Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V and its controlled entities) is accelerating its transformation, stepping up investments in new and existing IKEA stores and fulfilment centres, developing city centre formats and focusing on its e-commerce platform, to better meet the needs of its customers and be more convenient and affordable to many more people.
To support the biggest transformation in the history of the Ingka Group, IKEA India has already adopted its expansion approach. Through its expansion in India, it will create many more direct and indirect jobs. The number of co-workers is expected to grow from the current strength of 1,500 co-workers to over 15,000 co-workers in the future, out of which 50 percent will be women.
Besides jobs in the stores and new city centres, the company will also create a lot of new roles in areas such as digital, data analytics, diversified fulfilment networks and personalisation. Certain existing roles will change, and the company has confirmed that all its co-workers will get to explore new opportunities in the new organisation. 3,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the next two years in line with its growth plans and transformation.
The Hiring Process
IKEA has a unique hiring process as the brand believes in value base hiring and give priority to individual’s values more than their experience and degrees.
“At IKEA India, we recruit by values. It is more about understanding the person whom we are interviewing. We like to understand personal values of a candidate and how these come out in typical behaviour in everyday life. I like to listen to the ‘real stuff’, like stories about how they have created togetherness and made things simpler. We believe that it is only together that we can achieve what we are achieving. It also means it does not matter where you come from, whether you have a degree or not – we all believe in the same values,” says Anna Carin Månsson, Country HR Manager, IKEA India.
“The next core value we stress on is simplicity. We try to keep things simple. We have a simple and flat structure at IKEA, a simple way of talking to each other, a simple way of behaving. Simplicity allows us to focus on our tasks, on the right things,” she adds.
HR Policies
IKEA has several employee friendly policies, such as day care facilities, parental leave policy, transport policy, competence development, mentoring, pension plan among others.
“At IKEA, we always go for the new and improved, so modern thinking, bringing in innovation, and thinking differently, is also at the core of our value. We believe equality works better and we are committed to hire 50 percent women co-workers at all levels,” she further states.
“We will empower and nurture women co-workers to grow with IKEA and create suitable work conditions to retain them,” she adds.
Equal Opportunity for Women
The ambition for IKEA in India is to develop a 50:50 gender diversity, encourage and create unique opportunities for women in society. Towards this, the brand has a non-negotiable commitment to hire 50 percent women co-workers at all levels in India including forklift drives and assembling co-workers.
IKEA aims to provide more opportunities to women in different life situations through flexible work hours, possibilities to choose suitable jobs, child care facilities at the work place and by securing a healthy and safe environment.
“IKEA also wants to bring back women who have taken a sabbatical and dropped out of the workforce due to marriage, child birth etc. We want to be known as a workplace preferred by women who today hesitate to join back work due to many reasons such as lack of professional trainings, societal concerns and safety issues,” Mansson states.
IKEA believes that a workplace with gender balance is a better workplace, there are better discussions with more perspectives and better decisions taken.
“We believe the uniqueness of every individual makes IKEA better! Being ourselves and contributing with our uniqueness makes us all grow. Recognizing our co-workers’ differences contributes to creativity and supports our growth,” says Mansson.
Internal Training Programs
IKEA invests in the development of co-workers by offering a variety of internal training programs – for those who want to learn something new and grow. IKEA also encourages co-workers to create a development plan and co-workers help to set their goals for the coming year and the future with their managers.
“We have co-workers from DISHA programme, and recently, we have in-house assemblers, forklift drivers and Urban Clap carpenters who have been given trainings in their respective functions. IKEA has contributed to the training of the carpenters on UrbanClap’s platform, thereby, skilling them to become professional IKEA assemblers,” says Månsson.
Day Care Benefit
Early this year, IKEA announced its day care benefit program for its coworkers at upcoming stores in India.
The centres are named as ‘DAGIS’ (Swedish for day care centers), will be located inside IKEA campuses across the country.
The first DAGIS came up inside the IKEA store in Hyderabad. DAGIS are made available for children of all IKEA co-workers. In line with IKEA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and in its endeavor to redefine gender equality this program supports co-workers in their roles as parents and professionals.
“By this day care benefit program we enable co-workers to be more productive and be assured that their children are in safe hands while they are at work. This empower swomen to return to work as well as help men to support their wives/ partners to resume work,” asserts Anna.
Tack! Programme
IKEA Group is offering additional Rs 150,120 each to its Indian co-workers’ pension fundings as part of Tack! programme. Tack! is an IKEA Group Loyalty Programme to show appreciation for co-workers who continue working for the success of the business. This year the company will be rewarding a total of €96 million (Rs 700 crore) to the global co-workers pension fundings.
“Tack! is a way of thanking the efforts and loyalty of our co-workers who are working for the success of IKEA. Our co-workers should know how much we value their experience and commitment, and I am proud that IKEA Group in India will give an additional Rs 150,120 each to our co-workers’ pensions this year,” says Anna.
Everyone who has worked for IKEA Group for at least five years is qualified for the loyalty programme Tack! – ‘thank you’ in Swedish – where IKEA Group co-workers can receive an extra annual pension payout, in addition to existing pensions. Tack! was introduced in 2013 and since then the IKEA Group has paid out €509 million globally. This far a total of over Rs 82 million has been allocated to the co-workers’ pension funds within the programme in India.
Every co-worker gets the same amount regardless of position or salary, and part-time co-workers are rewarded in proportion to their hours worked. In total, 171 co-workers in India can celebrate the fact that IKEA Group gives them Rs 150,120 each in appreciation for their loyalty.
“No matter where you work in our organisation you are contributing to our success and continued growth. That is why it is so important for us to share this success equally,” says Anna.
The same amount is allocated to all co-workers who have worked at IKEA for at least one full fiscal year. Once they reach their five-year anniversary with the company, the accumulated money is paid out to their pension funds. After this, every annual pay-out goes directly into their pension funds.
The global funding is divided between all IKEA Group countries, based on each country’s proportion of the total salary and wages. The payout is dependent on the total results of IKEA Group during the previous financial year.
To further emphasise the importance of co-worker contribution, all IKEA Group co-workers are part of the performance driven bonus programme, One IKEA Bonus. By reaching the financial goals in each market, co-workers can receive approximately one extra month’s salary every year.
