Franchisees learn more about JYSK’s company values

During FY23, franchisees representing eight countries participated in their first training about JYSK’s company values. The purpose was to ensure that the same values – Tradesman, Colleague and Corporate Spirit – are alive across all of JYSK. 

The values of a company can be difficult to put into words and sometimes even harder to teach others about. 

But that was exactly the task when JYSK Franchise – which operates 20 of the total 48 countries where JYSK does business – wanted to pass on the values, which are a huge part of the success of JYSK. 

Our franchisees feel much more as a part of JYSK, and this is an important part of fulfilling our overall objective of ensuring the same customer experience across all countries.
- Frederik Kåre Kroun, Franchise Director

In close collaboration with HR, Line Mortensen, who is Franchise Field Manager at JYSK’s Head Office in Denmark, was in charge of setting up the first training for three Franchise partners who together represent eight JYSK franchise countries. 

“I know our company values by heart, but it is something different when you want to teach others about them. Especially in countries outside Denmark where company cultures are not necessarily working with a flat hierarchy and used to be as open, honest and straightforward. Teaching our colleagues that at JYSK, every employee has the right and duty to speak up, regardless of their job title, has been an eye-opener for many,” says Line. 

Training with real-life examples 

After being a participant herself in the first training in December 2022, Line took on the role of teacher in January 2023. In a meeting room at JYSK’s Head Office in Denmark, she taught the participants about the three company values as well as JYSK’s leadership values: Leader, Coach and Communicator. 

“It was great fun. I have worked at JYSK long enough to know many different real-life examples of our values and leadership in practice, so I drew on those to make the training as relevant as possible. The training was intense, both for me because it was my first time as the teacher and for the participants, who were really tired afterwards because they got so much food for thought,” says Line. 

Following the training in Denmark, the franchisees were asked, under the supervision of Line, to bring the training home and teach their colleagues the same lessons, using the Train The Trainer philosophy. By June 2023, all participating countries were done with their own local trainings with success. 

“The most important thing is that they do not just teach the values once and forget all about it afterwards. It needs to be structured with follow-up trainings and almost daily discussions in order to come alive and stay alive,” says Line. 

Part of the Franchise strategy 

For Frederik Kåre Kroun, who is Franchise Director at JYSK, these trainings have been the natural next step to include franchisees even more in the company. 

“Within recent years, the franchisees have become much closer to JYSK with regard to assortment, store concept and marketing. However, we have not focused much on HR and trainings before. The JYSK Values and training in general are now a cornerstone in our Franchise strategy and business plan. Based on the feedback from the trainings, we can only say that this is working and has been a success. Our franchisees feel much more as a part of JYSK, and this is an important part of fulfilling our overall objective of ensuring the same customer experience across all countries,” he says. 

Throughout FY24, the Franchise department will follow their plan and train the remaining franchise countries, where Kuwait and Malta already participated in the values and leadership training in November. Due to the success, Franchise will together with HR plan more relevant trainings in the future for the JYSK franchisees.