Working for the best at IKEA

The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for everyone - the people who buy their affordable, functional home furnishing products as well as all the employees who make that happen. Not only are they making their vision a reality, but they are winning awards for doing it so well.  

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  Sweden's IKEA designs the White House's Oval Office as seen at Union Station in Washington, DC.

• For 19 years Fortune magazine has been ranking America’s 100 greatest places to work, an honor which measures a corporate culture of fairness, employee engagement and talent development within companies across the nation. Its unique method of comparison is based on credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie and includes an employee survey and in-depth questionnaire about their programs and company practices.

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  Ulf Kirchdorfer's book, "Swede Among the Rednecks" - available at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ztt7kbr" target="_blank">“Amazon”</a> or through Nordstjernan, 1.800.827.9333

• The 2016 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For was announced on March 3, listing IKEA U.S. among the top places to work. According to a press release out of the U.S. headquarters of the giant Sweden-based home furnishing company in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, IKEA U.S. President Lars Petersson thanked his entire American staff of 14,000 employees in its 41 stores for their contributions in making IKEA a great place to work. He said, "It’s gratifying that our unique culture and values, together with the investments that we’ve made in our co-workers, help to make working at IKEA a great experience for co-workers. And happy co-workers contribute to a good shopping experience for our customers."

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  Ikea, popular among Swedes, not only furnishing homes, but building entire neighborhoods as well. Now offering express delivery on a test basis.

• That unique culture played strong in IKEA’s win. The company, which came to the U.S. in 1985 and now banks $5 billion in U.S. sales (and $36 billion world wide), works hard to ensure that employees live the company’s Swedish values of humbleness, willpower, simplicity, togetherness and enthusiasm. All employees receive the "Little Ikea Dictionary" to remind them of these values. Praised for its egalitarian culture, IKEA provides full benefits to workers who put in 20 hours or more per week, implements a minimum wage structure based on the local living costs instead of the cost of labor and offers retirement bonuses. An emphasis on the Scandinavian ideals of the work-life balance, which discourages workaholics and encourages weeks of paid time off, is reflected in their rate of retention: The average tenure of an IKEA co-worker is 5 years, which is well above the industry and U.S. workforce average of 3.3 years.

• IKEA U.S. was also recently recognized as a great place to work on Fortune 20 Best Workplaces Retail list. Additionally, IKEA was third on the CareerBliss “Happiest Retailers to Work For” list and, as a company that incorporates sustainability into day-to-day business and supports initiatives that benefit the environment and children, IKEA was also recently recognized by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation with a perfect score on the 2016 Corporate Equality Index.