Jeff Bakes of Ikea on engaging employees with a culture that focuses on DEI
“One of the challenges that we have in addressing this topic is around our heritage and our Scandinavian roots in terms of equality and social fairness, and therefore the critical thing is to ‘prove it’,” says Bakes.
To tackle this, Bakes explains how Ikea is using an analytical initiative to drill down into the data to find out whether they are diverse and socially responsible, and if they really are a fair and equal employer.
Bakes also outlines how it is changing its benefits offering to support the shift in culture to really focus on DEI.
“For us it’s about taking down those artificial barriers which appear in benefit programmes, and try to de-hierarchise the organisation to a more holistic approach,” says Bakes.
Bakes attended REBA’s exclusive Transforming engagement: aligning corporate culture with human values breakfast in association with Mercer Marsh Benefits. It brought together senior reward professionals from an array of sectors to discuss rising values – such as having a purpose, being sustainable, aiming for environmental targets, and promoting DEI and wellbeing – and examine whether these link into organisational culture and responsible reward and benefits in today’s corporations.
Read a full round-up from the breakfast event on Employers are moving to align corporate culture and human values.
Accompanying the Transforming Engagement Series are three reports that will provide the context and practical steps needed to meet the challenge of transforming organisational culture into one that engages employees and reduces people risks. Report three will be available in the autumn.
Download report one People risk: why the need for change is urgent.
Download report two Aligning corporate culture and human values.
