IKEA Australia Case Study – Now this is how you recruit!
Welcome to 2012 readers! It’s going to be a big one. You might have heard (read here) that I’m no longer fully working in the HR space anymore… It’s ok though, because I’m still going to be writing cutting edge HR & Recruitment articles & I’m still consulting & speaking in the HR Space!
Now you may laugh at this cartoon, I know I did, but when you’re looking to hire employees that live & breathe your brand then it’s essential to ensure that your recruitment process identifies who will be a brand advocate & great hire. Now I’m not saying that every single person in the world has to find a job that aligns with their values & beliefs. Sometimes you need a job that pays the bills or is a stepping stone (I’ve had both).
But I’m here to showcase the worlds leading organisations & forward thinking HR & Recruitment practices so that everyone who reads this blog will feel inspired & motivated to go find jobs & projects that they truly care about. That’s why I’m showcasing the latest effort from IKEA Australia.
IKEA, you either love or hate the place. Those of us who love it (like I do) will order the catalogues in advance, highlight the living daylight out of the catalogue & then go around in circles for a day trying to find everything to brighten up your flat, apartment or McMansion.
So if I was the head of HR at IKEA & had been tasked with finding a couple of hundred new staff then I’d be wanting to talk to & interview as many of those brand advocates & fans as I could. So how could they have done this?
Ask if they’re looking for a job at the registers?
Pro: After realising how much they’ve spent they might consider taking on a second job.
Con: Slows down the transaction.
Or they could have done this. Which in my opinion is ingenious.
Pretty neat huh? Let me know of an organisation you know who looks to hire their biggest fans.
Damon Klotz 
10 Responses to “IKEA Australia Case Study – Now this is how you recruit!”
This is much the same approach as I took although I was on the other end of the recruitment drive, I asked for a position and although they didn’t have one at the time they got back to me a couple of weeks later and there I was for three years. Another way to approach this would be getting staff to talk to customers as they made they way through the store and at least this way the queues wouldn’t get held up, because we all know how long IKEA queues can get!
Thanks for the comment Clem.
Love your out of the box thinking around recruitment. Keep the ideas coming!
[…] especially as I don’t often share video! There’s plenty of analysis to be found (here would be a good place to start), but to be honest, I think it speaks for itself. Share […]
Recruiting from your customer base isn’t anything new. I’ve been doing it for years at several different companies. It’s also a great way to find great seasonal hires who are looking for additional income for the holidays. In most cases, it’s as simple as stuffing a flyer into their shopping bag at checkout. Other effective methods include frequent PA announcements and posting a Help Wanted flyer in the rest rooms.
Thanks for the comment Larry. Definitely agree that it’s a great way to hire especially for seasonal hires.
That’s why I featured this campaign as they have taken the concept of hiring your greatest fans and executed it with minimal $$$ spend with the added bonus of it becoming a marketing tool for them as well.
Great post Damon. I did laugh at the cartoon-how perfect is that? Apple Retail does hire from their fan base by the way-an enthusiasm for the products is a pre-requisite for hiring in the stores.
Thanks for the comment. I’ve read before that IKEA Executives arrive on their first day to find an empty office and they have to go pick their own furniture and assemble themselves. No better way to live the brand then making them get in there with an allen key.
One of the biggest advantages of getting fans (and users) to be employees or ambassadors is that they would go that extra bit to show potential buyers the advantages of their products, since they had been convinced by the features in the first place. Training and in-house brand selling becomes so much easier, and fruitful.
[…] A brilliant (and inexpensive!) recruiting campaign by IKEA (Australia) highlights the need to think outside the box…or in this case inside the box! It just goes to show that sometimes your best customers might be your best employees! [via damonklotz.com] […]
Ola! Damonklotz,
On a similar note,, Your happy potential customers are worthwhile in a number of options. They can also be your most highly effective internet marketing asset. Why not leverage their experiences to your benefit? Scenario experiments efficiently communicate the value you deliver to prospective buyers with “realistic-everyday living” tales.
Thanks