IKEA Report: Human Resource Management

This report discusses the current problems and HRM trends faced by IKEA, long-term workforce planning, ethical practices in recruitment and selection, and recommendations for resolving identified problems.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................4
1. What are the current problems and HRM trends that the organisation face and in which
manner this impact on them? .....................................................................................................4
2. In which manner might HRM team think about long-term workforce planning and also
what practices and theories will be considered?.........................................................................5
3. What considerations can the HRM team take to ensure about ethical practices that are used
in recruitment and selection process?.........................................................................................6
4. What recommendations can HRM take to resolve the problems for the identified problems.
Give three realistic and practical solutions which can be implemented.....................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is basically practice of hiring, recruiting, managing and
deploying an organisation's employees. HRM is management of employees with an emphasis on
those employees which are assets for the business. Human resource are important for the
company because they ensure about the business which get most out of its employees(Bal and
De Lange., 2015). In the present report, IKEA is taken into consideration. IKEA is a company
which is Swedish-origin Dutch organisation. It is headquartered in multinational conglomerate
which sells and design ready to made furniture, home accessories and kitchen appliances. The
present report will cover discussion about current HRM problems and trends that an organisation
face and also about the HRM team that think about long term work force planning. In addition to
this, the report will cover analysis about ethical practices which are used in recruitment and
selection process. Moreover, the report also consist of recommendations that HRM take to
resolve the problems.
MAIN BODY
1. What are the current problems and HRM trends that the organisation face and in which
manner this impact on them?
The main problems faced by IKEA organisation during their growth stage is related to
spreading awareness in new countries and being able to meet target demand which ensures that
company did not incur losses. It is also challenging for IKEA organisation to create new
customers and there are competitors who sell same product at lower price(Branicki and et.al.,
2019). It is also difficult for the company to get new employees who are willing to comply with
rules of company. It is also challenging for company to appoint new employees who can
understand the organisation into positive manner.
In terms of current HRM trends adopted by IKEA organisation are in terms of training
and development, selection and compensation. For giving training to their employees, they
discuss about development and outlines the career path as well. Web-based training activities
also conducted with respect to all aspects of IKEA operations. In terms of selection parameter,
the major emphasis is given on value-fit as their selection criteria.

With respect to compensation parameter, the organisation has developed global and
mandatory guidelines for benefits and compensation. For purpose of internal promotion, one
year development adventure programme has been developed which any employee can apply for
it in their initial phase of their career(Das and Kodwani., 2018). For exploring themselves they
can take part into this programme and visit two countries for six months. The organisation also
provides diversity into the workplace and around forty percent co-workers are women with great
mix of nationalities. IKEA organisation has retail and purchasing operations in different
countries which are led by country managers from different nationalities. In terms of grievance
procedure, IKEA used a survey which is named as VOICE for monitoring that in which manner
co-workers view different aspects of their employment.
Current trends and problems that an organisation face somewhere impact into positive
and negative parameters. These current trends which are adopted by IKEA organisation lead
towards positive development of employees and organisation as well. Through these trends
performance of employees get increased and potential level also increases into positive manner.
These trends also support employees in terms of viewing aspects of development from different
perspective. The problems faced by IKEA organisation has to work into positive manner and
needs to find out solution for it otherwise it is difficult for organisation to stand strongly into the
market. They are lacking in terms of digital technology for purpose of spreading awareness so
they have to adopt new measures in terms of working procedure. In this way, problems and
current trends impacted the IKEA organisation.
2. In which manner might HRM team think about long-term workforce planning and also what
practices and theories will be considered?
Workforce planning is that form of strategic HR which is a practice that enables HR
professionals to help the company in terms of achieving long-term goals. HRM team can keep
record of potential candidates on record, generate forecasts and also determine the cost impact as
well with support of workforce planning(Haak-Saheem and et.al., 2017). HRM team also
analyse, forecast and plan the workforce supply and demand into appropriate manner. The team
can also assess the gaps and determine talent management intervention with support of long-term
workforce planning.

With respect to IKEA organisation, they manages people on the basis of diverse
background and assign roles according to potential of employees working into different
department. Organisation employs proper human resource database which will help in terms of
taking proper decision with respect to workforce planning. The HRM team of IKEA organisation
also evaluate the system which are of value addition parameter and efficiency is measured
through traceability and consistent operation knowledge(Hasan and et.al., 2019). The HRM team
of IKEA organisation also identifies those employees who perform in a well mannered way due
to which it helps an organisation in terms of filling the gaps which is required for organisational
excellent performance. These employees act as strong parameter for the company in terms of
delivering objectives and targets within a set period of time. In this manner, IKEA organisation
HRM team plan for long-term workforce planning.
Contingent workforce management theory has been taken into consideration for this
purpose. This theory is basically based on management and hiring of non-permanent employees.
It includes gig workers, independent contractors etc. They basically engaged in statement of
work, agency contract labour. This basically gives flexibility to an organisation and it is perfectly
suited for self-contained projects, construction and movie industry. According to this theory,
employees are not provided with full-time benefits as compared to their permanent employees
because they are for the organisation as an outside parameter. With respect to IKEA
organisation, as they are engaged in manufacturing of ready made furniture so the workers hired
for this purpose are of temporary nature and also for shorter period of time. IKEA organisation
does not provide certain benefits which they provide for their permanent employees. For
example: parents leave, co-worker discount, IKEA meal deal and retirement fund as well.
3. What considerations can the HRM team take to ensure about ethical practices that are used in
recruitment and selection process?
HRM team has to ensure about trust, honesty, respect and responsibility factor so that
candidates respond into appropriate manner (Hee and Jing ., 2018). Wile conducting face to face
interview, HRM team has to ensure that they treat all candidates in equal manner. It is also
required that HRM team maintain confidentiality with respect to information of candidates and it
should not be revealed from any kind of source.

HRM team has to ensure that interview should be conducted into thorough manner so
that appropriate candidate should be selected for particular position. It is also important that
solicit that particular information which is necessary and it needs to be ensured by HRM team. It
is essential for HRM team to inform candidates into appropriate manner with respect to selection
decision (Meyer and Xin., 2018). With respect to selection criteria, it is important to consider
HRM team that to follow a proper structure so that selection of candidate can be done without
any biased nature. HRM team has to select a particular criteria for giving scores to their
candidates at the time of selection period. At the time of selection it is important to consider by
HRM team that never practice redirection which will make the selection unethical. These are the
considerations that a HRM team ensure about ethical practices used in recruitment and selection
process.
With respect to IKEA organisation, they conducted recruitment in three rounds. First
round is of assessment centre and second will be of interview with future manager and in the
third round a personal interview with a boss has been conducted. In the first round IKEA
organisation tries to assess the candidate that whether he or she is beneficial for organisation or
not from future perspective. In the second round, Manager will evaluate that whether the
candidate has full potential or not in terms of performing according to different criteria of
company. In the third round, boss will evaluate that whether the candidate has full confidence
level to face any kind of challenge in the realistic situation. The organisation follows a proper
system and treat each candidate equally at the time of interview and judge on all the parameters
which has been pre decided by an organisation. In this way, IKEA organisation has conducted
the recruitment and selection process.
4. What recommendations can HRM take to resolve the problems for the identified problems.
Give three realistic and practical solutions which can be implemented
The major problems which are faced by IKEA organisation is related to spreading
awareness in new countries and being able to meet target demand which ensures that company
did not incur losses(Mushkudiani and et.al., 2020). It is also challenging for IKEA organisation
to create new customers and there are competitors who sell same product at lower price. It is also
difficult for the company to get new employees who are willing to comply with rules of
company. For solving these problems HRM can take step towards upgrading their system.

HRM system can do deeper analysis and evaluate those parameters that in which criteria
they are lacking. HRM can also make changes in their policies, rules and regulations which made
the working of an organisation very rigid and comprehensive(Pham and et.al., 2019). HRM can
also take initiative towards making the system more technical and to the point as well. In this
way, human resource management can take initiative towards resolving the problems into
positive manner.
Realistic and practical solutions which can be implemented
Make their system more digitalised: IKEA organisation can use digital technology and
different kinds of apps in terms of spreading awareness in new countries(Scott., 2016). They can
take support of social media platforms which will cover every kind of age group for purpose of
spreading information related to awareness.
Introduce new ideas and concepts: IKEA organisation has to come up with new ideas
and unique features so that they can compete with their competitors into effective and stronger
manner. These new ideas and features will attract customers on a large scale and also retain for
longer period of time.
Advanced approach of recruitment and selection: IKEA organisation have to adopt
advance method of recruitment and selection. They can use digital technology and can take
support of different professional apps in terms of pooling out skilled candidates. Link din is the
best option for finding out best candidates for the organisation(Yu and et.al., 2020).Through
support of technology recruitment can be done on a faster pace manner and wide background of
candidates can be identified according to requirements of an organisation.
These are the practical solutions which can be implemented into positive manner at
organisational level.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that human resource management plays a very
important role at organisational level. It has been concluded that IKEA organisation has to face
certain challenges and current trends which will impact the organisation performance into
positive and negative manner as well.

It has been determined that HRM team has to work properly on workforce planning so
that they can analyse, plan and fill the gaps of talent management into appropriate manner. The
HRM team has to consider certain ethical practices which needs to be taken seriously at the time
of recruitment and selection process. It has also been concluded that HRM has to take certain
steps which will help in terms of resolving the problems faced by the organisation. There are
certain practical solutions that can be implemented into effective manner at organisational level.
So human resource management is the key parameter which will help in terms of resolving any
kind challenges faced by an organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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