discuss my experience & share with you an objective workshop I've delivered to USA franchisor groups about this topic - [email protected] 732 4811-5188
Ron Bender, CFE I have used (and taken!) many, including MBI, DISC, Wunderlic, ProvenMatch and Spot-On, and I think your development staff can be trained to get great use out of all of them. I love the newer, more 'workstyle and communication-related' programs like ProvenMatch since they become very useful for better training and coaching after they become franchisees.
Michael (Mike) Webster Mariel, have you got a link to your seminar? Thanks. You could post in your comment.
Mariel Miller The FranchiseAdvisor Thanks Michael, here it is: https://prezi.com/yacdqnocdlbv/copy-of-assessing-competence-character-and-compliance-in-franchising/
Michael (Mike) Webster Mariel, you are welcome.
Greg Nathan Mariel - I just looked through this. It looks fascinating but is a bit hard to follow. Can you explain the context?
Thom Crimans Check out Proven Match. DISC, Myers Briggs and such are fine, but they are off the self products used for a wide variety of purposes. Proven Match is specifically designed to determine a prospects fit to your business model. Here is the link from the IFA website: http://www.franchise.org/proven-match-supplier Or contact [email protected]
Craig Slavin The oldest and most reliable franchise profile is the Franchise Navigator. Launched in 1997, after 7 years of research, Franchise Navigator has had incredible success with its clients. http://www.franchisenavigator.com.
Fred Berni Greg - Thanks for the mention.
Craig Slavin Let me know if anyone would like to "test-drive" the Navigator. It was built from the ground up for franchise application. It is also not a "generic "psychometric" assessment but actually becomes customized to each brand that uses it.
Mariel Miller The FranchiseAdvisor Certainly, I was asked to present an objective picture of assessments in the franchise space and discussed several valid and reliable instruments and how they would fit inside the recruitment process - The focus was how to work with an instrument and how to have a better process including "fit" even without an instrument. The key issue is how valid the assessment is and can it, in fact, predict future behavior. There are a good number of valid tests out there, but a franchisor should ask a lot of questions about how long the instrument has been used, how long specifically in the franchise sector, and ask for white papers, studies, etc. to insure the tool is appropriate for selection. Contrary to some commentary, personality has been proven to predict "job performance" in many studies. So has an individuals Value System. Tons of research is out there supporting this. Hope that helps put my work in a bit of context.
Daniel Alberto Bernard Here in Brazil we use our own Teste Aldeia Gaulesa. It was based upon studies developed by professor Yves Enrègle, Ph.D. on Psychology and Sociology from Harvard and my professor at Groupe ESSEC in France in the early 90´s. We selected more than 10,000 franchisees by using this very accurate assesment test. It represents an evolution from PEAI and considers laboral relations later from the digital revolution from the mid 80´s. Just check the portuguese version at http://www.netplanconsultoria.com.br/principal/home/?sistema=conteudos|conteudo&id_conteudo=2
Dave Sullivan I currently use SpotOn by Zoracle. It has proven to match my candidates with concepts that line up with their competencies and compatibility. When I match a franchisee who shares a company's Values, Stages of Growth, Culture and Work Style they perform better and ramp-up quicker.
Jan-Marie Hall Hello Everyone - Proven Match is a scientific based assessment since 1987, designed specifically for Franchising to help you know the characteristics of your to top performing franchisees which helps you measure your candidates to their attributes.
Proven Match also help you with talking styles to get the best out of all your franchisees plus where to market to attract those top players.
I would be happy to give a demo or connect you with a franchisor using Proven Match
www.provenmatch.com
Craig Slavin Since 1987? I would check on your statistics. Proven Match was launched 5 or 6 years ago at best according to the creator.
Craig Slavin Spot-On is less than 2 years old.
Simon Lord Most franchisors I have talked to who started off using general profiling tools stopped using them after a while as they didn't accurately reflect the peculiarities of the franchisor/franchisee relationship. I'd recommend looking at the Nathan Profiler http://www.franchiserelationships.com/tools/profiler/
Craig Slavin Here's my take on using assessments/surveys in the franchising space. First, using one is a better idea than not using one. Anytime you can "model" something and be able to replicate it you are likely to be in a better position. Secondly, based on my experience, research, creation, usage and administration of a Behavioral Recognition Assessment called, the Navigator, I personally feel the value of an assessment/survey comes in the ability to use, adapt, and leverage the results. Most of the data, and results, of assessments/surveys becomes either under-utilized or misunderstood. The focus should not be solely about the assessment/survey but should address how to implement the recommendations in real life situations, with franchise operators, employees and others that participate in the franchising efforts.
Michael (Mike) Webster Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

.1.We made a feature & highlighted it at:

https://www.franchise-info.ca/supply_chain/2015/11/personality-assessment-for-franchisees---a-panel-discussion.html#.VmjU1d-rTm0

.2. It was also in the Franchise-Info newsletter.
Greg Nathan Wow that 's been a wild ride. Enjoyed looking back over that thanks!
Fred Berni I apologize in advance if this appears as a duplicate post. I've been told that my original post didn't appear in this thread which is strange as I can see it.

Ulf - Let's start with the basics.

First, decide whether you want a tool designed to give you information on "cultural fit" or are you more concerned with performance? The two are not the same. If you're looking to see if a person is a good cultural fit, then likely any "personality" profile will do the trick.

If, however, you're looking to find out if your candidate will perform, then one of the best ways of identifying how a person will do in a specific job is to measure their skill-sets and their job-specific judgment. Since every job has a unique set of situational judgment needs and skill-sets, no single questionnaire can accurately be used for multiple jobs.

Continued in next post....
Fred Berni The reason the FBI uses job-specific judgment questions in their agent hiring process is because it's so accurate in predicting performance. That's also why we include situational judgment in our FranchiZe Profile.

Second, make sure the system under consideration was actually designed for selection. Several of the most common personality profiles specifically state on their websites (Meyers Briggs) or in their validation documents (DiSC) that they were not designed for selection. The Meyers Briggs site even goes so far as to say it's unethical to use it for selection. Even so, people are using these profiles for selection purposes.

The article Joe mentioned in an earlier post http://www.eremedia.com/ere/dissecting-the-disc/ does a good job of explaining these first two issues.
continued...
Fred Berni Third, if the "test" you're considering doesn't include job-specific questions you run the risk of running afoul of the EEOC and the ADA. The Supreme Court ruled in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. 401 U.S. 424 (1971): "What Congress has forbidden is giving these devices and mechanisms controlling force unless they are demonstrably a reasonable measure of job performance."

Fourth, make sure the profile you're considering has been validated by an independent third-party with no monetary interest in the results. By validated, I mean proven to demonstrate that it does accurately predict performance, not just that it's internally reliable. Doing so goes a long way to cutting down on your risks with the EEOC.

continued...
Michael (Mike) Webster Thanks for adding in these ideas, Fred.
Alan Branch As a franchisor for a new franchise system, we organised for a Psychologist to sit in in several recruitment interviews and then give an independent observation on what is needed both for our interview techniques and the answers from applicants. Just like developing critical business software, if you can afford to do it yourself (with some help at the start) then you get a good result.
Craig Slavin Alan, good idea in theory but if the Psychologist is not experienced in franchising and has never been in the "front lines" then it is either all theory or subjective based on his/her own set of rules. There is a huge difference between "theory" and "practical application" as it all relates to whether someone has the "right stuff" to execute a particular business model, especially for a new start-up franchisor where there is neither a lot of people or data to "model.".
Ulf Muller Thank you, All for your great contributions. Following on from your input and my research I have come to a conclusion. There are three points which stand out:
1. Having a Personality Assessment for Franchisees is better than not having one.
2. Successful franchisees have specific personality profiles. An assessment tool which is targeted towards franchisees is better than a generic one.
3. Assessment tools are not static. They develop with your network. Calibrating your assessment tool by assessing your best and least good performing franchisees is useful.

Thank you again everyone. Have a great Christmas and all the best for 2016.
Craig Slavin I don't believe Personality is the key. Our Navigator Assessments are Skills, Values and Behavioral based. Meaning, that if you can identify behavioral traits of a person it is an enormous insight that is not gained through a Personality Assessment. In franchising, it is all about whether an individual can execute a business model and that isn't personality based.

Second, yes, a tool targeted towards franchise ownership is better than a generic one.

Your third point is a little confusing. The assessment changes as the business model changes not as the company evolves. Sears has been using the Navigator for 18 years and their analysts have re-validated the Navigator Profile 4 times. Also, looking at just the best and least good is also not a valid indicator. You must look at everyone - the High, Mid and Poor performers and a valuable assessment talso shows how to turn mid performers into higher performers.

Finally, length of time an assessment has been in usage is key.
Caroline Balinska - Digital Innovation Strategist I did an awesome interview with Craig Bissett about choosing franchisees with assessment tools. It is definitely with listening to http://www.smartfranchise.marketing/podcast/

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