Ingka Group thanks co-workers for efforts during pandemic with €110 million gift

“Since the early stage of the pandemic, we have strived to support our co-workers in a professional and caring manner, in line with our values and humanistic approach, and this is another step in that direction,” says Ulrika Biesèrt, People & Culture manager at IKEA Retail (Ingka Group).   

Biesèrt says Ingka Group has overcome incredible challenges, shown how adaptable it could be, and how performance driven it is.   

Ingka Group operates IKEA stores and meeting places in 32 markets, with 170,000+ co-workers. The award will be divided among these countries and apply to all Ingka Group co-workers (IKEA Retail, Ingka Centers, and Ingka Investments) employed on August 31, 2021 who are still employed at the pay-out date in January of 2022.  The amount gifted per co-worker in each country is based on the country’s proportion of total salaries and wages.  

Tolga Öncü, Retail Operations Manager at IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), says its co-workers have accelerated online sales and radically adapted stores to operate safely and meet demand. “We could not have done this without the courage, dedication, and entrepreneurship of our co-workers – including those in the physical stores who helped deliver to our ambition to make life at home better for millions of people, when they needed it most.”  

“The past 18 months has been such a challenging period. We have seen such agility from our co-workers to adapt to the ever-changing conditions of the pandemic, and such resilience in the face of very difficult circumstances. We have really come together to meet the needs of our customers across Australia like never before. For this, we want to express a genuine, deep and heartfelt thank you. We cannot emphasise enough just how proud we are of our 4000 co-workers in Australia and we look forward to the future working together to create a better life at home for the many Australians.” Elin Aahlund, People & Culture Manager, IKEA Australia

The gift is a one-time show of appreciation, in addition to the existing rewards packages Ingka Group offers. These include an annual ‘One IKEA’ bonus based on company and unit performance, as well as a one-time pension contribution through the company’s “Tack” loyalty program for co-workers employed for a minimum of five years.  

Ingka Group recently announced strong IKEA retail sales of EUR 37.4 billion for the financial year 2021, an increase of 6.3% compared to last year (EUR 35.2 billion in FY20). The total share of online sales increased from 18% to 30%, and despite the challenges of the pandemic, the company opened an additional 26 new locations.