Ingka Group is attending the WEF Growth Summit taking place this week in Geneva, Switzerland against the backdrop of economic uncertainty as global transformations disrupt industries, labour markets and livelihoods. The summit brings together business, government, civil society, international organisations and academic leaders to tackle these challenges and develop future opportunities.
For nearly 80 years, the vision of IKEA has been to create a better everyday life for the many people, says Ulrika Biesèrt, Ingka Group People & Culture Manager, who will participate in the two-day event at WEF’s global headquarters. “This ambition goes beyond our business idea of producing and selling affordable and well-designed furniture and extends to everyone across our value chain,” she says. “We deeply care about driving positive change for people and planet.”
WEF estimates that global growth will slow in 2023, and that almost 1.1 billion jobs are likely to be disrupted in the next 10 years.
"The WEF Growth Summit is a great opportunity to listen, learn and discuss how to advance inclusive and sustainable economic growth, develop human capital by investing in education and job creation, and accelerate economic equity in these uncertain times"– Ulrika Biesèrt, People & Culture Manager at Ingka Group
Biesèrt will participate in the “Accelerating Refugee Employment” panel discussion about Ingka Group’s approach to supporting refugee integration. “Our approach includes supporting at least 2,500 refugees and asylum seekers by providing the job training and local language skills needed to apply for vacancies at IKEA or other companies,” she says.
Biesèrt will talk about how this programme has benefited the business, citing how refugees and asylum seekers help IKEA innovate and tend to have higher retention rates and a strong sense of belonging to the company. “We also now have a hiring displaced talent framework to make it easier for forcibly displaced people to find work at IKEA by proactively reaching out to these talents for our existing vacancies,” says Biesèrt.
Furthermore, Biesèrt will speak about Ingka Group’s approach to lifelong learning during the “Learning Relay: Education to Employment to Lifelong Learning” session. You can watch live here. “Whether it’s reskilling thousands of co-workers to be experts in remote selling, improving data literacy across the organization or delivering unconscious bias training, learning is the key to empowering co-workers to drive their own development and career journey while making our business more resilient, accessible, affordable and people and planet positive,” she says.
Read more about the WEF Growth Summit here.
About WEF:
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
About Ingka Group
With IKEA retail operations in 31 markets, Ingka Group is the largest IKEA retailer and represents about 90% of IKEA retail sales. It is a strategic partner to develop and innovate the IKEA business and help define common IKEA strategies. Ingka Group owns and operates IKEA sales channels under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. It has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Read more on ingka.com.
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