Safeguarding basic benefits such as medical insurance and pensions has created a better sense of security among Ikea’s workers in the pandemic.
This is according to Ulrika Biesèrt, global people and culture manager at Ingka Group, the company behind the furnishings retail giant.
In her speech at the Future Work Scenarios (FWS) summit delivered last week, Biesèrt revealed the pandemic had stress-tested the company’s culture.
“Looking back on our most recent year, I think it’s fair to say it was our most challenging, but a successful one,” Biesèrt told the summit.
“And I truly think we were able to achieve this type of performance because we ground our work in our vision and values, striving to take responsibility and take care of people.”
Biesèrt also pointed to the company’s commitment at the start of the pandemic to ensure income stability for co-workers and to safeguard basics such as medical insurance and pensions.
“All of this created room for business and people to adapt to the new situation and to create a better sense of safety among co-workers,” she added.
In the last year, the firm has invested in learning at home, where more than 75,000 employees participated in training, logging 2.2m hours of learning during 2020.
And it launched two large-scale global initiatives for workers that focused on long-term resilience, and included mindfulness, health and wellbeing training, as well as strengthening leadership.
