Industry Trends, TES Insights

Unlocking Franchise Success with Kolbe: Using Kolbe RightFit™ Hiring System

Unlocking Franchise Success with Kolbe: Using Kolbe RightFit™ Hiring System

By Karen Powell, Certified Kolbe Consultant
Talent and Strengths Advocate (FSBI)
Brian K. Miller, Business Strategist

 Kolbe RightFit™  

In the 2003 hit movie, The Italian Job, Charlize Theron plays a world-class safecracker, and the safe in Venice takes center stage. The whole crew is laser-focused on cracking the code, grabbing the gold, and making a speedy getaway while looking outrageously cool in Mini Coopers. Now, unless you plan to rob a vault (in which case, this is the wrong kind of coaching), your version of the big score is hiring the right people. When you finally crack the hiring code, your team runs smoother, faster, and much more profitably, minus the high-speed chase. And just like in the movie, when it all comes together, the payoff is huge.  

Finding the right team member is truly like cracking a safe. At times, you may feel like you are spinning the combinations with resumes, interviews, and gut feelings, but Nothing seems to click. Then it happens—you find the right fit. Everything just clicks. The tension eases, the gears start turning smoothly, and you realize it’s not just about filling a role. It’s about unlocking a level of potential you didn’t even know was there.

Kolbe RightFit™ is a science-based hiring solution that compares candidates to roles based on their natural strengths—how they instinctively take action, not just their resume or personality. It’s a hiring system that helps leaders and HR execs screen and select the best talent. Kolbe RightFit™ makes finding the right person easier, less expensive, and smarter than the traditional selection process. With this system, companies can significantly reduce turnover and build teams that soar. In short, it’s like “cracking the code” on hiring. 

Kolbe says there are three parts of the mind that drive performance:

• Cognitive – What you can do (skills, knowledge, experience)
• Conative – How you will do it (your instinctive method of taking action)
• Affective – What you want to do (motivation, values, preferences)

Hiring Process/Instinctive Fit

Most hiring processes lean heavily on the cognitive and completely ignore the conative. That’s the blind spot. That’s where Kolbe fills the gap. When you start hiring for instinctive fit, not just for resumes or who “aced” the interview, you build teams that get things done—and done well! No more guessing. Start selecting. Then watch what happens when everyone’s in their zone.

Kolbe’s RightFit™ 

Here is how it works:  

Step I: Define the Role, Requirements, and Supervisor Compatibility

The supervisor of the role takes the Kolbe A™ Index to identify their natural strengths, followed by the Kolbe C™ Index to determine the strengths required for the position. Reminder: The Kolbe A Index measures a person’s instinctive strengths—how they naturally take action when free to be themselves. Unlike personality tests (which focus on feelings or social traits) or intelligence tests (which measure cognitive ability), the Kolbe A Index examines your conative strengths—your natural way of doing things. The Kolbe C Index measures how a manager or colleague expects someone to perform in a role; it captures the job’s conative requirements as seen through someone else’s perspective.

What the Kolbe C Does:

• It evaluates how a manager thinks a specific job should be done across the same four Action Modes:
  1. Fact Finder – how much detail or research is needed.
  2. Follow Thru – how structured or process-driven the role should be.
  3. Quick Start – how much innovation or risk-taking is required.
  4. Implementor – how much hands-on, spatial/mechanical work is involved.
• It creates a 4-number profile (just like the Kolbe A) that represents the expected instinctive strengths that are fundamental for success in that role.

Why It’s Useful:

• When paired with the Kolbe A Index, it reveals how well a person’s natural strengths correspond with the demands of the role.
• Helps reduce stress and friction when expectations don’t align with someone’s natural instincts.
• Supports better job design, delegation, and communication between managers and their teams.

Step 2: Build a Job Profile

So, following the guidelines above, the second step takes the supervisor’s Kolbe A result and the C Index result, which are used to create a Kolbe Range of Success™ Report.   This report identifies the ideal range for the candidates’ Kolbe A result for the role. 

Step 3: Screen Candidates 

Finally, the Candidate Report generates an A to F grade by comparing the candidate’s Kolbe A Index result against the Range of Success report created for the role. 

 As a reminder, no assessment should be used as the sole tool in hiring.   Hiring decisions should be based on a full interview and evaluation process. 

Example: Hiring a Field Support Representative

As a franchisor, hiring a Field Support Representative isn’t just finding someone with franchise operations experience. Sure, you want someone who has walked in those shoes before—someone who understands the cadence of franchising and the realities of working with franchisees.

But you’re not looking for someone who merely checks boxes or hands out answers.  You want someone to teach them how to fish, rather than do fishing for them.  It’s a coaching role, which is why in our company, the role is titled Franchise Business Coach.  We look for someone who fits our culture—a coach, not a crutch. Someone who knows how to challenge franchisees in a supportive way, pushing them toward their Income, Lifestyle, Wealth, and Equity (ILWE)™ goals. Someone who listens well, asks the right questions, and doesn’t just “fix” things but helps franchisees grow.

That’s where Kolbe RightFit™ comes in.

It goes beyond the resume. By measuring how a candidate instinctively takes action, Kolbe helps you see if they’ll show up in the field the way the role truly demands. When you align their Kolbe A Index with the expectations of the role (via the Kolbe C Index), you get a crystal-clear view of fit before you make the hire. Back to our cracking the safe scenario.  When Charlize’s character, under pressure, was able to hear that final  “click,” everything snapped into place, and they struck gold-gold bars, to be exact. Cracking the hiring code may not be quite as exhilarating, but you’ll be happy with the results:

• ✅ Lower burnout
  
• ✅ Higher franchisee satisfaction
  
• ✅ And a Franchise Business Coach who leads with coaching, not just compliance.

It’s about finding the right experienced person—one who thrives in the role, not just survives it. If you want to hire with greater confidence and reduce costly misfires, check out Kolbe RightFit™.It is the most innovative way to ensure your next hire is a natural fit for the role.

Up Next: How to design your Natural Edge Team.

bkm 5/22/25