PROJECT: Välkommen
ROLE: Research, Visuals, Design
Duration: Jan - Dec 2017
Vision
Välkommen is a learning programme and material, designed to support new co-worker’s journey with IKEA in their first 12 months with the business.
This was created as part of a 12 month project in the UK and Ireland due to higher year on year percentages of co-workers leaving within their first 12 months.
Challenges
Increase retention of new co-workers.
Improve customer experience through knowledgeable and engaged co-workers.
Create warm, welcoming environment for new co-workers
Kick Off
As a team we conducted co-worker surveys and exit interview analysis to gather the common reasons for leaving. We also took part in the current on-boarding process to help us empathises with the new co-workers experience and situation.
We found:
On-boarding was inconsistent across the organisation, with different stores giving different experiences.
Co-worker’s were overwhelmed by the amount of information given to them on their Welcome sessions.
Co-worker’s felt they were left to sink or swim for their first day on the shopfloor with little to no guidance from peers or off-the-shopfloor learning.
Gaining Insights
As a starting point, we conducted research into on-boarding programmes across various industries, as well as our competitors and other IKEA markets, to take inspiration from elements that would help us meet our vision and solve our problems.
As a team, we conducted brainstorming sessions, surveys, and interviews with key stakeholders, new and old co-workers, and leaders throughout the business to gain insights into key links between business needs and creating a better co-worker experience.
Based on these insights, there were four key areas of importance. We identified the following user stories:
-
My Learning Path
Co-workers and managers want to see on-going progress throughout their learning path.
-
Learn from People
Co-workers want to learn from peers and leaders throughout the store, on and off the shop floor.
-
Digital Solutions
Co-workers and managers want easy to use, digital solutions throughout the on-boarding process.
-
Regular Follow Up
Co-workers want to have regular follow ups about their progress and how they are feeling.
Meet the Users
Primary
Name: Carla Hartley
Age: 32
Occupation: Co-worker
Carla is a mother of two renting a house in a nearby town. This is their first job after being a stay-at-home mum for the past few years, so is feeling anxiety about starting a new job but is eager to learn. They are looking to work evenings and weekends when their partner is home from work to look after their young children, so they need some flexibility.
Secondary
Name: Stephan Hudson
Age: 24
Occupation: Team Leader
Stephen is a Team leader in the fast paced Logistics team. This means their work schedule can bring them to work in the early morning, late evening or even through the night. Stephen understands the importance of learning for their team members but they don’t often work during times that the HR team run them. They also understands the importance of relationship between team members, and that it helps keep morale high during unusual work hours.
Supplementary
Name: Ailish Mejia
Age: 27
Occupation: HR Admin
Ailish is an aspiring HR professional in the first steps of their career. They spend their day supporting the HR team with data entry and filing needs. Ailish has frustrations about the amount of paper they file in a week and wishes there was a digital alternative. They love introducing new co-workers to IKEA but finds it hard to engage them in long presentation-based learning workshops.
Challenge 1
Creating a connection.
We introduced a review process based around the Fika tradition. This was because it created an environment where co-workers, and their managers, could have regular relaxed chats about how they are feeling at work. Not just to eat cake, I promise. 🍰
The ‘Conversation Starters’ tool for leaders aimed to focused the reviews on having a real conversation and listening instead of taking pages of notes.
Challenge 2
Fountain of knowledge.
Based on feedback from co-workers, we created a learning program of seven 4-hour workshops spanning 9 months. Made up of interactive activities, videos and exploration (rather that 60-page sleep-inducing presentations) that covered what was important to the co-worker and customers on the shopfloor.
We also developed a digital portal so co-workers, leaders and HR could easily track progress. It was a newbies one-stop-shop for knowledge.
Challenge 3
Make them feel at home.
From the day they step into the store we wanted the new recruits to feel at home and one of the family. So we built in a ‘Buddy’ system to show them the ropes, a Care Package for their first day jitters, and a virtual introduction to their team with tour of what to expect on their first day.
Keeping it alive
We knew from our research that it would be important to reflect on our work after launch. So we ran bi-monthly feedback sessions to gain insights to how the new process and tools were working in IKEA units. This allowed us evaluate how we could make them work better for those using them, but it also allowed us to find areas that we missed during development. This lead us to find area to streamline the management of new co-worker details in the digital iWelcome tool and also how we supported using the tools on a day-to-day basis.