The U.S. has some 1,500 franchise companies operating about 320,000 outlets. If you’re not one of them, how do you compete with them for entry-level talent?

The Conventional Wisdom holds that you can’t compete – that the franchises have resources to overwhelm the little guy and scoop up new workers and those looking for summer jobs. In this case, though, the CW is a little off base; you can compete by offering what workers won’t get when they take a McJob.

Here are two areas where you have an advantage:

Career path and advancement. Most franchises offer a strong training program, but it turns out they’re training workers for their next job; franchises tend to have higher turnover rates than their smaller competitors.

That’s probably because many applicants see franchise employment as a short-term measure. You can use that thinking to your advantage by underscoring the career opportunities at your company and the fact that the prospective employee won’t be “just a number.”

Pre-screening of good applicants. Unless employment is tight in a region, the typical franchise hiring strategy amounts to “hire many, and keep few.” In other words, franchises are often testing grounds for whether people are mature enough and ready to enter the workforce. If they’re not, they tend to get dumped quickly by franchise employers who can afford to do nearly continuous recruiting.

Your advantage: If someone shows up with an application that shows lengthy franchise experience – and by “lengthy” we mean a year or more – you can be fairly certain that you’re dealing with someone who understands the importance of workplace basics, such as showing up on time or working as part of a team.

To read more about the advantages and disadvantages of franchise employment, read the report Are Franchises Bad Employers? (free registration required).

Tags: applicants, franchise, summer, Training, turnover