Important takeaways from this blog:
- How to create an internal pipeline
- Suggestions on how to work with talents and performers.
The labor market is under huge pressure and 1 out of 3 employees leave JYSK, compared to 1 out of 5 earlier. We want to retain our talent and performers and secure a stable organization with the aim for higher EBIT, satisfaction, and motivation.
It is about attracting, but it’s even more about retaining our talent and performers! We want to increase our understanding of our employees by investigating how to retain them.
At JYSK, we aim to have 90% of our managers recruited internally. We believe that a strong talent pipeline through relevant training will create great store management.
Do you see potential?
The goals of potential spotting are:
- to attract potential employees and talents as early as possible in their career path
- to spot potential from the very early start of the employment
- to give the potential employees the responsibility they seek and deserve
- to recognize the potential employees
- potential spotting is a high-priority task for each manager.
The precondition for each of our successful and ambitious employees are definitely our values. By living according to our values, we keep the company culture alive, while expanding to very different cultures. These core JYSK values originate from our founder Lars Larsen. They express the behaviors and attitude which is expected from a JYSK employee.
Our core values are:
Tradesmen
Service-minded – I put the customer first and act upon their needs
Cost-conscious – We are a low-cost company, selling articles at low prices and I use resources in a clever way and avoid unnecessary costs
Reliable – An agreement is an agreement. I keep what I promise
Goal-oriented – I work hard to reach my own and my team’s goals
Professional – I am competent and have a competent attitude and approach.
Colleague
Helpful – I am always happy to help and always ready to make the extra effort
Mutual respect – I show respect to those with whom I cooperate
Flexible – I am ready to handle changes and I take over for a colleague, even when it is not favorable for me
Open, honest, and straightforward – I say things as they are, straight on, in an open and honest way
Positive – I see opportunities rather than obstacles.
Corporate spirit
Committed – I involve myself, I make a difference, and I contribute to the team
Loyal – I stand behind JYSK and my colleagues, in good as well as tough situations
Cooperative – I am eager to work together across functions and positions
The right and duty to speak up – I use my right and duty to give input that could improve our business
JYSK ambassador – I show that I am proud to have the “JYSK blue blood”.
For our ambitious employees, who want to be managers in the future, the next precondition would be additional JYSK leadership values for management positions.
The Leadership helps our managers to:
- Reach our Goals
- Secure our Values
- Secure an attractive place to work
- Secure Scandinavian Leadership style
- Develop and motivate the team.
By being leaders, coaches, and communicators, our managers can create great teams and achieve great results. We believe in delegation and freedom with responsibility.
In order to fulfill the promise to our employees that there is always a step up at JYSK, we have created 3 development programs that are available to our talents and top performers:
- Talent Academy (TA)
- Store Manager Trainee (SMT)
- District Manager Trainee (DMT)
Talent Academy (TA)
With this program, we aim to spot, recognize and train the very young and hungry potentials that almost come from kindergarten. We give our employees the opportunity to prepare themselves (through this program) for the next step in their careers. Participants in Talent academy are seen as our next Deputy Store Managers or participants in the Store Manager Trainee program. We try to recognize the best: attention makes a difference – we want to strengthen our pipeline and develop their leadership skills.
Talent academy includes next modules:
Module 1 (Future leaders):
- Kick-off
- Know yourself
- JYSK Values and Leadership
- Internal organization
- JYSK Feedback.
Module 2 (JYSK tools):
- Know your KPIs and act on it
- How to be a good sales trainer
- Kick out.
Between the modules, through cooperation with their mentors, the participant should point out their main areas for development and create an Individual development plan which will help them to focus on important necessary improvements.
Store Manager Trainee (SMT)
Our Store Manager Trainees have the opportunity to work and study in close collaboration with great mentors. The SMT is our core conceptual talent development program through which we ensure “tailor-made SMs”. It’s also an opportunity for development, regardless of prior work experience. The purpose of the SMT program is to develop qualified talents to perform the job of a Store Manager in JYSK in near future.
The program lasts 9 months and consists of 5 weeks of intensive training modules that participants attend together, with other ambitious colleagues who are also participants in the program. The variety of the program consists of carefully designed trainings through which they gain the knowledge of management, management tools, and the store business. This program also includes tasks before and after each module. This helps our participants to be well prepared for training sessions and gives them the opportunity to apply in practice everything they learned.
The Store Manager Trainee program includes next modules:
Module 1:
- Kick-off
- JYSK feedback & PI
- Internal organization
- Store routines Part 1.
Module 2:
- MY JYSK store routines part 2
- Concepts and Stockroom concept
- Sales Management
- Stock management
Module 3:
- JYSK Leadership in practice
- Performance management tools
- Great store management days
- Presentation skills
Module 4:
- Recruitment and introduction
- Time Planning & Personnel administration
Module 5:
- An attractive place to work
- Kick out a business case
After finishing this program, we expect that a minimum of 80% of our participants are ready to take over our stores as Store Managers.
District Manager Trainee (DMT)
Most of our regional sales managers are developed internally, and that is something we are very proud of. The regional manager is the next step after the Store Manager position and includes lots of coaching, development and remote management. The purpose of our District management Trainee program is to provide the new DM with:
- The skills necessary to succeed in the position
- Familiarity with the JYSK culture and corporate spirit
- Knowledge of the organization and its work processes
- Familiarity with the JYSK Strategy Model and all its content
- The skills necessary to establish a well-functioning district management
- To get best practices from other districts
- An exact picture of success criteria – short and long term
- Organizational acceptance and recognition.
The program includes 5 modules:
- Module 1
- Kick Off (Intro to DM role/DMT training, Team Building, and JYSK Values & Leadership model, JYSK strategy, Top 4 retail focus areas, PI profiles + Feedback model, Attractive store).
- Module 2
- Optimize store operation (BI training, MY JYSK training (mobility), Back Office, Action plan on KPI/Store, How to work with and achieve goals).
- Module 3
- Leadership (Recruitment process, Introduction Process, DM wheel + planning, Business plan actions).
- Module 4
- Staff ready for Customer (Great Store Management day, Performance management/IO, Distance Leadership, Conflict handling).
- Module 5
- Kick Out.
After successfully finishing this program, our District Managers should be able to be even more ready to successfully run their own district, focus on the right tasks, secure that their team is well informed/trained in Great Store Management and Store operation, and secure positive attitude and motivation towards the tasks in the team, with the final goal to improve our stores, staff and store operation.
All of these programs include spending a lot of energy, time, and money, but if we work properly with our employees, we can create strong teams who will give great engagement. If our employees grow, we grow too, and our concept and structure can create great opportunities for our employees.
Just bring dedication and meet possibilities.
Author: Aleksandra Slavković, HR Business partner at JYSK Serbia
About the company:
JYSK delivers a great Scandinavian offer for everyone within sleeping and living. We are a global retail chain of stores and web shops, and part of the family-owned Lars Larsen Group.
Our founder, Lars Larsen, opened his first JYSK store in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1979.
Today, JYSK has more than 3,000 stores in 50 countries around the world.
