HR
Innovator Magazine
"Some Assembly Required"
At a time when many companies are whittling employee
benefits and lowering expectations, IKEA North America has been in
the midst of a recruitment surge, building its workforce with the
same do-it-yourself gusto that its customers apply to assembling IKEA's
unique furniture.
Only a year ago, the privately held Swedish home-furnishing giant
launched a 10-year, 50-store expansion across North America, the success
of which depends, in large measure, on co-worker enthusiasm. Fueling
that enthusiasm is an embrace of work/life balance initiatives and
training tools that empower co-workers to “paddle” their
careers as far as they want to go—smart moves for a company
positioning itself to be the world’s best retail employer.
How does IKEA North America plan to get there? Through
innovative co-worker programs championed by Pernille Spiers-Lopez,
a former HR manager now risen to president of IKEA North America.
To Spiers-Lopez, handing co-workers the tools for career development—as
well as generous benefits—is differentiating IKEA in a competitive
marketplace.
It doesn’t hurt that the IKEA’s North
American stores (current tally: 29) have gained a reputation for being
fun places to work. It’s a fact that many IKEA co-workers were
once IKEA shoppers. Attracted by the friendly, supportive environment,
they quickly learned of IKEA’s bedrock principles of cost consciousness,
simplicity, and enthusiasm, penned by IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad
in 1976.
Kamprad's “Nine Points” are lived every
day, asserts Jeff Wilson, learning and development manager for IKEA
North America. “They’re the reason for everything we do.
Co-workers are exposed to them from day one.”
Here’s how the principles play out: IKEA doesn’t
bash co-workers for blunders (Point Six: “Mistakes are the privilege
of the active person who can start over and put things straight.”),
but it does view waste of resources as a “mortal sin”
(Point Four); and demands that co-workers “take care of and
inspire each other” (Point Two) to achieve a “better everyday
life for the many people” (Point Three).
New hires, attracted by the career development tools
Spiers-Lopez has instituted to foster productive IKEA careers, absorb
the IKEA values via the 40 hours of training provided within their
first six months.
Market Place Positioning
Spiers-Lopez has long focused on attracting good people to IKEA. She
initiated a work/life balance task force as well as a diversity campaign
in the late 1990s while she was HR manager for IKEA North America.
When she became president in 2001, she added flextime, telecommuting,
compressed work weeks, and job sharing to co-worker offerings.
A busy mom herself, Spiers-Lopez explains IKEA’s
commitment to rolling with life’s hiccups. “If an IKEA
co-worker needs to take time off to find a nursing home for an aging
parent, be home to kiss their child before bed, or telecommute to
better juggle caring for a newborn,” she says, “they can
actually do that without feeling guilty or worrying about risking
their career aspirations.”
The upshot is that co-workers feel supported. According
to Astrid Oyo, IKEA’s manager for recruitment and succession
planning for the U.S., 65 percent of full-time co-workers and 10 percent
of part-time co-workers have taken advantage of the flexible work
arrangements.
And productivity is up. For instance, by allowing
two part-time co-workers to share one full-time position, sales staff
turnover dropped to 56 percent in 2002—from 76 percent in 2001.
Turnover now hovers around 35 percent, and is even lower for management
trainees, according to Wilson. “Pernille has a really good way
of looking at things from the co-workers eyes,” he adds. “She
really stays connected to what’s important to them.”
An example is Spiers-Lopez’s extension of full
medical benefits to co-workers working 20 or more hours a week. Other
standard benefits include tuition reimbursement, a 15 percent shopping
discount, and a credit card with no interest for 90 days. Co-workers
may join the company’s 401(k), and have the freedom to self-select
six holidays of their choice.
Additional generous maternity/paternity leaves, time
off for adoption, and onsite lactation and “quiet” rooms
that offer co-workers a place to pray or meditate garnered a nod from
Working Mother Magazine in 2003. It listed IKEA among the
“100 Best Companies for Working Mothers”—and personally
honored Spiers-Lopez with the Family Champion Award for her support
of family-friendly programs.
Innovative Stand-Outs
Spiers-Lopez wants co-workers to take ownership of their careers at
IKEA. So, she has initiated a number of programs to empower them,
including “Partners for Growth,” a formal 12-month mentoring
program that matches senior managers with junior managers from different
IKEA locations; “Paddle Your Own Canoe,” which helps co-workers
to gain the knowledge needed to move into future positions; and “I
Want Your Job,” launched over the summer of 2003, which allows
co-workers to actively train with the person whose job they’d
like to have.
In addition, co-workers can utilize more than 80 training
vehicles—via books, and classroom and online instruction—to
sharpen their selling skills or learn management practices, shares
Wilson. “We supply a menu and co-workers, with their managers,
decide what they need and when they need it,” he adds. “It’s
all about where they want to go.”
Currently, 7,000 co-workers staff 18 U.S. stores.
While Spiers-Lopez is committed to achieving an internal promotion
rate of 90 percent, these programs should be handy recruitment tools
in attracting career-hungry individuals during its 2004 expansion
into New Haven, Conn.; Bloomington, Minn.; Tempe, Ariz.; and Philadelphia,
Pa. By 2005, IKEA expects to hire an additional 5,300 co-workers for
its North American stores.
While IKEA uses the traditional recruitment outlets
of job fairs, networking, and co-worker referrals (its acknowledged
best recruitment tool), it keeps an eye out for innovation. In November
2003, for example, IKEA launched Enterprise, a global applicant tracking
system developed by BrassRing, in the U.S. and Canada, with plans
to implement it globally during 2004. Enterprise will replace “Open
IKEA,” the current internal job posting board, says Jaime Martinez,
who assumed the HR manager role when Spiers-Lopez jumped to the presidency.
He’s happy that sluggish manual processing will
be a thing of the past. “I wanted us to be in the forefront
of e-recruiting,” says Martinez, explaining that Enterprise
will facilitate faster communication with candidates and the IKEA
stores operating in 31 countries, as well as reduce delays in hiring
decisions. “We can inform applicants where we are in the process,
or let them know if their experience doesn’t fit with what we
need.”
Another benefit of the program is that it will give
store managers ownership of hiring decisions, which were previously
made by HR recruiters, Martinez adds. “I want the responsibility
of hiring to be with the manager on the floor, to create the department
how they see fit. That’s the concept we’re driving for,”
he says. “It’s a different world when someone hands you
an employee.”
And to further prove IKEA’s commitment to diversity,
an internal training program has been developed for hiring managers
to ensure they are aware of any cultural biases they may bring to
an interview. “Assertiveness and decisiveness can be expressed
in many ways in different cultures,” explains Oyo. “Our
goal is to hire the right people for the job, not those who click
with the hiring manager.”
Change is Good Business
IKEA so values input from co-workers that a “Why Sayers”
program was initiated to encourage their suggestions for better business
practices. Channeled through their immediate supervisors, the ideas,
if tested in a co-worker’s store, might travel through the “best
practices” grapevine to other stores—and other countries
to become standard practices.
As well, Spiers-Lopez has invited direct communication
by launching an “Express Yourself” program. Co-workers
are encouraged to share concerns or complaints via postcards earmarked
for her desk. Spiers-Lopez’s practice of personally responding
lets co-workers know they’re heard and appreciated. “When
the president of the company takes that level of care, it speaks to
the concern we have here,” explains Martinez. “We want
different points of view in IKEA. We want people that question the
norm. Their experience will allow us to make our programs better.”
As the expansion rolls out, Spiers-Lopez will be keeping
a close eye on co-worker satisfaction. Best practice procedures and
retention programs are in place. Much of IKEA’s past success
has been in its willingness to accept that change is the catalyst
for better, smarter business practices. Though grounded in unwavering
ideals, this forward-looking company (which evolved its signature
OGLA chair from wood to recycled plastic, and transitioned its catalogue
to chlorine-free paper not farmed from intact natural forests) certainly
won’t hesitate to attract and retain an enthusiastic workforce,
its most valuable asset. “IKEA values the individual,”
says Martinez. “We make people comfortable here and enable people
to grow.”
Copyrighted 2004. Not to be copied, borrowed,
or published without written permission.
This article is available for reprint. Contact Sheri by e-mail: Sheri@Rehwoldt.com,
or via phone: 716/946-7308.
