An Ikea store in Round Rock, Texas.
Photographer: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Ikea Lost $5,000 When Each Worker Quit. So It Began Paying More
After quitting spiked around the globe, the Swedish retailer turned to flexible schedules, more generous compensation and smoother orientation for new hires.
Ikea’s workers were quitting in droves in the US. In the UK and Ireland, half of all new hires were leaving before their first anniversary. Globally, each departure cost Ikea $5,000 or more to replace.
To stem the bleeding, the Swedish furniture behemoth needed to figure out what was making its store workers so unhappy — and fix it fast. By 2022, more than 62,000 employees were departing a year for various reasons, equating to about a third of its workforce, and the pandemic-era labor shortage made it difficult to replenish its ranks.