IKEA reviews

3.5

54% would recommend to a friend

(9,129 total reviews)
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Juvencio Maeztu

64% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

IKEA has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 9,129 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The IKEA employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Ventas al mayoreo y al menudeo industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

9K reviews
2.0
Aug 7, 2013

Ikea Sydney

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Most of the time easy going environment. An opportunity to travel and work in other IKEA stores around the world. Solid career opportunities provided that you are having your lunch with the right people in the coworker's cafeteria.

Cons

*Coworkers restaurant is full of unpurchased food from customer's restaurant. Some of it not fresh and there is a possibility of getting a food poisoning or a diarrhea so better look carefully. * The notion of a decentralized culture has a drawback in the form of panic and fear of someone capable being a part of the organizational workforce. The idea here is to hire only people without critical thinking who can be pushed around. So if you want to drastically improve your chances of being promoted or hired you have to appeal to the HR by showing poor reasoning skills, emotional insecurities, lack of confidence. * The subsequent issue is those individuals end up being in Team leader/ Managerial positions, which in turn reinforces new waves of hiring of alike candidates, as they are unable to coordinate capable individuals. * Another subsequent issue is it takes ages to get anything done, while I was there it was tempting to snitch to WorkCover (Australian OHS Authority) about the obvious safety problems and hazards. You have to threaten the relevant coworkers with legal responsibilities in order to get hazards removed/being dealt with. *I am not sure if that a common Swedish practice but announcing long in advance that you are going to do an audit at a given store is defecting the purpose of doing an audit. The employees are openly being trained for an audit by their managers: what to say, how to say and so on. Eventually the auditors are ecstatic to conclude their visit with a report where they state that the culture is alive in a given store. The hypocrisy is at very high levels.

1.0
Aug 7, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There's a 15% furniture discount for employees, and they offer health and retirement benefits. I can't think of anything else beyond that.

Cons

IKEA has notoriously terrible management, partially because they pay employees a very low starting wage, so the few people who stay around long enough to make it to managerial level are the ones who couldn't get a job anywhere else. Also, it's challenging for employees to take personal ownership of their workplace because all decisions are made high above in Sweden, so each individual's job is essentially to carry out those specifics, don't deviate from the masterplan, and don't work overtime for ever one minute without supervisor approval. They're so fascist, that clocking at 7:01am for a 7:00am shift start is considered late and goes on your 3-strikes record. Even if there were 10 people clocking in ahead of you. It's this kind of unyielding, inflexible mentality that makes great people with great ideas want to steer clear of working at IKEA. Keep in mind, you are simply a tool for keeping the store organized, not for helping customers or going out of your way to do the right thing.

1.0
Aug 5, 2013

No IKEA spirit

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are some good project opportunities which can help to build your resume.

Cons

60% management turnover every year and every year their is a new distribution center manager who doesn't have any experience working in Japan. Very untrusting environment and it is more about who you know than what you know.

Viewing 8947 - 8949 of 9,129 Reviews

Glassdoor has 18,643 IKEA reviews submitted anonymously by IKEA employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if IKEA is right for you.