Why Veterans Make Good Employers

Jim Hunter, CEO of House Doctors and HomeTeam, believes job seekers in this economy should strongly consider working for a military veteran turned franchise owner because of their commitment to the customer, team, and mission. We asked Hunter why individuals looking for employment in a team-oriented and motivational environment would be wise to join a veteran’s franchise team: How does military experience affect recognizing strong performers? Veterans turned franchisees use protocol learned from military promotions to reward excellent employees in their day-to-day work or for doing amazing things for the business. This structure reinforces much better work ethic amongst employees, and helps maintain positive customer service levels. Why do you feel veterans turned franchisees teach better customer service to employees? Veterans tend to take nothing for granted and lead by example in teaching customer service to their employees by working hard at being responsible for taking care of their clients. Veterans are honest, hardworking and play fair in life. The experience and knowledge they have gained throughout their military service is used to cultivate relationships with employees and customers. Are there any system-wide programs that have helped franchisees reward their employees for doing amazing things? Veterans definitely feel comfortable instilling a reward-based structure into the culture of their business. At House Doctors, we have customer retention software allowing franchisees to monitor the customer service levels of the technicians when working in a client’s home. Our veteran franchisees base their technician bonus systems around this program. Why would veteran turned franchisees be some of the top owners within your system at following franchise processes? Why would that benefit their employees? Veterans are comfortable following systems and procedures and leading teams. As a leader, motivating the rest of the team to follow proven systems is beneficial to making every employee’s life easier. Having a veteran who is comfortable multi-tasking and knows the importance of seeing a project completed all the way is vital to helping the rest of the employees feel at ease with their environment. Veterans have seen first-hand the importance and effect of having a solidly-built team around them working toward the same goals. In their experiences, some of these goals may have been achieved through life-threatening missions. This is why they treat every mission or franchise promotion or program as vitally important to the well-being of their business. They adjust team roles as needed, and are experts at playing to the strengths of the team to ensure everyone finds success together. How do veteran turned franchisees empower employees in team structures? Veterans tend to look on each member of the team as an individual who has a responsibility to carry out a role for the greater good of the whole team. They take an interest in their employees, and encourage, motivate and inspire them to perform at their best. What do they instill into the team dynamic that differs from other entrepreneurs? Veterans understand the importance of every team member doing their job to the highest of standards for the benefit of everyone. They really do believe that there is no “I” in team. In fact, within our organization, the veteran turned franchisee teams have customer retention scores in the 90’s. --Greg Avdoian