Franchisee employees: where does head office’s role end?

In your own outlet, you may set customer service standards, hire staff and draw up rotas. Once you make your business model available to an independent operator, these roles need to be separated. A franchise network is a group of independent businesses, not a single company with staff spread across multiple locations. Before signing your first agreement, decide how head office will protect brand quality without taking over the day-to-day management of the franchisee’s employees.

1. Separate shared standards from employer responsibilities

A franchisee operates in their own name and for their own account. If they hire staff, they are generally those staff members’ employer. Shared branding, uniforms and service procedures do not make those employees part of the franchisor’s workforce.

Under Polish law, a franchise agreement is an ‘unnamed contract’: it is not a separately defined type of contract. There is no dedicated statute comprehensively regulating franchising, nor a specific register of franchise networks. The relationship between the businesses is governed primarily by the Polish Civil Code, including the principle of freedom of contract. Relevant competition, intellectual property and tax rules also apply. Employment, however, is governed by the Polish Labour Code, regardless of what the franchise agreement says.

An agreement between head office and a franchisee cannot override an employee’s statutory rights or their employer’s legal obligations. These include pay, working time, leave, and occupational health and safety. Where civil-law contracts are used to engage workers, the document’s title alone does not determine the nature of the relationship: the actual working arrangements matter.

Start by reviewing your own outlet. List all the staffing decisions you currently make as its owner. Then separate requirements concerning business outcomes from decisions about how individual employees’ work is organised.

2. Draw up a simple responsibility map

Before launching your franchise, assign each activity to head office, the franchisee or both parties, with a clear division of tasks. A general statement that the franchisee is ‘responsible for staff’ is not enough if other documents give head office unrestricted authority to issue instructions to those employees.

A practical responsibility map should cover at least:

• Hiring and pay: the franchisee chooses a lawful basis for engaging staff, enters into contracts and sets pay terms.
• Rotas and absences: the franchisee arranges staffing, keeps track of working time and makes decisions on leave.
• Professional skills: head office defines the skills needed to meet brand standards, while the franchisee ensures the team is suitably trained and prepared.
• Health and safety and medical examinations: the employer ensures that statutory obligations are met; head office’s product training does not replace legally required training or medical examinations.
• Quality issues: head office reports non-compliance to the franchisee, who decides on lawful action in relation to staff.

For each task, identify a contact person and the document that will confirm completion. In a small outlet, the contact may be the owner; in a larger one, a designated manager. What matters is that the head office consultant knows whom to approach with any concerns.

This division also makes it easier to estimate costs. If the model requires regular team training, you need to allow not only for the trainer’s fees but also for participants’ time, travel and staff cover.

3. Set rules for head office visits and training

Most uncertainty arises during day-to-day cooperation. A consultant visits an outlet, notices a queue and starts moving employees between workstations. Later, they approve a rota or promise someone a bonus. Even with good intentions, this blurs the agreed division of roles.

Adopt a clear principle: head office assesses whether the outlet meets the required standards, while the franchisee organises the team’s work. A consultant may point out that service falls short of requirements, explain a procedure and deliver agreed coaching. They should not, however, independently decide on leave, pay or disciplinary matters involving the franchisee’s employees.

Also set out what to do in situations requiring an immediate response, particularly where health or life is at risk. The procedure should explain how to raise the alarm, contact the person responsible on site and take protective action. It must not suggest that the division of roles releases anyone from their legal obligations.

For training, agree the timing, participants, method of confirming competence and allocation of costs with the franchisee. Assessing skills against brand standards is not the same as conducting an employee appraisal or deciding whether someone should remain employed. Any consequences of training results must be defined in a way that respects employees’ rights.

4. Test your documents against specific scenarios

Compare the franchise agreement, operations manual, visit guidelines and training materials. Remove inconsistencies: a clause confirming the franchisee’s independence achieves little if a head office form requires approval of every employee’s leave.

Run a short exercise with the person who will support your franchisees. Who responds when an employee fails to turn up for a shift? Who arranges cover? Who receives a complaint about poor service? Who has the authority to require the franchisee to remedy non-compliance, and how do they confirm that it has been resolved?

If every answer requires a call to the brand owner, the rules are not ready yet. Revise them before recruiting franchisees, and have a lawyer familiar with Polish employment law review the arrangements concerning employment and head office’s authority.

Practical takeaway: prepare a one-page map of staffing responsibilities and test it against real situations from your own outlet. Across a franchise network, consistent quality should come from clear standards and cooperation, not from informally taking over the employer’s role.