Franchisors today are feeling the pressure from all sides. Rising labor costs, inconsistent unit performance, and the challenge of maintaining brand standards across multiple locations—it’s a lot. And when underperforming franchisees start to fall behind, the ripple effects are real: declining royalties, increased support needs, reputation damage, and stalled growth.

What’s one of the biggest drivers of these performance gaps? People. More specifically: how franchisees hire, train, and keep the right team in place.

At CareerPlug, we’ve helped thousands of franchisees tackle high-volume hiring and navigate industries notorious for turnover. But we’ve also seen a shift. Today’s franchisors are realizing that hiring alone isn’t enough. Getting someone in the door is only half the battle—keeping them is where the real ROI lives.

That’s why onboarding matters more than ever. The first 90 days can make or break an employee’s decision to stay, directly impacting customer experience, brand consistency, and ultimately, profitability. 

In this report, we dig into the real reasons employees leave early—and how better onboarding can help your franchisees improve retention. We’ve combined our own data with insights from team-building experts, including CareerPlug’s founder and CEO, Clint Smith, to give you a clear, actionable path forward.

Is your onboarding process broken? 

The way most businesses approach onboarding just isn’t cutting it. And it shows.

Early employee turnover (especially within the first 90 days) is one of the costliest, most frustrating issues employers face today. Replacing entry-level workers can cost anywhere from 30% to 50% of their annual salary, while replacing skilled or technical employees may cost 100% or more of their yearly pay.

And with up to 20% of staff turnover happening within the first 45 days, it’s clear that many teams are losing great people before they’ve even had a chance to succeed.

So, what’s going wrong?

For many businesses, onboarding is treated as a checklist: fill out paperwork, complete training modules, shadow a few team members. Maybe there’s a welcome lunch if time allows.

But if you stop there, you’re missing a big opportunity.

Onboarding should be more than transactional. It should be intentional. This is your chance to make a real connection between new hires, their team, manager, and your company’s mission and values. And if you’re a franchisor, you have the opportunity to standardize the onboarding process across your whole network, and give franchisees the tools they need to grow. 

The first 90 days matters more than you think 

We asked our clients about their onboarding process and the experience they create for new employees in the first 90 days. We were surprised to see some mixed responses. Only 40% of franchisees said they think poor onboarding has some impact on turnover, with some explicitly saying that they don’t think onboarding and turnover are linked at all. 

But in another survey of employees, a different story emerged. 78% of new employees rated the onboarding experience as very important. 30% of new hires we surveyed said they’ve left a job within the first 90 days because of a poor onboarding experience. 

And Gallup found that 52% of voluntarily exiting employees say their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job. There’s a disconnect between some employers and employees—and employers may be underestimating the importance of the first 90 days when it comes to their retention rates. 

As Clint Smith, founder and CEO of CareerPlug shares, “Onboarding is the best opportunity to improve employee retention. People rarely take a job with plans to leave within 90 days.” 

“Onboarding is the best opportunity to improve employee retention. People rarely take a job with plans to leave within 90 days.”

And consider this, many new hires have likely been putting in multiple applications elsewhere. If they have unmet expectations or a rocky first week and receive an offer to interview elsewhere? They won’t think twice about jumping ship. 

Benefits of a strong onboarding process 

Clearly, there’s a connection between onboarding and employee retention. A strong onboarding experience can solve some of the most pressing challenges facing franchise systems today: staffing struggles, inconsistent customer experiences, and performance gaps between locations. 

Stronger teams = stronger performance 

Retention is just one piece of the puzzle. To retain, managers also need to engage and motivate their team. Your franchisees and their managers need to make new hires feel connected to your company and mission and give them the tools they need to thrive. This doesn’t just impact their wellbeing—it impacts your bottom line. 

Let’s look at some of the stats: 

• New employees with good onboarding experiences are 18x more committed to their employer. 
• Companies with a standard onboarding process experienced 54% greater new hire productivity (and 50% greater new hire retention).  
• 53% of HR executives indicated that good onboarding boosts employee engagement rates. 

On the flip side, new hires who have a poor onboarding experience are eight times more likely to be disengaged, with 40 percent of these employees feeling disengagement after just three months.

👉 Companies with a standard onboarding process experience 54% greater new hire retention. 

Consistency that scales 

Great onboarding doesn’t just benefit the individual location—it protects the brand. Engaged, well-trained employees deliver more consistent service, which keeps customers coming back and supports system-wide growth. In fact:

• Organizations with structured onboarding saw a 60% improvement in revenue year-over-year.
• They also experienced a 63% jump in customer satisfaction.
• 78% of companies investing in onboarding reported revenue increases in the last fiscal year.

When you help franchisees build stronger teams from day one, everyone wins—your franchisees, your customers, and your brand.

Franchisees’ biggest challenges when it comes to onboarding

When we asked franchisees about their onboarding process, a common theme emerged: it’s not that they don’t care about onboarding—it’s that they’re overwhelmed by it.

A few franchisees admitted they have no structured onboarding at all. Others said their onboarding lasts just five days or less. That’s not unusual in fast-paced environments where hiring managers wear many hats and need team members to hit the ground running. But this short-term thinking often creates long-term problems, especially when early turnover drains time, energy, and morale.

Here’s what franchisees told us are their top three biggest onboarding challenges:

1. “I’m not sure how to measure the success of onboarding.”
   Without clear benchmarks, it’s difficult to know whether your onboarding is working. Is your new hire productive? Engaged? Ready to stay long-term? If you can’t answer those questions confidently, your onboarding process may need more structure.
   
2. “It takes too long for new hires to become productive.”
   Many franchisees feel stuck between a rock and a hard place: they need employees to contribute quickly, but rushing onboarding can set them up to fail. When done right, a structured process actually accelerates productivity.
   
3. “I don’t have time to dedicate to a structured onboarding plan.”
   Owners and managers are busy running the business, and onboarding often gets pushed aside or reduced to a quick orientation. But the time you invest upfront pays dividends in retention, performance, and culture.

What new hires are saying

To understand what else may be going wrong, it helps to look at onboarding from the employee’s perspective. 

Top 3 new hire complaints about onboarding:

• “The onboarding process was unorganized and inefficient.”
  When new employees feel like no one is prepared for their arrival, it sets a poor tone. A messy or inconsistent onboarding experience creates confusion and damages first impressions.
• “The role and responsibilities were different than I expected.”
  This speaks to the importance of aligning job expectations during the hiring process and reinforcing them during onboarding. Misalignment leads to frustration and early exits.
• “I felt unprepared and wasn’t given enough training for the role.”
  Too many employees are thrown into the fire with minimal support. Effective onboarding should build confidence, provide tools for success, and clearly outline what’s expected.

How to improve onboarding across the franchise network 

Many franchisees know their onboarding process isn’t ideal but they’re not sure how to fix it. And that’s where a repeatable, franchise-wide onboarding system can make all the difference.

And look, we know your franchisees are busy. Our Senior Director of People, Natalie Morgan shares how not taking the time up front to adequately prepare new hires can just cause you more stress down the road: 

“You know that saying about throwing employees into the deep end and they’ll either sink or swim? Well, the unsaid part of that is that we’re okay creating a lot of waves and saving a lot of struggling people all for the sake of testing someone’s mettle (or realistically, because you don’t feel you have time to invest in someone’s success). You want your new hires to swim. So show them the strokes. Hang out as a lifeguard. Tell them when they’re going to hit a wall. You don’t need to be on duty forever, but setting new hires up for success early on means they’ll contribute faster, stay longer, and require less of your energy in the long run.” 

“Setting new hires up for success early on means they’ll contribute faster, stay longer, and require less of your energy in the long run.” 

Standardize the process 

When onboarding varies widely from one location to the next, so does the employee experience. Franchisees need a playbook. A repeatable, scalable process that takes the guesswork out of onboarding and helps every new hire feel set up for success, no matter where they land.

Start by identifying the non-negotiables: the essential steps and experiences every new hire should go through in their first days and weeks. This could include reviewing company values, completing role-specific training, meeting with their manager, and shadowing a top performer. 

From there, build a checklist or workflow that franchisees can easily follow and adapt for their team. The more turnkey you make it, the more likely it is to be used consistently and successfully. Onboarding workflows built in CareerPlug are just as much for the new hire as for the manager. They make it easy to see which tasks are due when and keep track of what’s been completed. 

You can also support consistency by:

• Providing templated training schedules for different roles
• Creating welcome emails and messaging guides for managers
• Offering video-based modules that reinforce company culture

Think of your onboarding process like your brand—it should be recognizable and reliable across every location. The goal is to make every new hire feel like they’re part of something bigger from day one.

Provide the right tools 

Franchisors need a platform that makes it easy to create a consistent, scalable onboarding experience across every location. But they also know that too much tech can overwhelm franchisees. 

With CareerPlug, you can:

• Standardize onboarding checklists and tasks so every franchisee follows the same proven process.
  Deliver digital forms and documents—from tax paperwork to employee handbooks—so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Track onboarding progress in real time, ensuring accountability and follow-through across your network.
• Integrate hiring and onboarding workflows, creating a seamless transition from offer to first day.

Best of all? CareerPlug was built with franchise systems in mind. Our tools are easy to roll out, simple for franchisees to use, and designed to reinforce the brand standards and operational consistency that drive long-term success.

Invest in offboarding

How confident are you that you understand why employees leave?

Employers can make assumptions about what went wrong during the first 90 days and beyond but many don’t have the tools to know for sure and prevent it from happening again. Most employers are only guessing. While some (25%) conduct exit interviews for all departing employees, many don’t have systems in place to capture and learn from early turnover. And without that insight, they repeat the same mistakes. 

With CareerPlug, franchisors get access to a centralized retention dashboard that brings together data from exit interviews and ongoing employee surveys. This dashboard makes it easy to monitor turnover and retention trends across the entire system—and zoom in on specific locations to identify what’s working and where support is needed. Franchisors can view key metrics like retention rates, employee sentiment scores, and reasons for turnover by location, helping them recognize top-performing franchisees and step in early where others may be struggling.

CareerPlug president, Jenny Leman shares, “You must learn from every employee that walks out the door. Do everything possible to get that feedback and work it into your strategy.” 

Hire, onboard, retain with CareerPlug 

New employees are the most vulnerable to turnover, but they’re also the easiest to save if you invest in their experience from day one. That’s why intentional, structured onboarding isn’t optional anymore. It’s a competitive advantage.

CareerPlug’s onboarding and manager toolkit are built to help create a consistent, scalable experience across your entire network. With workflows for onboarding, offboarding, and other operational tasks, you can simplify your processes and give every location the tools they need to successfully retain their team. 

This leads to more confident hires, fewer early exits, and a stronger team from the start. Just ask Heidi, Senior Director of Learning & Development for GymGuyz, who recently rolled out CareerPlug’s Onboard across her entire franchise network:

“It has really streamlined the onboarding process, not only in helping new employees get up to speed faster, but also in reducing early turnover—which we all know is one of the most costly and morale-draining challenges.”

Start building an onboarding process that actually retains your best people.

👉 Book a demo to see how CareerPlug can help you hire, onboard, and retain top talent.