COMP NEWS – In recent years, Swedish furniture maker IKEA has faced a wave of employees resigning over discontent. To combat this, the company has begun hiking wages and offering additional benefits – which has increased their retention rate by nearly 25%.

IKEA is going to great lengths to keep its employees from quitting.

 

According to a Bloomberg report, the Swedish furniture maker recently experienced a rash of employee departures, with the company losing over 62,000 employees around the world in 2022, a time during which the company was flooded with news of disgruntled employees. Each time an employee left, it cost IKEA roughly $5,000 to replace them.

 

Since then, the company has made a number of adjustments, including hiking wages, improving parental leave benefits, and even leaning on AI to gauge whether employees will quit. And now, nearly two years later, more workers are sticking around. According to Ingka Group, IKEA’s largest franchisee, which operates hundreds of IKEA locations, the quit rate has declined from 22.4% in August of 2022, to just 17.5% in April of this year.

IKEA’s compensation strategy has varied by region. In the U.K. and Ireland, for example, the company is allowing its part-time workers to spend more time working remotely.

Bloomberg reports that IKEA has made it a point to adjust its approach by region. In the U.K. and Ireland, IKEA’s part-time workers, which make-up two-thirds of its labor force and generally answer calls from customers, can work more hours remotely. In India, parents are being given subsidized daycare, weeks of parental leave, and a five-day workweek. Before the changes, employees with children were quitting because of limited childcare related benefits.

To read more about IKEA boosting its employee pay and benefits, click here.

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