Inter IKEA Group has announced that it has been working with Workday for over five years to transform its employee experience with Workday HCM, keeping customers and employees central in the organization’s strategy to improve business agility.
As the franchiser of 460 IKEA stores in 62 global markets, Inter IKEA Group had set a goal to become an even more affordable and sustainable home furnishing retailer, with a focus on accessibility through an omnichannel experience.
Acting on these goals, Inter IKEA has developed and tested new product designs, new store formats and more flexible distribution methods using digital technology.
Placing customer experience at the heart of the company, Inter IKEA relies on hiring and retaining the right talent with the necessary skills, which could be a challenging task in the current economic climate.
“Employee experience is key to our success. Many employees want meaningful work that supports their overall wellbeing. By bringing together effective HR approaches and technology, we are able to move flexibly, respond quickly to employees’ needs and aspirations and prepare for the future,” said Amela Delic, digital transformation manager at Inter IKEA.
“The real-time insights that Workday HCM provides us will enable us to optimize our employee experience and continue to build a future-proof company.”
Focused on offering clear career paths and personal growth opportunities to provide employee learning experiences for in-demand skills and foster a lifelong learning mindset, Inter IKEA trains employees to have the capacities and competences that will be desired in the future.
Richard Doherty, senior director of product marketing EMEA at Workday, said: “According to Gallup research into workplace engagement, just 23 percent of employees worldwide are engaged at work – with this falling to only 10 percent within the UK.
“This underscores the critical need for businesses to invest in improving employee experiences and it’s fantastic to see Inter IKEA and Workday partnering to achieve this. Implementing Workday’s HCM technology will empower Inter IKEA to bolster its employee engagement, nurture a culture of learning and better prepare its business – and its people – for the future.”
Using machine learning as part of its HCM journey, the organization’s talent can be automatically aligned with opportunities, allowing Inter IKEA to develop and embrace a smarter, competency-based workforce strategy while understanding people and its talent gaps.
The tools are also accessible via smartphones and tablets so workers can have real-time insights to help them improve the organization. In this way, Inter IKEA is taking advantage of the flexible tools to manage, empower and fully use its workforce’s potential in the future.
Delic has previously talked about the experience of the transformation team and the importance of employing robust change management as “the most challenging part isn’t the implementation of the technology – it’s the stakeholder management,” she said. “If we don’t have the change management in place, it doesn’t matter how good the technology is.”
Workday also recently announced an expansion of its collaboration with digital technology company, Kainos, to empower businesses to go live with Workday technology in less than four weeks.
In December, the duo launched the joint offering “Spark&Grow”, designed to help emerging and medium-sized enterprises deploy Workday, offering guidance and support from experts throughout the deployment journey.
