In a First, Female Employees in IKEA India to Have Creches at the Workplace

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has grand plans for its women employees in India. The company plans to open 25 stores in India, and add roughly 7,500 female employees to its payroll by 2025. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, all these 25 stores will have creches to support their female employees in their mostly inflexible job hours.

Hindustan Times, quoted Anna-Carin Månsson, country HR manager, IKEA, as saying, "The idea is to hire 50% of women staffers, about 7,500, by 2025. Considering the social set-up here, it is necessary to open day-care centres for kids and babies in India. We will be doing this for the very first time, in any country, specifically in a bid to attract women talent."

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"Our top management team, which leads IKEA’s retail operations in India, has six women members, out of a 12-member team. It reflects the importance of women at Ikea in taking strategic decisions," she added.

The team is analysing HR practices of its local competitors before creating their own set of policies around women employees. While IKEA cannot introduce flexi-work hours in its system because of their store sale business model , it's still open to other changes in policies.

Månsson told HT, "In our India-based learning, we are working on policies related to women who come back from maternity leave and sabbaticals. Also, we are drafting policies on women safety. Here the requirements are different and we need policies to address those areas,” Månsson said.

IKEA has around 120 employees working in their Gurgaon office currently and has started hiring female employees for its Hyderabad and Mumbai stores, which will be followed with hiring in Bengaluru.

H/T: Hindustan Times

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