smith+henderson, organiser of the Best Franchise Awards, will now be known as WorkBuzz.
Steven Frost, WorkBuzz CEO, explains: “When I founded smith+henderson seven years ago, my vision was to provide greater transparency in UK franchising by helping ‘good’ franchisors stand out from those with shiny marketing and to bring the sector together to share best practice.
“With 100-plus franchisors participating in the Best Franchise programme and Lloyds Bank and Making Money magazine supporting this, we’re edging closer to realising this vision.”
The rebrand marks the second chapter in the research consultancy’s journey, Steven says, who adds: “Over the last few years we’ve been working with a growing list of franchisors and non-franchised businesses to help them gather confidential feedback from their employees and leverage this to improve employee engagement and build the world’s best workplaces.
“Our vision for WorkBuzz is to improve the working lives of one million franchisees and employees by 2022.”
The rebrand is much more than a facelift, according to the company.
WorkBuzz recently raised external funding, opened its second UK office and is making significant investments in its technology. Its new analytics platform enables companies to get real-time feedback from their people and make better informed decisions.
The company remains committed to the Best Franchise Awards and this year’s winners will be announced at the 2018 Best Franchise Conference, which will be held on December 4 at the Marriott in Leicester.