Employee Storytelling with IKEA UK&IE

As part of our ‘Coffee Break’ series, we welcomed IKEA to the stage for our first webinar of 2022. Joining us was Darren Taylor, Country Recruitment & Sourcing Manager and Abhirupa Biswas, Talent Sourcing & EVP Leader at IKEA UK&IE, who brought a breadth of experience and knowledge to the audience.

We chatted about Employee Storytelling and what makes IKEA stand out as one of the most attractive employers in such a competitive landscape.

The vision to “create a better everyday life for the many people” sits at the heart of what IKEA does. The ethos includes everyone from customers to co-workers. The Scandinavian heritage of “togetherness” is brought to life in every business area, from values to culture to customer experience.

A key talking point was what makes IKEA second to none in their talent sourcing and employee-value proposition. IKEA is a global business with over 170,000+ employees, but their EVP boils down to defining the individual co-worker experience. A mind-blowing statistic was that over 93% of the leadership vacancies are filled internally, highlighting the impact of their development programs, which can fast-track employees to leadership positions.

A unique part of their recruitment process is encouraging candidates to interview with a photo of their living room and ask them to talk about what they like about the room and what inspires them. From these conversations, you can quickly identify people who have a real passion for home furnishing and design and how they can make a difference in the work they do. These are traits IKEA looks for in their employees to help grow the business.

For more insights like this and a live Q&A, watch our on-demand recording for free now!