By Aimee Chanthadavong

Following the footsteps of other major retail food outlets like Subway, Hungry Jacks and Red Rooster, Eagle Boys will be offering franchisee and staff training through a dedicated online training college.

According to the company, the interactive online training portal will be the first of its kind offered by a major Australian pizza chain and there will be up to 13 different courses.

Todd Clayton, Eagle Boys managing director, told Retailbiz that it’s expected to drive consistency and streamline training operations.

“By empowering individual franchisees with better business skills they are better able to understand their local business and the dynamics which impact on it, and make local marketing decisions to address these,” he said. 

“At the same time, if store staff is better trained they are able to better serve customers in a timely fashion, building customer loyalty and repeat business.”

At the same time, the Eagle Boys national office and franchisees can use the online system to monitor participation rates, conduct assessment, archive results, deliver training for new products and promotions, issue certificates for course completions and roll out other training opportunities.

For the online training college, Eagle Boys has partnered with a registered training organisation to offer staff and franchisees customised government-accredited qualifications from Certificate II in Hospitality right through to a Diploma of Management.

“This provides a range of benefits as staff and franchisees won’t have to leave the store or source an external provider. For staff this means the opportunity to gain valuable nationally recognised qualifications through theoretical study and the practical application of skills in the store,” Clayton said.

According to Clayton, Eagle Boys currently offers in-person training to franchisees.

“In particular, when franchisees first join Eagle Boys they spend time in an operational store to learn all aspects of the business hands-on, from pizza making through to managing the business,” he said.

“In addition, the Eagle Boys operations department is able to place a dedicated trainer within a store for a set period of time to help franchisees and staff address certain issues or concerns.  

“Essentially, the online training provides a more accessible, flexible and comprehensive suite of training options for franchisees that is located across Australia and is time-poor. This can be supported by in-store visits by the operations team.”