Splendid

To support their coaching Splendid use Croner’s services, which ensure all franchise managers have easy access to expert HR and employment law advice if they need support with managing a range of HR issues.

Darn Legget, an Area Coach for the Midlands region, said: “We are a new franchise business. In the space of just over a year we have grown from a few restaurants to 40."  

With such rapid and expansive growth, the need for HR support and training for their Restaurant General Managers (RGMs) was vitally important. The company strategy is to have RGMs operate as business leaders, with the leadership team coaching and supporting them. Also, the acquisition of 21 restaurant franchises meant that Splendid had to tackle the challenge of transferring all existing policies and procedures and dealing with the many issues that can follow such a transfer.

“We’ve now got a large workforce of circa 2,000 employees,” says Daryn, “The kinds of day-to-day HR issues that managers need assistance with are things like flexible working, disciplinary processes, as well as grievances and other ad-hoc employee situations. Our aim with the coaching and with Croner’s support is to create managers which are self-sufficient.”

With a workforce so large, Splendid knew they would need assistance managing the HR and employment law issues across the various sites: “We decided to use Croner as it fills the expert gap of employment law, without the need to have additional HR resources in place. This means the leadership team can concentrate on helping our managers operate effectively in all areas of the business” says Daryn.

“I find the trends which the software produces invaluable in my role. One example is where we had a supplier issue which meant we had to close our restaurants for a short time. During this period we made it clear that all staff would be paid appropriately. The software highlighted to us very quickly where our processes for managing this situation weren’t being followed, so we could act immediately. This prevented the situation escalating.

“My role would be very different if we did not have Croner. Other franchises have internal HR people who are supporting managers with enquiries all the time. If we did not use Croner I think 60% of our time at head office would be used to support HR enquiries from managers.

“Without Croner we would need to have a larger HR resource in place, which would cost much more.”

Croner’s support has now been felt across the whole franchise: “The biggest impact which Croner has had is our time being freed up. Croner has also supported us with the TUPE transfer of employment law process when we recently took on a further 21 restaurant franchises. I think the biggest thing for me is the advice line. We have built relationships with the advisors and they offer me advice that I trust. They coach me and make sure that our business is doing the right thing, which I appreciate.”