Franchisors don’t have a good way of knowing what their peers are doing to support franchisees with people issues. At last year’s Franchise Business Review (FBR) Summit, I led an HR workshop with Michelle Rowan, president of FBR, and the workshop participants all wanted to talk about the same thing: how other brands handle working with franchisees on hiring and retention.Â
So we decided to take that conversation beyond the workshop. CareerPlug works closely with FBR, a team I respect a great deal, and together we surveyed franchise leaders across franchising about people operations across their networks.
The result is “Franchise People Operations Insights 2026,” the first research to measure how franchise brands support their franchisees with hiring and retention. We’ve also included an action plan at the end of the report, with concrete steps brands can take now to move forward.
The report debuts this week at FBR’s annual Summit, where I’ll be handing out printed copies at the CareerPlug table. If you can’t make it, you can download the report now.
How do franchise brands support franchisees?
FBR and CareerPlug surveyed franchise leaders: operations leaders, HR teams, and field consultants responsible for providing HR support for franchisees. Their systems range from fewer than 25 units to more than 500, mostly in service categories like health and personal services, home services, and fitness. We asked what they can see, what they provide, and what keeps them from doing more.
A preview of what we learned
Franchise brands see revenue, not people:
- 93% of brands can report revenue for any location
- Only 21% can report employee satisfaction
- 42% don’t track turnover at any location
Support fades where it matters most:
- 71% of brands help with onboarding and 75% with coaching and development
- That drops to 51% at retention and 36% at pay and benefits
- Brands provide freely wherever support takes the form of content, templates, and training, and they stop where it could be construed as directing employment
Legal worry is the biggest barrier to coaching on people topics:
- 63% say legal or risk concerns most limit their coaching, more than time, data, and training combined
- Franchisee receptiveness came second, at 46%
- The report sets out what supporting an owner looks like next to what directly controlling employment decisions looks like under the NLRB’s current joint-employer standard
Check-ins happen without people data:
- 76% of brands meet with franchisees monthly or more
- Only 29% make hiring and retention a standing agenda item backed by location-level data
- More than four in 10 say it comes up only when there’s a problem, or rarely at all
AI is arriving ahead of the data:
- 63% of brands are using or piloting AI to help field consultants prepare for check-ins
- Nearly all brands using AI for check-in prep can report revenue for any location, but fewer than half can report turnover
The appetite to increase investment is strong:
- 70% are increasing their investment in people operations or want to
- Not one brand plans to decrease it