People and Culture Manager IKEA SEE

Otto Van Daal

Working in a geographically expansive region of Southeast Europe, encompassing five distinct markets: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine, brings as much challenge and dynamic as one can imagine. Diversity of local cultures, prospects, and opportunities in each market, make the ride even more exciting. However, there is a common thread in all of the countries that help us focus our efforts to attract and retain best talent and people that share our values and views.

Unemployment rates are at record lows in the capital city areas in the countries. Additionally, most of our markets have a High Fragile State index, indicating a significant brain drain. While these dynamics bring new challenges, they also underscore the region's commitment to personal growth and ambition. Speaking of trends in retention, good thing for us is that they are improving in IKEA SEE – fewer people are leaving our company. 

The driver we attribute to these positive trends is our holistic approach to retaining our talented people. IKEA has not only created good job opportunities but has also fostered a culture of learning and growth. We want our co-workers to feel that IKEA is a great place to work at, and this goes beyond our commitment to development in the workplace. 

Acknowledging the reality

The global crisis and inflation that hit our markets were so significant that they required some important adjustments, an adequate financial response. At IKEA SEE, besides Solidarity Fund for colleagues who needed it most, and special discounts for all our co-workers, we increased salaries in all our markets. Over the last two years, we have conducted four pay reviews and increased the salaries by 15% to 20% on average. 

“We want our co-workers to feel that IKEA is a great place to work at, and this goes beyond our commitment to development in the workplace."

Besides investing in our remuneration packages, supporting our employees' personal and professional growth and wellbeing has always been crucial to our aspirations to become the number one employer in retail. Thus, significant funds have been channeled towards our primary and secondary benefits, talent development and inclusion.  

Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do 

At IKEA, we’re a diverse group of people who share a common set of values. By living these values, we create a strong and unique culture that brings us all together. This is what we believe to be the strongest reason why people stay at IKEA. 

One thing that makes me genuinely happy to speak about is the equality agenda. We have been guided by a clear vision for 80 years - to create a better everyday life for many people, and for us, this goes beyond home furnishing solutions. 

At IKEA, everyone is welcome regardless of where they come from, what they believe in, what they look like, and who they like to snuggle up to in front of the TV. We believe everyone has the right to be treated fairly and be given equal opportunities, and we are striving to be vocal about it, both externally and internally. We stand for equal pay and gender balance – we now have 50% of leadership positions held by women. Equality is, of course, more than numbers. We encourage development in all areas and expertise, regardless of gender or any other aspect of one’s identity, and we work hard to remove any unconscious biases and support inclusion of sensitive groups in our teams. We support work and community integration of refugees through our program Skills for Employment, and in the next year, we will focus our efforts on inclusion of people with disabilities. 

One of the causes that make me most proud are our LGBT+ inclusion campaigns that draw so much attention. In IKEA SEE markets, this advocacy is considered very bold, even provocative, but for us, it felt good to do the right thing and show public support to our co-workers, customers and partners who are members of LGBT+ population.  

To be different is in our DNA

Striving to retain people is an everyday job, but the job we love! We have big aspirations and a motivated team to address them. We aim to be the number one employer in retail in all SEE markets, also positioning ourselves to be the market leader when it comes to remuneration. Becoming number one means constantly improving your ways, but we have it in our legacy, strategies, and attitude. We dare to be different and believe in a glorious future in front of us!