Ask a franchisee what’s hardest about running their business and you’ll hear the same answer. People. Finding them, keeping them, and getting them to stick around long enough to make a difference.
Franchisors hand owners a playbook for nearly everything. So why does people support thin out right where it matters most?
We teamed up with CareerPlug and surveyed franchise HR, operations, and field leaders to find out. The problem isn’t skill or bandwidth. It’s permission. Brands aren’t sure how far they’re allowed to go, so most don’t go very far at all.
A few things we found:
- 93% of brands can report revenue for any location. Only 21% can report how its employees feel about the work.
- 42% of brands don’t track employee turnover at any location.
- 63% of brands say legal or risk concerns most limit their coaching on people topics, more than time, data, and training combined.
- Only 36% support franchisees on pay and benefits, the thinnest part of the employee lifecycle.
- 76% of brands hold check-ins monthly or more, but only 29% bring location-level hiring and retention data to them.
The full report, produced in partnership with CareerPlug, breaks down where franchisor support fades across the employee lifecycle, what the NLRB joint-employer standard actually allows (it’s more than most brands think), how brands are putting AI to work in people ops, and four moves franchise leaders can make now.
The good news? 70% of brands are increasing their investment in people operations or want to. The will is there. Now it’s about knowing where to start.
Fill out the form to download your free copy of Franchise People Operations Insights 2026.
