June 9, 2025 • 26 mins
Are you having trouble recruiting and retaining quality staff and team members? I know this is a challenge that most businesses I meet with face. Our guest today is Andrea Hoffer, and she shares with us her DREAM framework to help franchisees and small businesses improve their hiring efforts.
TODAY'S WIN-WIN:
Solving a problem is often the best way to make an impact.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- You can visit our guest's website at:
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
- Connect with our guest on social:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Andrea Hoffer is an experienced Talent Acquisition & Management strategist and former franchisee with a passion for building exceptional teams. As the founder of aha! Talent Experts, she has helped businesses nationwide improve recruitment processes, align hiring with company culture, and develop employer brands that attract top talent. Drawing from over 30 years in recruitment and just under two decades as a successful business owner, Andrea understands firsthand how great hires drive long-term success. A Certified AI Consultant, she blends technology and human insight to streamline hiring, optimize talent acquisition, and create tailored onboarding experiences. Andrea is also a sought-after keynote speaker and the author of Hire Higher. With a mission to empower companies and candidates alike, she specializes in crafting hiring strategies that not only fill positions but build cohesive, high-performing teams.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderingif you are having, or have had
trouble recruiting and retainingquality staff and team members,
(00:22):
and if you're like most peopleI've met, especially most
business owners and leaders I'vemet with and worked with.
It's a really common challengethat many face, and we do as
well in our own business.
Well, our guest today is AndreaHoffer, and she shares with us
her dream framework to helpfranchisees and franchisors, as
(00:45):
well as small businesses,improve their hiring efforts.
Now, andrea is an experiencedtalent acquisition and
management strategist and formerfranchisee.
She was a multi-unit franchisee.
She's the founder of AHA TalentExperts and has helped
businesses nationwide improvetheir recruitment efforts,
aligning with their hiring andcompany culture and developing
(01:06):
employer brands that attract toptalents.
She draws from her over 30years in recruitment and just
under two decades as asuccessful business owner.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
Andrea Hoffer (01:20):
Thanks, Tom.
My name's Andrea Hoffer.
My title is CEO and founder ofAHA Talent Experts.
Tom DuFore (01:28):
As we were talking pre-show and just getting into
this part of our conversation isreally geared toward what you
do professionally with yourorganization and helping recruit
and helping especially folks inthe franchise business recruit.
So I'd love for you to justtalk about maybe a little bit of
your own experience recruitingthat led you to down this
(01:51):
pathway to wanting to helpothers.
Andrea Hoffer (01:53):
Sure, and it didn't come from me being in a
recruitment firm.
It came because I was afranchisee.
I owned Massage MV Spa andprior to that just briefly I had
been working on collegecampuses and I had lots of teams
of hourly employees andprofessional teams as well, and
(02:17):
I had learned the right way tohire and onboard.
But one day I'm in my spot andI'm like why am I having all of
this turnover?
I had just gotten into thenitty gritty right Once it's
your business and it's open andyou're just kind of following
your tail.
You don't know what you know,at least for me anyway.
(02:38):
So one day I'm like I know howto hire effectively, why am I
just taking whoever walks in thedoor and can sell me a pen?
Because that was kind of whatwe learned to do from the
franchise at the time.
So I took a step back and Istarted to think about all the
(02:58):
things I had done in the pastand what were best practices for
hiring, specifically when itcame to hourly teams, and did a
lot of research and created somedifferent programs for my spot
and I started getting someamazing results, to the point
where other franchisees wereasking me what I was doing and I
(03:22):
had this little consultingcompany called A Aha on the side
.
It was just sort of for fun alittle bit, you know, but but
other businesses started askingthrough Aha can you, can you
help us with this?
And that's that's how Ahastarted becoming more about
talent acquisition andonboarding, specifically in that
(03:43):
, the hourly space.
And when I sold my spot in 2016, I decided to just go full
force with a hug that this wasreally where my passion and my
motivation was.
Tom DuFore (03:58):
I think it's really interesting.
I always like when we haveguests on the show that have a
background in franchising andhaving been a franchisee
yourself and I can relate I'vebeen a multi-unit franchisee as
well and there's just aninteresting dynamic and
relational dynamic betweenfranchisees and franchisors.
There's kind of this tensionthat exists that everyone in
(04:21):
franchising understands.
It's hard to describe if youhave not been through that on
either side for sure, and it'snot saying it's good or bad,
it's just it exists.
It's just something that'sthere.
And I really like how you'velooked at your own business
model and say what can I do formy own recruiting retention?
How can I go through that?
(04:41):
And, as I understand, you'vecreated this kind of dream
acronym concept.
So I'd love for you to talkabout maybe some of the
methodologies or systems thatyou've developed that worked in
your business and that you'veseen work across other
businesses as well.
Andrea Hoffer (04:57):
Sure, and just to mention first that the dream
framework is sort of a rebirthof my HIRE framework, which was
in my book that I published acouple of years ago, and DREAM.
It takes you through five steps.
I realized after years ofworking with franchisees and
(05:21):
other business owners that thesteps we were taking everybody
through and making sure we werehitting certain things actually
fit with the acronym of DREAM,and we had already started
saying our tagline is we builddream teams.
So it was a dream how it cameabout.
But we first focus on that Dthat define stage, and that's
(05:44):
where I see a lot of businessowners, even franchisors, fall
down.
And that's that discovery phase.
That's learning about withinyourself.
You know who is successful withyour brand.
What do you have to offer as anemployer and with each position
(06:04):
, what do you have to offer asan employer and with each
position, what are those successtraits, what are those
characteristics that would makesomebody successful and happy in
that role?
For example, we've been workingmore recently with a multi-unit
franchisee of Nothing but Cakesand one of their roles.
You know they have a lot ofdifferent roles related to
(06:25):
baking and frosting and they getall of these applicants from
people who love to bake and loveto be creative in the baking
piece.
But to be successful in thoseroles they need to know how to
follow direction step by stepand not add that creativity.
So getting very clear on that,because somebody who loves to
(06:47):
bake and thinks this is theirdream job is going to learn very
quickly that they hate it, sothey probably wouldn't be
successful.
So if you can get clear on thatand then take that to the R
stage, which is reach and that'swhere we talk about recruitment
, marketing and how you reachand nurture that potential
(07:09):
candidate pool and a lot of itis through social media, but it
also can be local to yoursurroundings.
So those are the two areas wespend a lot of time on in the
beginning in the beginning andthen the other ones come a
little more smoothly if we gotespecially the D right engaged.
(07:30):
What is that candidateexperience like?
Often comes to that tech stackyou have and you know it's funny
with franchisors often notalways, but often the franchisor
will highly recommend aspecific applicant tracking
system, a certain software andI've seen certain brands where
(07:53):
which is great I think it's verygood, because when I was a
franchisee nobody had an ATS.
We didn't.
They didn't.
You know, we did everythingpaper.
So I'm glad to see thefranchises are moving in.
You know the more moderndirection or have already moved
there.
But often the franchisees don'tknow how to use the ATS
effectively and I've had talentleaders of franchisors tell me I
(08:21):
spend 50% of my time fieldingphone calls from franchisees who
can't figure out how to use theATS.
So that's where we often willcome in and we'll build it so
it's streamlined and we helpmaintain it for them as well, so
that they're using iteffectively but also helping the
(08:44):
candidate to have a much betterexperience.
And then you get into the assesshow to interview.
You know a lot of franchiseesand store managers, the hiring
people, the ones that actuallyare never taught how to hire
effectively we're always talkingabout that.
And of course, the M which ismotivate we're always talking
about that.
And of course the M which ismotivate it's you know hiring
(09:05):
isn't done once they sign on, asa lot of us know.
We see a lot of ghosting orthey don't.
You know, even last 30 days.
And that's not all on thecandidates, that's on the
(09:27):
franchisee or the business owneror the leader of that location
as well, so helping them learnhow to motivate and inspire the
team.
So that's the dream frameworkin a nutshell, and there's so
many parts under each of thoseletters, but even if you just
hit on all of them just a littlebit, you'd be amazed at the you
know the increase in theresults that you got.
Tom DuFore (09:51):
And that first letter D was define.
Was that the word you used?
Andrea Hoffer (09:55):
Yes, define.
We have a 90-minute discoverysession.
That's under the define stageand that's where we're asking
for a lot of stories.
You know, what is it?
Tell me about your verysuccessful employee, you know,
and maybe it's a role, let's say, a front desk role for a spa.
(10:18):
I'm just going to use myexperience in you know, give me
a story of somebody who you justwould love to hire 50 of them
and I just want you to thinkabout one day that really stands
in your mind, of something theydid.
And so the more we ask thosestories and we ask, you know,
(10:39):
the negative to somebody maybewho's no longer on your team,
who you don't you know, whowasn't successful, the more we
can get those stories from them,the more clearly we can define
who they're looking for, whothey're not looking for, who
they're looking for, who they'renot looking for and then how to
(10:59):
authentically showcase that tothe world so that you're
attracting the right people.
And AI has helped a lot.
It's really transformed mybusiness over the last couple of
years.
I've gotten certified inseveral different AI
certifications and we'veintegrated into everything we do
and even our simple discoverysession.
(11:22):
We record and we can slice anddice that information so quick
and make it into some tremendousmarketing materials
specifically for recruiting sometremendous marketing materials
specifically for recruiting Very, very good.
Tom DuFore (11:39):
Well, and I would imagine, define is.
It just kind of sticks out inmy mind.
It's something that I've seenothers go through clients I've
worked with, even in my ownbusiness I am just as guilty as
the next in thinking aboutdefining the role.
What are we actually hiring for, instead of saying, oh, here's
someone we think can do what wethink they need to do, right, I
know I've done that and,generally speaking, it does not
(12:01):
work out for either partyinvolved, and so I think that's
a really, really great firststep right To find what in the
world you're hiring for, or theskills needed or the duties and
tasks that need to get done.
Andrea Hoffer (12:15):
Yeah, and actually I often just say what
are the results you need done Intwo weeks, if this person is
successful, what results are yougoing to see?
And then in 30 days, in 60 days, 90 days?
And the more you focus on theresults that you're looking for,
the easier it will be to definewhat you need.
(12:37):
And then the tasks come later.
You know how do you get to thisresult?
Well, they do this, this andthis.
Tom DuFore (12:43):
Andrea, we work with successful entrepreneurs and
help them franchise theirbusinesses and we also work with
franchisors.
And so what is something thatyou might suggest or recommend,
or maybe a few things you mightsay to either that soon-to-be
franchisor or that currentfranchisor, for maybe some ways
to support their franchisees inthese types of initiatives?
(13:07):
And certainly we recognize thatthe franchisor kind of has
their hands tied a little bit interms of what they're able to
do.
But recognizing you understandsome of those nuances, what are
some things that a franchisorkind of has their hands tied a
little bit in terms of whatthey're able to do, but
recognizing you understand someof those nuances, what are some
things that a franchisor mightbe able to do to support their
franchisees?
Andrea Hoffer (13:23):
So glad you asked this question.
I never get asked this and Ithink, like you said, the
franchisor, especially whenthey're first starting out, they
have so many things they'rejuggling and they're really
focused on the marketing todrive customers to their
franchisee doors, right?
One thing that is going tobecome very important either
(13:46):
right away or pretty soon afteris are there going to be enough
good team members at thelocations to support all that
traffic and customers that aredriving towards there?
And that's where I've seen somefranchises really fall down.
If I was to have an ideal world, then I could tell all the
(14:07):
franchisors what I think is bestand of course, I'm coming from
that hiring hat, right, I wouldlove to see franchisors truly
focus on that employer brand,helping their franchisees figure
out that DE part pretty earlyon.
Now, each one is going to be alittle different by the owners,
(14:29):
right.
They're going to bring acertain different culture to
each of their locations ormultiple locations, but overall
the roles are similar.
So the roles are going to havevery similar, the same success
traits.
But also, just being a memberof that brand, no matter what
your job is, there's some statusto it and there's some there's
(14:51):
a lot of benefit to it and Iwould love to see some
franchisors step into that and,you know, go for being that
employer of choice.
Do videos of what it's like towork at the different brands and
what your team gets out of it.
Do recruiting marketingcampaigns constantly.
(15:14):
I'm not saying you know, I haveseen franchisors who will do.
You know they'll hire a companyand do a one-time campaign and
they might showcase it at theirannual conference, but I haven't
seen it as an ongoinginitiative and I truly believe
that this is especially now.
(15:35):
But I believe it's important ifthey're going to keep growing
their locations, because youcan't grow without the people
You're talking about businessesthat our customer are facing.
Thank goodness that we stillhave some right and I believe
that these entry-level positionsshould be a requirement of
(15:58):
every new person who's enteringthe workforce, that they should
start here.
So let's show them why it's soamazing and why it's so
important for their futurecareer and get people into the
right brands for them.
Tom DuFore (16:15):
I think that's very well said and it's something
that I think of these customerfacing roles.
Certainly people naturally willthink of things like food
service and hospitality, but mymind immediately goes to because
this was the franchise I wasinvolved with was a home
services brand and we hadtechnicians that we had to
(16:37):
recruit and it was an industrywhere they would come and go
pretty frequently and they justkind of bounced from one company
to the next and home serviceshas been the number one
franchise category for the lastfew years and those roles are
going to continue to be needed.
So I think your point is welltaken that helping create a
(16:58):
little bit of I like how youdescribed it status and building
a brand reputation around thisis a whether it's fun,
interesting, exciting, dynamic,flexible some kind of key
buzzwords that would attract thekinds of people that would come
and work part-time or as anassistant manager or whatever
kind of roles they're recruitingfor.
Andrea Hoffer (17:17):
And I'm glad you mentioned home services.
We actually worked for the lastcouple of years with a window
treatment company that serviceseight areas and it's not a
franchise.
They're planning on franchisingin the future, so I'll have to
give them your number.
One of the things they knowthey need to work out as kinks
before they franchise is notjust the hiring, which you know.
(17:40):
We set up a hiring process forthem using Workable as of window
treatment, but anybody out inthe field could talk to Windy on
(18:02):
the phone and ask it a question, and all of the training
materials are in Windy so theycan get it very quickly.
And I think that's also a bigpart of keeping your team,
because people like to feelsuccessful and the easier you
can make it for them to besuccessful, the more they're
going to stay with you.
Tom DuFore (18:23):
As someone might be listening into this, I might be
thinking well, this sounds great, I'd like to learn more, maybe
ask some specific questionsabout my company or needs that I
might have.
How can someone reach out toyou or get connected?
Andrea Hoffer (18:34):
I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, so definitely
connect with me on LinkedIn, youcan, but you can also go to my
website at aha A-H-A talentexperts with an S dot com, all
one word.
And if you're looking for me onLinkedIn, it's Andrea Hoffer is
my.
I don't know if you call it ahandle, but yeah, I'm sure
(18:55):
you'll find me.
Tom DuFore (18:57):
Excellent.
Well, we'll make sure weinclude those links in the show
notes here.
And, Andrea, this is a greattime in the show and we make a
transition and we asked everyguest the same four questions
before they go.
And the first question we askis have you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Andrea Hoffer (19:16):
Of course I've had lots of misses on my journey
, but I am I guess I'll mentionthe one that comes up for me
quite recently a lot, and thatwas a couple of years ago.
I decided to buy a softwarecompany.
It was in the recruiting area.
What was happening was we werespending so much in third-party
(19:40):
softwares that I always had thisdream to build my own.
And then I found this softwarecompany for sale that did a lot
of the features we were usingwith our clients and so I bought
the software company, notknowing anything about running a
software.
So basically it failed becausenot because we didn't have the
(20:04):
customers, but because we had totake all of our customers off
of it because there were so manybugs and we just lost so much
money trying to fix the bugs.
So that was probably so I but Ilearned, because I know you want
to know what I learned.
You know I learned to be morecareful about jumping in to
those things.
But I can tell you that wholejourney because I owned a little
(20:25):
over a year.
I learned a lot about softwareand how that fits into the
recruitment process, so that nowwhen I'm actually working with
other software companies, I knowwhat to look for and I know
what to ask for.
So I do feel like, while it wasan expensive lesson, I learned
(20:47):
a lot that will help me in thefuture.
Tom DuFore (20:50):
Let's look at the flip side of that and talk about
a make or a highlight or twoyou'd like to share the process
(21:15):
we've been using with clientsfor years and put it into that
dream framework.
Andrea Hoffer (21:17):
For me, that has just been such a great win,
because it makes it so mucheasier to explain what we do and
I feel like it brings so muchmore value to our clients and to
the information that we put outthere.
Tom DuFore (21:32):
The next question we ask is have you used a
multiplier to help you growpersonally, professionally or
any of the organizations you'verun?
Andrea Hoffer (21:41):
There are so many ways I think you can define
multiplier.
I have had lots of differentcoaches and I would call that a
multiplier.
The one that I've been in mostrecently is Pinnacle Global
Network.
I don't know if you've everheard of it.
Alison Maslin that I've been amember for eight years and just
having that high level ofmasterminding and coaching and
(22:07):
just incredible learning hasbeen a multiplier for me.
Tom DuFore (22:13):
And the final question we ask every guest is
what does success mean to you?
Andrea Hoffer (22:18):
To me, it means doing what I love.
I just love what I do.
I love seeing results for myclients.
And you know I'll say years agoI had a client say to me and it
was the first time I eventhought about it or heard
somebody say it and she's like,andrea, you have helped me fall
(22:40):
back in love with my business.
She's like I was ready to justwalk away from it and now I just
love it again and to me that'ssuccess to be able to do
something I love to help otherslove their business again.
Tom DuFore (22:58):
Andrea, thank you so much for a fantastic interview,
and let's go ahead and jumpinto today's three key takeaways
.
So takeaway number one is herdream framework, and it starts
with the letter D, which isdefine, and you need to define
what the success traits are.
What's going to make someonesuccessful in this role and what
role are you hiring for?
(23:19):
R stands for recruitment,marketing, E stands for engage,
A stands for assess and M standsfor motivate, and I think
that's a nice quick summary.
Doing all five of those willhelp you be successful in your
recruiting efforts.
Takeaway number two is whatfranchisors can do to help their
(23:42):
franchisees, and I like whatshe said is that the franchisor
should be focused on developinga brand employees want to come
work for, meaning that thisbrand that the franchisor
creates will attract employeesand new hires.
It makes the franchisee's job alot easier.
(24:02):
Takeaway number three is whenshe talked about a miss that she
had when she bought thatsoftware company and I found it
interesting how she reallyturned lemons into lemonade
where it just did not go asplanned.
She really turned lemons intolemonade where it just did not
go as planned.
It was a very expensive lessonto be learned, but she learned a
lot about technology, how touse it, how to better serve
clients in that category, inthat space, and for how to
(24:25):
better utilize technology in herown business.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
So today's win-win really comesfrom Andrea's experience in
launching and building hersolution for hiring, and she
developed this really from beinga franchisee and having a need
(24:50):
or a problem that she ended upsolving.
And when she started gettingresults from the solution she
created, others started reachingout to say how can we do this?
And then she grew it and I justthink that's a great win-win.
It's just a constant reminderthat even if you're a franchisee
in big franchise systems, thereare still things that you can
(25:11):
do to improve, to come up withbetter ways or newer ways of
doing things to help your ownlocal franchises that you own.
And this is a reminder for thefranchisors that are tuning in
to pay attention to what some ofyour franchisees are doing, to
listen to them, to ask questionsto get ideas solutions, them to
(25:36):
ask questions to get ideassolutions.
Chances are, if there's aproblem with one franchisee or a
common problem you're seeingwith many franchisees, there are
solutions within your networkthat other franchisees have
already figured out, so I thinkthat's the win-win to try to
continue to improve theconnection and communication and
relations between thefranchisor and the franchisee.
(25:57):
That's the episode today.
Folks, Please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review and remember ifyou or anyone you know might be
ready to franchise theirbusiness or take their franchise
company to the next level.
Please connect with us atBigSkyFranchiseTeamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderingif you are having, or have had
trouble recruiting and retainingquality staff and team members,
(00:22):
and if you're like most peopleI've met, especially most
business owners and leaders I'vemet with and worked with.
It's a really common challengethat many face, and we do as
well in our own business.
Well, our guest today is AndreaHoffer, and she shares with us
her dream framework to helpfranchisees and franchisors, as
(00:45):
well as small businesses,improve their hiring efforts.
Now, andrea is an experiencedtalent acquisition and
management strategist and formerfranchisee.
She was a multi-unit franchisee.
She's the founder of AHA TalentExperts and has helped
businesses nationwide improvetheir recruitment efforts,
aligning with their hiring andcompany culture and developing
(01:06):
employer brands that attract toptalents.
She draws from her over 30years in recruitment and just
under two decades as asuccessful business owner.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
Andrea Hoffer (01:20):
Thanks, Tom.
My name's Andrea Hoffer.
My title is CEO and founder ofAHA Talent Experts.
Tom DuFore (01:28):
As we were talking pre-show and just getting into
this part of our conversation isreally geared toward what you
do professionally with yourorganization and helping recruit
and helping especially folks inthe franchise business recruit.
So I'd love for you to justtalk about maybe a little bit of
your own experience recruitingthat led you to down this
(01:51):
pathway to wanting to helpothers.
Andrea Hoffer (01:53):
Sure, and it didn't come from me being in a
recruitment firm.
It came because I was afranchisee.
I owned Massage MV Spa andprior to that just briefly I had
been working on collegecampuses and I had lots of teams
of hourly employees andprofessional teams as well, and
(02:17):
I had learned the right way tohire and onboard.
But one day I'm in my spot andI'm like why am I having all of
this turnover?
I had just gotten into thenitty gritty right Once it's
your business and it's open andyou're just kind of following
your tail.
You don't know what you know,at least for me anyway.
(02:38):
So one day I'm like I know howto hire effectively, why am I
just taking whoever walks in thedoor and can sell me a pen?
Because that was kind of whatwe learned to do from the
franchise at the time.
So I took a step back and Istarted to think about all the
(02:58):
things I had done in the pastand what were best practices for
hiring, specifically when itcame to hourly teams, and did a
lot of research and created somedifferent programs for my spot
and I started getting someamazing results, to the point
where other franchisees wereasking me what I was doing and I
(03:22):
had this little consultingcompany called A Aha on the side
.
It was just sort of for fun alittle bit, you know, but but
other businesses started askingthrough Aha can you, can you
help us with this?
And that's that's how Ahastarted becoming more about
talent acquisition andonboarding, specifically in that
(03:43):
, the hourly space.
And when I sold my spot in 2016, I decided to just go full
force with a hug that this wasreally where my passion and my
motivation was.
Tom DuFore (03:58):
I think it's really interesting.
I always like when we haveguests on the show that have a
background in franchising andhaving been a franchisee
yourself and I can relate I'vebeen a multi-unit franchisee as
well and there's just aninteresting dynamic and
relational dynamic betweenfranchisees and franchisors.
There's kind of this tensionthat exists that everyone in
(04:21):
franchising understands.
It's hard to describe if youhave not been through that on
either side for sure, and it'snot saying it's good or bad,
it's just it exists.
It's just something that'sthere.
And I really like how you'velooked at your own business
model and say what can I do formy own recruiting retention?
How can I go through that?
(04:41):
And, as I understand, you'vecreated this kind of dream
acronym concept.
So I'd love for you to talkabout maybe some of the
methodologies or systems thatyou've developed that worked in
your business and that you'veseen work across other
businesses as well.
Andrea Hoffer (04:57):
Sure, and just to mention first that the dream
framework is sort of a rebirthof my HIRE framework, which was
in my book that I published acouple of years ago, and DREAM.
It takes you through five steps.
I realized after years ofworking with franchisees and
(05:21):
other business owners that thesteps we were taking everybody
through and making sure we werehitting certain things actually
fit with the acronym of DREAM,and we had already started
saying our tagline is we builddream teams.
So it was a dream how it cameabout.
But we first focus on that Dthat define stage, and that's
(05:44):
where I see a lot of businessowners, even franchisors, fall
down.
And that's that discovery phase.
That's learning about withinyourself.
You know who is successful withyour brand.
What do you have to offer as anemployer and with each position
(06:04):
, what do you have to offer asan employer and with each
position, what are those successtraits, what are those
characteristics that would makesomebody successful and happy in
that role?
For example, we've been workingmore recently with a multi-unit
franchisee of Nothing but Cakesand one of their roles.
You know they have a lot ofdifferent roles related to
(06:25):
baking and frosting and they getall of these applicants from
people who love to bake and loveto be creative in the baking
piece.
But to be successful in thoseroles they need to know how to
follow direction step by stepand not add that creativity.
So getting very clear on that,because somebody who loves to
(06:47):
bake and thinks this is theirdream job is going to learn very
quickly that they hate it, sothey probably wouldn't be
successful.
So if you can get clear on thatand then take that to the R
stage, which is reach and that'swhere we talk about recruitment
, marketing and how you reachand nurture that potential
(07:09):
candidate pool and a lot of itis through social media, but it
also can be local to yoursurroundings.
So those are the two areas wespend a lot of time on in the
beginning in the beginning andthen the other ones come a
little more smoothly if we gotespecially the D right engaged.
(07:30):
What is that candidateexperience like?
Often comes to that tech stackyou have and you know it's funny
with franchisors often notalways, but often the franchisor
will highly recommend aspecific applicant tracking
system, a certain software andI've seen certain brands where
(07:53):
which is great I think it's verygood, because when I was a
franchisee nobody had an ATS.
We didn't.
They didn't.
You know, we did everythingpaper.
So I'm glad to see thefranchises are moving in.
You know the more moderndirection or have already moved
there.
But often the franchisees don'tknow how to use the ATS
effectively and I've had talentleaders of franchisors tell me I
(08:21):
spend 50% of my time fieldingphone calls from franchisees who
can't figure out how to use theATS.
So that's where we often willcome in and we'll build it so
it's streamlined and we helpmaintain it for them as well, so
that they're using iteffectively but also helping the
(08:44):
candidate to have a much betterexperience.
And then you get into the assesshow to interview.
You know a lot of franchiseesand store managers, the hiring
people, the ones that actuallyare never taught how to hire
effectively we're always talkingabout that.
And of course, the M which ismotivate we're always talking
about that.
And of course the M which ismotivate it's you know hiring
(09:05):
isn't done once they sign on, asa lot of us know.
We see a lot of ghosting orthey don't.
You know, even last 30 days.
And that's not all on thecandidates, that's on the
(09:27):
franchisee or the business owneror the leader of that location
as well, so helping them learnhow to motivate and inspire the
team.
So that's the dream frameworkin a nutshell, and there's so
many parts under each of thoseletters, but even if you just
hit on all of them just a littlebit, you'd be amazed at the you
know the increase in theresults that you got.
Tom DuFore (09:51):
And that first letter D was define.
Was that the word you used?
Andrea Hoffer (09:55):
Yes, define.
We have a 90-minute discoverysession.
That's under the define stageand that's where we're asking
for a lot of stories.
You know, what is it?
Tell me about your verysuccessful employee, you know,
and maybe it's a role, let's say, a front desk role for a spa.
(10:18):
I'm just going to use myexperience in you know, give me
a story of somebody who you justwould love to hire 50 of them
and I just want you to thinkabout one day that really stands
in your mind, of something theydid.
And so the more we ask thosestories and we ask, you know,
(10:39):
the negative to somebody maybewho's no longer on your team,
who you don't you know, whowasn't successful, the more we
can get those stories from them,the more clearly we can define
who they're looking for, whothey're not looking for, who
they're looking for, who they'renot looking for and then how to
(10:59):
authentically showcase that tothe world so that you're
attracting the right people.
And AI has helped a lot.
It's really transformed mybusiness over the last couple of
years.
I've gotten certified inseveral different AI
certifications and we'veintegrated into everything we do
and even our simple discoverysession.
(11:22):
We record and we can slice anddice that information so quick
and make it into some tremendousmarketing materials
specifically for recruiting sometremendous marketing materials
specifically for recruiting Very, very good.
Tom DuFore (11:39):
Well, and I would imagine, define is.
It just kind of sticks out inmy mind.
It's something that I've seenothers go through clients I've
worked with, even in my ownbusiness I am just as guilty as
the next in thinking aboutdefining the role.
What are we actually hiring for, instead of saying, oh, here's
someone we think can do what wethink they need to do, right, I
know I've done that and,generally speaking, it does not
(12:01):
work out for either partyinvolved, and so I think that's
a really, really great firststep right To find what in the
world you're hiring for, or theskills needed or the duties and
tasks that need to get done.
Andrea Hoffer (12:15):
Yeah, and actually I often just say what
are the results you need done Intwo weeks, if this person is
successful, what results are yougoing to see?
And then in 30 days, in 60 days, 90 days?
And the more you focus on theresults that you're looking for,
the easier it will be to definewhat you need.
(12:37):
And then the tasks come later.
You know how do you get to thisresult?
Well, they do this, this andthis.
Tom DuFore (12:43):
Andrea, we work with successful entrepreneurs and
help them franchise theirbusinesses and we also work with
franchisors.
And so what is something thatyou might suggest or recommend,
or maybe a few things you mightsay to either that soon-to-be
franchisor or that currentfranchisor, for maybe some ways
to support their franchisees inthese types of initiatives?
(13:07):
And certainly we recognize thatthe franchisor kind of has
their hands tied a little bit interms of what they're able to
do.
But recognizing you understandsome of those nuances, what are
some things that a franchisorkind of has their hands tied a
little bit in terms of whatthey're able to do, but
recognizing you understand someof those nuances, what are some
things that a franchisor mightbe able to do to support their
franchisees?
Andrea Hoffer (13:23):
So glad you asked this question.
I never get asked this and Ithink, like you said, the
franchisor, especially whenthey're first starting out, they
have so many things they'rejuggling and they're really
focused on the marketing todrive customers to their
franchisee doors, right?
One thing that is going tobecome very important either
(13:46):
right away or pretty soon afteris are there going to be enough
good team members at thelocations to support all that
traffic and customers that aredriving towards there?
And that's where I've seen somefranchises really fall down.
If I was to have an ideal world, then I could tell all the
(14:07):
franchisors what I think is bestand of course, I'm coming from
that hiring hat, right, I wouldlove to see franchisors truly
focus on that employer brand,helping their franchisees figure
out that DE part pretty earlyon.
Now, each one is going to be alittle different by the owners,
(14:29):
right.
They're going to bring acertain different culture to
each of their locations ormultiple locations, but overall
the roles are similar.
So the roles are going to havevery similar, the same success
traits.
But also, just being a memberof that brand, no matter what
your job is, there's some statusto it and there's some there's
(14:51):
a lot of benefit to it and Iwould love to see some
franchisors step into that and,you know, go for being that
employer of choice.
Do videos of what it's like towork at the different brands and
what your team gets out of it.
Do recruiting marketingcampaigns constantly.
(15:14):
I'm not saying you know, I haveseen franchisors who will do.
You know they'll hire a companyand do a one-time campaign and
they might showcase it at theirannual conference, but I haven't
seen it as an ongoinginitiative and I truly believe
that this is especially now.
(15:35):
But I believe it's important ifthey're going to keep growing
their locations, because youcan't grow without the people
You're talking about businessesthat our customer are facing.
Thank goodness that we stillhave some right and I believe
that these entry-level positionsshould be a requirement of
(15:58):
every new person who's enteringthe workforce, that they should
start here.
So let's show them why it's soamazing and why it's so
important for their futurecareer and get people into the
right brands for them.
Tom DuFore (16:15):
I think that's very well said and it's something
that I think of these customerfacing roles.
Certainly people naturally willthink of things like food
service and hospitality, but mymind immediately goes to because
this was the franchise I wasinvolved with was a home
services brand and we hadtechnicians that we had to
(16:37):
recruit and it was an industrywhere they would come and go
pretty frequently and they justkind of bounced from one company
to the next and home serviceshas been the number one
franchise category for the lastfew years and those roles are
going to continue to be needed.
So I think your point is welltaken that helping create a
(16:58):
little bit of I like how youdescribed it status and building
a brand reputation around thisis a whether it's fun,
interesting, exciting, dynamic,flexible some kind of key
buzzwords that would attract thekinds of people that would come
and work part-time or as anassistant manager or whatever
kind of roles they're recruitingfor.
Andrea Hoffer (17:17):
And I'm glad you mentioned home services.
We actually worked for the lastcouple of years with a window
treatment company that serviceseight areas and it's not a
franchise.
They're planning on franchisingin the future, so I'll have to
give them your number.
One of the things they knowthey need to work out as kinks
before they franchise is notjust the hiring, which you know.
(17:40):
We set up a hiring process forthem using Workable as of window
treatment, but anybody out inthe field could talk to Windy on
(18:02):
the phone and ask it a question, and all of the training
materials are in Windy so theycan get it very quickly.
And I think that's also a bigpart of keeping your team,
because people like to feelsuccessful and the easier you
can make it for them to besuccessful, the more they're
going to stay with you.
Tom DuFore (18:23):
As someone might be listening into this, I might be
thinking well, this sounds great, I'd like to learn more, maybe
ask some specific questionsabout my company or needs that I
might have.
How can someone reach out toyou or get connected?
Andrea Hoffer (18:34):
I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, so definitely
connect with me on LinkedIn, youcan, but you can also go to my
website at aha A-H-A talentexperts with an S dot com, all
one word.
And if you're looking for me onLinkedIn, it's Andrea Hoffer is
my.
I don't know if you call it ahandle, but yeah, I'm sure
(18:55):
you'll find me.
Tom DuFore (18:57):
Excellent.
Well, we'll make sure weinclude those links in the show
notes here.
And, Andrea, this is a greattime in the show and we make a
transition and we asked everyguest the same four questions
before they go.
And the first question we askis have you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Andrea Hoffer (19:16):
Of course I've had lots of misses on my journey
, but I am I guess I'll mentionthe one that comes up for me
quite recently a lot, and thatwas a couple of years ago.
I decided to buy a softwarecompany.
It was in the recruiting area.
What was happening was we werespending so much in third-party
(19:40):
softwares that I always had thisdream to build my own.
And then I found this softwarecompany for sale that did a lot
of the features we were usingwith our clients and so I bought
the software company, notknowing anything about running a
software.
So basically it failed becausenot because we didn't have the
(20:04):
customers, but because we had totake all of our customers off
of it because there were so manybugs and we just lost so much
money trying to fix the bugs.
So that was probably so I but Ilearned, because I know you want
to know what I learned.
You know I learned to be morecareful about jumping in to
those things.
But I can tell you that wholejourney because I owned a little
(20:25):
over a year.
I learned a lot about softwareand how that fits into the
recruitment process, so that nowwhen I'm actually working with
other software companies, I knowwhat to look for and I know
what to ask for.
So I do feel like, while it wasan expensive lesson, I learned
(20:47):
a lot that will help me in thefuture.
Tom DuFore (20:50):
Let's look at the flip side of that and talk about
a make or a highlight or twoyou'd like to share the process
(21:15):
we've been using with clientsfor years and put it into that
dream framework.
Andrea Hoffer (21:17):
For me, that has just been such a great win,
because it makes it so mucheasier to explain what we do and
I feel like it brings so muchmore value to our clients and to
the information that we put outthere.
Tom DuFore (21:32):
The next question we ask is have you used a
multiplier to help you growpersonally, professionally or
any of the organizations you'verun?
Andrea Hoffer (21:41):
There are so many ways I think you can define
multiplier.
I have had lots of differentcoaches and I would call that a
multiplier.
The one that I've been in mostrecently is Pinnacle Global
Network.
I don't know if you've everheard of it.
Alison Maslin that I've been amember for eight years and just
having that high level ofmasterminding and coaching and
(22:07):
just incredible learning hasbeen a multiplier for me.
Tom DuFore (22:13):
And the final question we ask every guest is
what does success mean to you?
Andrea Hoffer (22:18):
To me, it means doing what I love.
I just love what I do.
I love seeing results for myclients.
And you know I'll say years agoI had a client say to me and it
was the first time I eventhought about it or heard
somebody say it and she's like,andrea, you have helped me fall
(22:40):
back in love with my business.
She's like I was ready to justwalk away from it and now I just
love it again and to me that'ssuccess to be able to do
something I love to help otherslove their business again.
Tom DuFore (22:58):
Andrea, thank you so much for a fantastic interview,
and let's go ahead and jumpinto today's three key takeaways
.
So takeaway number one is herdream framework, and it starts
with the letter D, which isdefine, and you need to define
what the success traits are.
What's going to make someonesuccessful in this role and what
role are you hiring for?
(23:19):
R stands for recruitment,marketing, E stands for engage,
A stands for assess and M standsfor motivate, and I think
that's a nice quick summary.
Doing all five of those willhelp you be successful in your
recruiting efforts.
Takeaway number two is whatfranchisors can do to help their
(23:42):
franchisees, and I like whatshe said is that the franchisor
should be focused on developinga brand employees want to come
work for, meaning that thisbrand that the franchisor
creates will attract employeesand new hires.
It makes the franchisee's job alot easier.
(24:02):
Takeaway number three is whenshe talked about a miss that she
had when she bought thatsoftware company and I found it
interesting how she reallyturned lemons into lemonade
where it just did not go asplanned.
She really turned lemons intolemonade where it just did not
go as planned.
It was a very expensive lessonto be learned, but she learned a
lot about technology, how touse it, how to better serve
clients in that category, inthat space, and for how to
(24:25):
better utilize technology in herown business.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
So today's win-win really comesfrom Andrea's experience in
launching and building hersolution for hiring, and she
developed this really from beinga franchisee and having a need
(24:50):
or a problem that she ended upsolving.
And when she started gettingresults from the solution she
created, others started reachingout to say how can we do this?
And then she grew it and I justthink that's a great win-win.
It's just a constant reminderthat even if you're a franchisee
in big franchise systems, thereare still things that you can
(25:11):
do to improve, to come up withbetter ways or newer ways of
doing things to help your ownlocal franchises that you own.
And this is a reminder for thefranchisors that are tuning in
to pay attention to what some ofyour franchisees are doing, to
listen to them, to ask questionsto get ideas solutions, them to
(25:36):
ask questions to get ideassolutions.
Chances are, if there's aproblem with one franchisee or a
common problem you're seeingwith many franchisees, there are
solutions within your networkthat other franchisees have
already figured out, so I thinkthat's the win-win to try to
continue to improve theconnection and communication and
relations between thefranchisor and the franchisee.
(25:57):
That's the episode today.
Folks, Please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review and remember ifyou or anyone you know might be
ready to franchise theirbusiness or take their franchise
company to the next level.
Please connect with us atBigSkyFranchiseTeamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.