Here’s what you can do about it.

You already know your Unit Managers matter. But do you know just how much?

Research consistently shows that employees don’t leave companies — they leave their manager. In a franchise environment where the Unit Manager wears multiple hats: face of the brand, the employees’ coach, the scheduler, the problem-solver, the first responder, and in many cases the marketer, that truth carries an outsized cost. A poor Unit Manager doesn’t just drive away one employee. They drive away teams, damage customer relationships, and erode the culture you’ve worked hard to build.

And yet, while most franchise systems invest heavily in operations training — how to make the product or provide the service, run the POS system, get the money to the bank, follow the brand standards, etc., — they leave Unit Managers largely on their own to figure out the human side of the job.

That “soft skills” gap delivers hard cuts to the bottom line.

The Real Cost of Manager-Driven Turnover

Turnover costs are routinely underestimated. When you factor in recruiting costs, onboarding time spent by a manager or trainer, lost productivity while the newbie gets up to speed, and the drag on team morale due to increased pressure, replacing a single hourly employee can cost anywhere from 50% to 150% — depending on the industry — of their annual wages. Multiply that across a multi-unit operation and the number becomes impossible to ignore.

What if you could extend the average tenure of each employee by just six months beyond your current turnover rate? What about a year or two years?

Consider a franchise location with 20 employees and an average annual turnover rate of 80% — not unusual in many franchise categories. That’s 16 replacements per year. If each replacement costs $2,500 in recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity, the annual cost per location is $40,000. Extend average tenure by six months, and you cut that number roughly in half — saving $20,000 per location, per year. For a multi-unit operator or franchisor with five locations, that’s $100,000 back in the bank. For 50 units, the math becomes transformational.

Want to run the numbers for your own operation? Use the interactive calculator below to enter actual employee wages, manager hourly rate, weekly hours, and turnover rate — and see replacement costs and potential savings instantly.

The question isn’t whether you can afford a manager training program focused on communication skills: it’s whether you can afford not to have one.

Who’s Actually Walking Through Your Door

It’s tempting to assume that high turnover is simply the nature of franchising — that employees cycling through are just looking for a paycheck until something better comes along. That assumption may be costing you more than you realize.

Many of the employees working in franchise locations — particularly younger workers in high school or college — aren’t necessarily looking for a career in fast food or retail and can be easily prompted to quit when they don’t feel respected, competent, and valued, or when their schedules create friction with the rest of their lives. Fix these things and many will stay longer than you would expect.

The difference, almost always, comes down to the Unit Manager.

What a Deflating Conversation Sounds Like — and What It Costs You

Consider this scenario.

An employee has been showing up late twice a week for the past month. The manager pulls them aside:

“Jack, you’ve been late again. This is the third time I’m having to say something. Honestly, I’m not sure you’re taking this job seriously. If it keeps up, we’re going to have to let you go.”

Jack nods, says it won’t happen again, and clocks back in. Two weeks later, he gives notice.

What the manager never learned: Jack was late because of a bus schedule change and had felt awkward about mentioning it. A 90-second conversation could have solved it. Instead, the business loses a trained employee, absorbs the cost of replacement, and the remaining team moves closer to burnout while carrying shifts they don’t want.

Now picture the same situation handled differently:

“Hey Jack, I’ve noticed you’ve been coming in late lately, and I want to make sure everything’s okay. You’ve been so reliable. Is there something going on? I’d like to help find a solution together.”

Jack mentions the bus. The manager adjusts the schedule by 15 minutes. Jack stays for another year and eventually becomes a shift lead.

Same employee, same situation, entirely different outcome — because one manager had the skills to have a conversation that built trust instead of breaking it.

What a Well-Trained Unit Manager Actually Does

A manager equipped with the right skills doesn’t just supervise the operation; they attract, develop, and retain employees who build the business and can operate with little supervision.

• This means hiring with intention: knowing what questions to ask and how to identify good candidates.
• It means onboarding with purpose, because a new employee who feels well-oriented feels confident on the job and part of the team in their first weeks, is likely to stay longer.
• It means communicating in ways that support self-esteem and deepen understanding rather than triggering defensiveness when correcting performance problems.
• Frequently overlooked, it also means staying ahead of disengagement by regularly checking in on employees’ satisfaction before small frustrations lead to quitting.

These are learnable skills. Most Unit Managers have never been taught them.

Why This Is a Training Problem — and a Solvable One

Most Unit Managers aren’t failing because they don’t care. But they were promoted because they were good at their job — not because anyone trained them to lead people. A structured Unit Manager Training Program that provides them with a framework for the people-management side of their role produces bottom-line savings.

The right program is flexible enough to fit your system — delivered live, via webinar, or as a self-paced e-learning course — and tailored to the specific challenges your Unit Managers face.

Ready to talk about what this could look like for your system?

MSA Worldwide works with franchisors and multi-unit operators to design and deliver Unit Manager Training Programs built around your brand, your managers, and your retention goals. Reach out to Marla Rosner, Senior Learning and Development Consultant, at mrosner@msaworldwide.com to start the conversation.