Interview with Sven Jensen, Pro-Tier | By Vikki Bradbury, Publisher of Franchising Magazine USA
For franchise businesses, success depends on more than a recognised brand, a proven operating system and a strong customer offering. Behind every successful location is a team of people who represent the brand, serve customers and keep daily operations running smoothly. Yet recruiting and retaining reliable employees remains one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses across the United States.
Sven Jensen, founder of Pro-Tier, believes employee benefits can play an important role in addressing this challenge. Launched in 2023, Pro-Tier helps small businesses with flexible workforces provide employee benefits without the complexity, administrative burden or expense traditionally associated with these programs.
Having worked as a Chief Financial Officer responsible for implementing employee benefits plans, Jensen understood the difficulties employers faced. Traditional solutions could be complicated to establish and manage, particularly for businesses employing hourly workers, seasonal staff and teams experiencing high turnover.
Pro-Tier was developed to provide a simpler, more flexible alternative, designed around the realities of small business operations and the particular demands of franchising.
Making employee benefits work for franchisees
Many of Pro-Tier’s early clients operated in the restaurant and fitness industries, including franchise owners who quickly recognised the potential business benefits of the platform.
For franchisees, employee benefits are more than an additional expense. When structured appropriately, they can become a strategic tool for attracting stronger candidates, improving retention and creating a more stable workforce.
“Many businesses have challenges recruiting and retaining top talent,” Jensen explains. “Pro-Tier makes our clients the most sought-after roles in an industry or geography.”
The connection between employee satisfaction and business performance is particularly important in franchising. In restaurants, fitness studios and other customer-facing businesses, employees are often the most visible representation of the brand. Their attitude, reliability and ability to deliver consistent service can directly influence the customer experience.
Businesses struggling with frequent staff departures must continually invest time and money in recruitment, onboarding and training. High turnover can also put pressure on existing employees and owners, making it harder to maintain consistent standards.
By helping franchisees offer more competitive employment packages, Pro-Tier aims to reduce these pressures while improving individual location performance and Profitability. Better retention can lower training costs, support more consistent service and allow owners to spend less time managing staffing problems.
“We see locations improve their profitability even after adding benefits” shared Jensen. He continued “ The business savings exceed the costs, even before you take into account the operational improvements”.
For franchisors, these improvements can contribute to stronger individual businesses and a more consistent customer experience across the network.
A flexible approach to employee benefits
One of Pro-Tier’s key differentiators is its emphasis on flexibility. Rather than requiring every business to implement a traditional, one-size-fits-all benefits package, the platform allows employers to tailor their offering to their workforce and financial circumstances.
Businesses can determine which employees receive employer-funded benefits, differentiate contribution levels according to job roles and structure benefits around the actual number of hours an employee works.
This flexibility is particularly relevant to franchisees operating in industries where staffing requirements fluctuate, working hours vary and employee turnover can be high.
Jensen describes Pro-Tier as a flexible, customisable solution that is simple to implement, with new clients onboarded in approximately 30 minutes.
Employers do not necessarily need to subsidise every employee’s benefits from the outset. They can begin with limited contributions and expand their offering as their operations and budgets allow.
Pro-Tier also enables employees to access pre-tax deductions for eligible healthcare expenses, potentially reducing their costs even when their employer does not provide a subsidy. Jensen estimates employees can save approximately 25% on healthcare costs through this approach, although actual savings depend on individual Tax rates.
Business subsidies can be structured as fixed monthly amounts (variable by employee role) and/or contributions based on the actual hours an employee works. The later are a great way to incentivize hourly staff to allocate more of their time towards your business, without adding fixed costs to your operations.
This gives businesses an opportunity to improve their employment offering without immediately committing to a rigid employer-funded benefits package.
Supporting franchisors and franchisees
The relationship between franchisors and franchisees is central to the success of a franchise network. Franchisors need locations to operate consistently, protect the brand and deliver a strong customer experience. Franchisees need practical support that helps them manage costs, recruit capable people and build profitable businesses.
Jensen believes employee benefits can serve both objectives.
Pro-Tier works with individual franchise owners, multi-unit operators and franchisors that recommend the platform to their franchisees. For franchisees, the attraction is the opportunity to build a more competitive employment offering while reducing the administrative workload associated with benefits.
For franchisors, the potential benefits include improved location-level operations, stronger profitability and more consistent service delivery across the network.
“Our solution delivers significant value to both franchisors and franchisees. Franchisees benefit from more profitable, stable businesses, while franchisors see improved location performance and operational consistency, strengthening the overall brand,” Jensen explains.
This alignment is particularly valuable in franchise systems where the performance of individual operators contributes to the reputation and long-term strength of the wider brand.
By helping franchisees strengthen their teams, franchisors can support more reliable operations without necessarily becoming directly involved in each location’s employee benefits administration.
Reducing the administrative burden
For many small business owners, introducing employee benefits can seem daunting. They may not have a dedicated human resources department or the time to guide employees through complicated insurance decisions.
Pro-Tier aims to remove much of this burden.
Following an onboarding call, the company works directly with employees to help them understand their options and identify insurance plans suited to their individual needs. Employers determine their contribution arrangements, while Pro-Tier manages the employee-facing support.
The company provides access to qualified, US-based health insurance brokers who are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the year, with support in six languages.
This approach gives employees access to individualized guidance without requiring franchise owners to become benefits experts themselves.
The commercial model is another important consideration. Pro-Tier says its platform is free to employers and employees, generating revenue through commissions paid directly by insurance carriers.
Jensen encourages franchisees to examine the full cost of any benefits solution before committing.
“Be on the lookout for all the fees,” he advises.
All competing solutions charge monthly platform fees and additional fees for each participating employee. While these charges may initially appear modest, they can accumulate as a business grows or introduces the platform across multiple locations.
For multi-unit franchisees, understanding the total cost of implementation and ongoing administration is essential. Employers should also examine insurance arrangements, eligibility requirements and available plans before deciding which solution best suits their needs.
The measurable impact of better benefits
Jensen believes the strongest argument for introducing employee benefits lies in the potential business outcomes.
Pro-Tier reports that some clients have reduced employee turnover by as much as 50%. The company has also helped clients secure talented candidates who might otherwise have declined positions without a competitive employment package that included benefits.
Lower turnover can reduce the repeated costs of advertising vacancies, interviewing applicants, onboarding new starters and training replacements. More experienced teams can develop stronger working relationships, deliver more consistent service and help new employees settle into the business.
For franchise owners, these improvements can also free up valuable time.
Owners who spend much of their working day filling staffing gaps, resolving operational problems and training replacements have less capacity to focus on marketing, financial performance and expansion.
Jensen believes building a reliable team is one of the most important foundations for sustainable growth.
“Focus on getting your existing locations running smoothly and having the best possible team,” he advises. “This will allow you to focus your efforts into opening new locations or otherwise expanding your business.”
Owners who remain heavily involved in daily operations may struggle to find the time needed to develop a broader growth and profitability strategy.
When should franchise businesses start?
According to Jensen, businesses should consider their employee benefits strategy as early as possible, even before a new franchise location opens.
Planning ahead can help operators build a stronger recruitment proposition from the beginning, rather than waiting until staffing difficulties become a problem.
The flexibility of the Pro-Tier model means franchisees can start with a contribution level that suits their current financial position and potentially expand it over time.
For established operators, the starting point is to assess existing recruitment and retention challenges, understand what employees value and calculate the true cost of ongoing turnover.
Jensen believes businesses that overlook employee benefits may find themselves at a disadvantage when competing for dependable, high-quality workers.
His message is straightforward: “Treat your employees fairly and your customers and bottom line will improve.”
For franchisors considering a network-wide recommendation, the decision should be supported by a clear understanding of franchisee needs, the platform’s service model and the potential operational and financial benefits. Individual franchisees should also evaluate the solution against their own workforce requirements and business circumstances.
Looking ahead
Since launching in 2023, Pro-Tier has continued to expand its presence in franchising, increasing adoption within existing franchise brands while establishing relationships with new networks.
Jensen says the company continues to recruit talented employees to support its expansion and maintain service quality.
As the business grows, its focus remains on making employee benefits more accessible and manageable for small businesses.
For the franchise sector, the underlying challenge is familiar. A strong brand and proven business model can create opportunities for success, but the people delivering the customer experience remain critical to the outcome.
Pro-Tier’s approach positions employee benefits as one practical way to strengthen that foundation. By combining flexible contribution options, personalised employee support and a model that does not charge employers or employees platform fees, the company aims to help franchisees compete more effectively for talent while giving franchisors another way to support network performance.
Ultimately, Jensen believes franchise businesses are better positioned to grow when their existing locations operate smoothly and their teams are equipped to deliver consistently.
For franchise owners looking to improve profitability, reduce the demands of daily operations and prepare for future expansion, investing in the people behind the brand may be one of the most valuable places to start.
For more information visit www.ProTier.com
