With their competence, creativity and drive, Björn Borg’s employees contribute to the development of the brand and the Group and are essential to the company’s success. As an employer, Björn Borg wants to offer a stimulating work environment where management and staff together build a culture characterized by ambition, drive and a strong passion for fashion and sports.
One of management’s top priorities is to provide current employees with development opportunities and attract new employees with the right skills to the organization. This is accomplished by building an open and stimulating corporate culture, where employees can grow on the job and develop. In a growing company, we also need structure and standardized routines – while still maintaining creativity.
Björn Borg’s employees are generally highly skilled with extensive industry experience, including from large Swedish and international apparel companies and retailers, as well as unique expertise in fashion and sports apparel. They share a great interest in fashion and sports, which is reflected in the strong culture. To sustain a high level of innovation and creativity in product development, inspiration is sought at trade shows and international fashion events. The company also places great importance on creating an inspiring culture internally, where the driving force is to inspire people to feel active and attractive.
Shared values
Shared values play an important unifying function for Björn Borg, with its extensive international business and network of partners, but also for the brand’s development. The values that define Björn Borg can be summarized as follows: Passion, Empowering, Winning Attitude, Bold and Magnetic. These five distinguish the way we work and all communication internally and externally.
The company’s mission is that “We inspire people to be more through our belief that sports can make our mind, souls and bodies become something more than what they are today and that anyone can become anything,” which is a major driver that unites employees and a mission we take very seriously. Everyone at Björn Borg is treated equally and has the same opportunities regardless of race, ethnicity, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
Organisation during the year
During the year Björn Borg strengthened its organizational competence through new hires in design, product, finance and digital branding with an emphasis on sports fashion. Through a skills audit, we have identified additional areas to strengthen in the year ahead, so that the organization can meet the needs of today and tomorrow. This is a long-term effort also aimed at creating a competence-oriented and stimulating working environment. Each employee has individual development goals in terms of both functional competency and personal well-being. Employees are offered various options to develop their professional and personal skills, where leadership, self-leadership and health are priority areas.
Performance Management
A growing company requires a well-structured organization with clearly delegated responsibility. Björn Borg uses detailed job descriptions with measurable goals for each employee and takes a structured approach to creating an efficient environment where people thrive and perform well. The company has formulated a business plan (Northern Star) with clearly defined goals for the coming years. Employees at every level of the organization have been involved, with support from senior management. The overarching goals have been broken down, with the same high degree of involvement, by department and individual, so that everyone in the company has clear goals and activities that lead to shared business objectives. This is followed up through individual reviews each month to maximize focus, development and results. In addition to strategic growth, the goals include improvements to the working environment, the corporate culture and each individual’s development professionally and personally. Every employee also has personal health goals, which are tracked through individual tests a couple of times a year in cooperation with a professional personal trainer. Mental health is measured as well, with a focus on stress and work-life balance. Based on the outcomes, goals and action plans are set each year both at a group level and for each individual. Each employee also has personal sustainability goals in order to contribute to Björn Borg’s sustainability work, with a focus on reducing climate impacts.
The company’s compensation system comprises a base salary and variable compensation for certain key employees based on performance in relation to a combination of the company’s financial goals and individual targets.
Organisation by the numbers
The average number of Group employees was 212 in 2019, compared with 213 in 2018.
The average age was 35, and 66 percent were women and 34 percent men. Biologically, their average age is 27, eight years younger than their physical age, according to a fitness test of endurance, strength, flexibility and perceived well-being that all employees underwent during the year with a professional personal trainer, who also helped them set personal goals.
Employee engagement in the organization is high (81 percent) and increased during the year in line with current goals. All departments have been involved in setting their own goals for the coming years.
