Employer Branding
Axfood: A group-
wide EVP
Axfood is Sweden’s second-largest grocery retail group, with brands such as Willys, Hemköp, Axfood Snabbgross, Dagab, mat.se and Urban Deli. Together with Oddwork, the group has revised its group-wide employer value proposition (EVP), and the employer branding work is now being activated across the entire organisation.
The assignment
Axfood’s success is built on its people
Axfood was founded in 2000 with the ambition of creating Sweden’s best food company. Today the Axfood family consists of many well-loved, leading brands, all working towards the vision of leading the way in good and sustainable food. Convinced that Axfood’s success is built on its employees, the group decided in 2019 to launch a group-wide employer branding initiative. The goals were to identify the Axfood family’s shared employee promise, develop an updated EVP, strengthen its employer offering and build an even stronger employer brand in the talent market. The aim? To realise the vision by attracting, recruiting and developing the best people in the industry.
What we did
Workshops and interviews across every company in the group
Across the Axfood group there is a huge passion for both food and people. To identify Axfood’s shared purpose and employer value proposition (EVP), Axfood and Oddwork ran workshops and interviews with employees and leaders in the group’s largest companies: Dagab, Axfood Snabbgross, Axfood AB/IT, Willys and Hemköp. The purpose was to identify, in a concrete and honest way, what makes employees proud and what draws people to the company culture – in short, why people want to work in the Axfood family. A joint team from Axfood and Oddwork held the workshops and interviews with all companies during autumn 2019, and the group-wide EVP was developed in spring 2020 before being activated across the organisation.
Want to know more about creating an EVP that attracts candidates?
Read our guide to what an EVP is, what it should contain and how to bring together your company’s unique offer to current and future employees.
“Oddwork is an incredibly energising partner! Their workshops have been greatly appreciated and have helped us both discover our shared strengths across the group and further increase the pride in working here. It has been a real boost to meet colleagues from all over the country who shared strong evidence of social engagement, opportunities to grow, how we support each other and a strong desire to make a difference. It has become clear to me that our differences within the Axfood family make us a strong team, and that we have the power to make a real difference. It will be great fun to now share this with the world as well.”— Sofia Hällsten, HR Communications Manager, Axfood
“Working with a group as driven as the Axfood family is a great pleasure. This is a family of leading brands and cultures that are developing the entire industry and inspiring millions of customers every day – not least us at Oddwork! Our shared task has been to clarify the many strong elements that tie the Axfood family’s employer brand and company cultures together, whether you work at Dagab, Willys or Hemköp. With the passion that exists throughout Axfood, we are convinced we are watching one of Sweden’s strongest employer brands take shape. The EVP we have developed together truly captures the heart.”— Charles Sinclair, Head of Employer Branding, Oddwork