Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Contents
Introduction (Assignment 1) ...................................................................................................... 2
Reflections .............................................................................................................................. 3
Theories .................................................................................................................................. 4
Academic texts ....................................................................................................................... 4
Method (Assignment 2) ............................................................................................................. 5
Choice of research design ....................................................................................................... 5
Data sources ............................................................................................................................ 6
Methods of analysis ................................................................................................................ 7
Reflections and limitations ..................................................................................................... 8
Analysis (Assignment 3) ............................................................................................................ 8
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 8
Data - VOICE ......................................................................................................................... 9
Theories ................................................................................................................................ 10
Employer branding theory ................................................................................................. 10
Employee engagement ...................................................................................................... 11
Psychological contract....................................................................................................... 12
Correlation between theories ............................................................................................. 12
Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 13
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 16
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 17
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Introduction (Assignment 1)
Employer branding is rapidly becoming one of the major buzzwords within the corporate
world but what is it exactly?
The definition of employer branding reads as follows
“A targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees,
potential employees and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm” (Backhaus &
Tikoo, 2004)
Usually branding was reserved to products and services within a company but in the ever
increasing competitive job market, the wish to build a strong employer brand and thereby
become the employer of choice for any future employees is becoming more and more
necessary whether you are a big or small company.
This portfolio will deal with the strategic approaches that a company must take in order to
create a strong employer brand and in particular how IKEA UK&IE attempts to handle the
task of positioning themselves as not only a great place to work but also as the employer of
choice within the retail business. As IKEA is one of the largest companies in the world one
might presume that the brand in itself ought to be strong enough to meet the criteria of future
employees but nevertheless there is a difference between the strength of the product brand
and the employer brand and furthermore it is of great importance that the employer branding
strategy is created in relation to the local markets. And this is where the problem field starts
for IKEA UK&IE meaning that the existing strategy has not been developed to match the
British labour market but moreover it mainly follows the directives set out from IKEA
Global. The initiatives are in itself quite interesting and could with some differences help to
improve the visibility and strength of IKEA as an employer and not only and home furnishing
retailer but since it has become clear that employer branding has not been prioritised within
the UK&IE branch of the company, IKEA now faces rather big challenges within the field of
the employer branding. According to Universum’s annual student survey IKEA is only seen
as number 48 out of the 100 most attractive employers in the UK and far behind the closest
competitors. (Universum, 2013) This is only one of the national rankings where IKEA
UK&IE falls behind but also in the critically acclaimed “Great Place” to Work and the
internal survey “VOICE” does IKEA UK&IE not score particularly high in neither the
external scores nor the internal questions of whether employees would recommend the
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
company to friends and family. All of these different surveys and rankings prove that the
company are facing difficulties and thus it is having a strong need to develop a better strategy
and create a stronger employer brand. The current situation indicates that something must be
done however employer brand is not only about improving the external brand but also the
internal circumstances should be up to par and the process can according to Sullivan be
divided into different steps. The first being developing the value proposition i.e. what do we
want to stand for, the second being marketing the proposition to the preferred audiences,
these will be both internal and external. (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004, p. 502) One of the key
differences between employer brand and the product brand is that it is specifically designed
to focus on employment and focuses both internally and externally. Both of these steps have
not been prioritised in previous years and the underlying factors of both recruitment, retaining
employees while focusing on succession are currently also a work in progress. Hence, the
problem field and the challenges this brings, are major and a wide variety of approaches to
diminishing these can be used. However, the suggested problem formulation for this portfolio
will be as follows:
How is it possible to strengthen IKEA UK&IE’s employer brand?
Reflections
As this internship is based at the IKEA UK&IE Service Office in London then it is obvious
that the problem field and the problem at hand are in connection to the work. The task for the
six months duration is exclusively to look further into how we can optimise, define and create
a strategy for the company to proceed with after the internship is finished. The project is quite
vast and although there will be an academic research to back the problem then because it is a
case and a project that will be implemented and affecting not only the many current
employees but also the future ones. The sheer size of the project and the problem can prove to
be a challenge since there is the pressure of time and not much previous work that has been
and can be used. Theoretically it will be of great help to look into other case studies to search
for inspiration and because the term employer branding is not yet researched in depth it can
be necessary to look at other companies for examples. For the organisation IKEA UK&IE the
work that is being conducted through this internship is highly important and one of their main
foci from a people perspective. The organisation and in particular the HR department is very
aware that this is an area where it is necessary to put emphasis in order to be competitive but
and in that respect attract the most qualified people.
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Theories
One of the biggest hurdles when it comes to employer branding strategy theories is that it is a
very limited academic field and even though the term is widely used it has not yet been
thoroughly explored from an academic point of view. (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004) Therefore it
is necessary to search a bit broader because the processes that occur when making and
implementing a new strategy in a company and especially a company the size of IKEA
UK&IE will touch upon areas not only within branding but also the more behavioural and
emotional sides of making a change in the business. The reason why it is prudent to not only
focus on the strategy in itself when talking about a company the size of IKEA UK&IE is that
with 7500 employees (as of Oct. 7 2013) then it can be quite a task to make changes and get
everybody onboard and as mentioned earlier then employer branding is not only about
looking externally, it is also about the internal challenges and therefore it is important to use
the right tools and approaches internally to make the brand stronger. In the following I will
list the different areas that should be explored and what they can bring to the overall
conclusion to the problem formulation mentioned above.
Firstly the portfolio will look into the different, however limited, theories that are connected
to employer branding and the different approaches that you can take to create a strategy that
improve you positioning on the labour market. Secondly when we are talking about branding
it will be a given to look into brand management to not only draw inspiration but also to learn
from the tools. The objective is to brand IKEA as an employer and therefore it important to
get a greater understanding of the term branding and not only employer branding. Thirdly
when creating a strategy and implementing it in the business a change process will begin and
it is therefore important to look into the different aspects of change management and the
various underlying factors such as social identity and the psychological contract between
employers and employees.
Academic texts
Employer branding is a hot topic and the term is widely used but in order to get the best basis
for this research is to use the theories and books of Simon Barrow and Richard Mosley. The
two can be named as some of the creators of the way we think about employer branding and
the effect a good employer brand can have on a company. (Barrow & Mosley, 2005)
However, due to the limitations in the academic research it can be quite difficult to find
scholars that have looked into the subject and as mentioned earlier then it is crucial to look at
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
other aspects to ensure a proper understanding of how employer branding works in practice
but also how the theoretical framework can be applied and as stated that the employer brand
is “the package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by employment,
and identified with the employing company”. (Aggerholm, Andersen, & Thomsen, 2011, p.
108). Some of the texts chosen provide insight to the theories mentioned above and can help
the research in this portfolio be clearer of the processes that are connected to an employer
branding strategy. They can be seen to cover all aspects of the theoretical field that employer
branding spans over. It might seem a bit diffuse because you have the harder aspects of
branding where you the theoretical research is within marketing and then you move over to
the aspects of psychology where it is the emotional impact that is in focus as expressed in
“Trust and Breach of the Psychological Contract”(Robinson, 1996) and by John Fischer in
“A Time for Change” (Fisher, 2005) However to grasp the term employer branding and the
implications that it can have then it is necessary to use all aspects.
Method (Assignment 2)
Choice of research design
In a situation such as this where the portfolio is the product of an internship and the problem
formulation for this portfolio reads as follows: How is it possible to strengthen IKEA
UK&IE’s employer brand through employee engagement? I will not use to much space in
explaining the research design due to the nature and the frames for the portfolio. It is clearly a
case study design that will work as the research design and the reasoning for this is that any
research will be specifically for IKEA UK&IE and is therefore not applicable in any
generalisations but for the company in question. This is of course not the only reasons why
this is a case study but as the definition states “A case study is defined by being concerned
with the complexity and particular nature of the case in question” (Bryman, 2012, p. 66)
Hence the actual nature of a case study is to narrow the study to one particular case at a time
and thereby draw a conclusion. Hence the actual nature of a case study is to narrow the study
to one particular case at a time and thereby draw a conclusion. Case studies have often been
criticised for not being able to produce a general conclusion that can be used to draw
conclusions in similar settings but instead can only be used as a basis for further investigation
and research that will then determine the generalisability of the conclusion made in the initial
case study. However, as opponents of these arguments would claim then the social science is
a soft science compared to e.g. natural science where things can be measured and put into
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
categories with a very small margin of tolerance. Austrian philosopher and linguist Ludwig
Wittgenstein argues that you cannot generalise all concepts, the meaning is determined
through the reality in which the concepts exist. (Pedersen & Olsen, 2006, p. 159) This to
some extent sums up what it is all about since reality is determined by the actors and the
context in which the actors are and thereby a case can be as good a study because it shows
how the reality is for the actors involved at a given time and place where the study is
conducted. From a constructivist point of view this means that the context i.e. the time and
the place plays a part in the outcome of the case study. Depending on how you believe the
world is constructed then a case study is useful in shedding light on a situation in a certain
point in time. The particular case can make precedent for case studies afterwards but these
will be influences by the context in which they are taking place. This also goes to show that
the specific problem formulation is necessary since it can help define in which setting and
reality the research is to take place. Ontologically speaking this means that the research
conducted is from the constructionist stance since the actors construct the reality in which this
usually qualitative study is taking place and the epistemological stance can be seen as
interpretivist. However, due to the nature of my data I will take a more quantitative approach
to the study. This will be elaborated below.
Data sources
The primary source of data will be the internal survey “VOICE” that is carried out once a
year and used for the purpose of measuring the overall attitudes within the company. It can be
seen as a platform where employees can have a possibility to anonymously tell how they feel
about different aspects of how business is being conducted, how the work environment is and
any other perceptions they have of working in IKEA UK&IE. The questions are primarily
ratings where they answer on a scale. All employees are asked to complete the survey and in
the newest report for 2013 the participation was a staggering 96 %. As a researcher the
participation makes it easier to draw conclusions from the data and the employees range from
management, middle-management and non-management which again contributes to giving a
whole picture of the culture and environment in IKEA UK&IE. However, with a data source
like the internal “VOICE” survey it is important to remember that I am using internal
quantitative statistics to answer the problem formulation in this case which are necessary to
use in order to reach a valid conclusion. It can be argued that when looking at a case study
such as this it would be better to use a more qualitative approach to collecting the data for
example through semi-structured interviews or focus groups. When collecting the primary
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
data myself it will give me a better control over who, where, when and what data I need to
conduct my research and which questions I would like to have the participants answer.
Although the internal statistics provide a basis for my research it is crucial to keep in mind
that the survey is not made for the purpose of my research and therefore the question are not
targeted my problem field. This however, does not imply that the internal survey cannot be
used for my research but when concluding it is important to keep that in mind. The survey is
sent out to all employees both management and non-management and they are given time to
answer the question in their workday meaning that the high participation rate is more due to
time being given than an actual want to participate. This is another factor to keep in mind
since that can mean that some have answered only because they have to making the answers
not as sincere if they had expressed a wish to participate.
Secondary data can also be useful in a qualitative research; however it can never replace the
primary data, that the researcher collects himself. Secondary data can be through research
done prior to this one, through specific trade journals and lastly through the media. This form
of secondary data will be scrutinised and when using secondary data, the possibility that it
does not coincide with the specific topic that I wish to research and therefore it is key to be
critical when I, as a researcher, have not been part of the data collection process. In
conclusion to my choice of sources the most important is the interviews that will provide data
that can be used directly in the analysis process where the secondary data will be used as a
supplement to the primary data.
Methods of analysis
There are different approaches to use when analysing. One could be a discourse analysis
where emphasis is on the words the interviewees use to answer the question. Here it is crucial
to differ from critical discourse analysis where emphasis is more on the power relations of the
different discourses than on the way in which the different discourses are used to express the
different views on reality. (Bryman, 2012, p. 177) However, there a discourse analysis will
not be applicable since I am working with internal statistics combined with articles and
previous research the methods instead be drawing conclusions from my primary data source
which is quantitative research. As argued above both the methodological stances and the
choice of data sources have been chosen from notion of reality being different depending on
who experiences and reality being constructed by the social actors but nevertheless a critical
discourse will not be a useful addition to this research since the focal points of the type of
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
discourse analysis is subsequently different from what this research aims to discover through
the survey and both the primary and secondary data. Critical discourse analysis is in ways a
very interesting angle to view the problem field however since I have chosen to only use the
data provided from the survey and not additional qualitative data through the before
mentioned interviews or focus groups then the method have to remain within the
methodological scope in order to maintain a clear path throughout the research, from problem
formulation over research, analysis and finally the conclusion.
Reflections and limitations
There are certain aspects and limitations that I have to keep in mind when conducting this
research. As I am using an internal survey it is quite important that I have the consent to use it
onto further study and the same goes for my secondary data sources. It is crucial that not only
I but also the researchers from my secondary data sources have been given the consent to
give their data to others (Bryman, 2012, p. 587). Other limitations that can prove challenging
for this research is the lack of academic research of employer branding and the importance of
employee engagement so the basis of a possible comparison to other findings is somewhat
limited and the same is the nature of the theoretical findings. Therefore it is close to
impossible to draw any conclusions that can be generalising for employee engagement but
nonetheless it is possible to draw a conclusion for this case in particular.
Analysis (Assignment 3)
Introduction
In the process of this portfolio the problem field has been narrowed down to the employer
branding and employee engagement and the influence the two concepts have on each other.
The hypothesis I wish to argue is that they are related and in that respect it is most likely that
they have an impact on the one or another if an effort is made in order to improve either the
employer brand or the employee engagement. As this internship takes place in IKEA UK&IE
I will only focus on this case and the final problem formulation is as follows:
How is it possible to strengthen IKEA UK&IE’s employer brand through employee
engagement?
The current situation in IKEA UK&IE regarding employer branding and employee
engagement is lacking. (IKEA, 2013) (Universum, 2013) As mentioned in the introduction
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
there is not a developed a strategy for the UK market but instead the company follows the
global employer branding directives that are also moving in a grey area at the moment. These
factors mean that it is difficult for the UK branch to move in their desired direction of being a
great place to work.
The following analysis will be divided into different section where I will begin with
introducing the internal employee survey VOICE that will be the basis of my research
followed by my chosen theories, the analysis and the overall conclusion to my problem
formulation stated above.
Data - VOICE
The use of an employee voice is not a new concept but have been around for several years
where there has been an increase in the recognition of giving employee a say in the business
and a platform where they can express their opinions how they experience the value of their
work to the company. However, it is also a broad term where most definitions refer to it as
“the opportunity to have a say” (Wilkinson & Fay, 2011) but is also important to keep in
mind that it is not just about providing an opportunity to have a say but to encourage
participation, follow up and creating transparency which leads to the following definition:
Employees’ views are sought out; they are listened to and see that their opinions count and
make a difference. They speak out and challenge when appropriate. A strong sense of
listening and of responsiveness permeates the organisation. (MacLeod & Clarke, 2009)
The above definition helps determine that an employee survey is about enabling
conversations that in the end can contribute positively to an organisation whether it be on the
lowest or highest strategic level. (CIPD, 2013)
The annual employee survey in the IKEA organisation everywhere in the world is called
VOICE and works as a business tool to support IKEA in executing its current strategy,
Growing IKEA Together 2020. The VOICE model and its content measures a number of
areas which are critical for IKEA to be able to deliver value to customers, growth and
profitability as well as supporting IKEA’s desire to be a great place to work – for all IKEA
co-workers.
The VOICE concept is based on three key components – leadership, individual capabilities
and organisational capabilities. Leadership is the driving force in the VOICE concept,
creating conditions for individuals in the organisation to excel and work at their full potential,
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
and shaping an organisation that supports individuals in carrying out their daily work. Strong
leadership results in strong individuals and a supportive organisation; weak leadership, on the
other hand, will hold back the capacity of individuals and does not create a supportive
organisation. (IKEA, 2013). The survey results can be classified as statistical quantitative
data that can give us an indication of how the overall feeling in the company is. The questions
already have predefined answers (Likert scale) but there is room to express additional
concerns at the end of the survey.All of the answers and statistics is then processed to an
overall country report plus a report for each IKEA unit; the units consists of all 19 stores, the
Contactcentre, Distribution Centre and Service Office, in order for them to see their increase
or decrease in the numbers. IKEA UK&IE has one overall responsible who works intensively
with the outcome and is in charge of giving the different units the tools they need in order to
improve their numbers. IKEA UK&IE is not influenced very strongly by the unions but
instead have co-worker committees where the results and concerns are adressed and brought
to management level, in each unit co-workers are chosen to be representatives and to work
with the VOICE results in order to get the maximum dividend from the survey.
This portfolio will only focus on the section regarding employee engagement since that is the
main scope of this research and it will be not only impossible but also irrelevant for the end
result of the analysis and overall conclusion to the research.
Theories
Employer branding theory
The underlying theoretical foundation has not yet been fully established bit nevertheless one
would work from the assumption that human capital can bring value to a company and
heighten the way in which a company stands out and how it can benchmark itself against the
competitors in the market. The definition of employer branding according to Sullivan, 2004 is
“a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees,
potential employees, and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm.” (Sullivan
in Backhaus & Tikkoo, 2004 p. 501) This definition is very open and further fuels the notion
of employer branding being an umbrella term where it is left to the individual company to
customise a strategy that fits best with the situation in which they are. Employer branding has
be developed more on the practitioner level than the academic level which means that there
are no right or wrong answers but more guidelines as to what a usually successful employer
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
brand might entail. (Backhaus & Tikkoo, 2004 p. 507) However, as there are a limited
number of academic researches the theory lies within the scope of commercial branding from
an employment perspective where the brand is the “term or sign” that defines a company as
an employer and differentiates the company from their competitors. It is crucial to keep in
mind that the employer brand should be aligned with all other branding efforts thus making it
a cross-functional unified discipline to strengthen the employer brand both internally and
externally.
Branding is of course one of the heavy weight marketing disciplines but I will attempt to do a
short description of external and internal marketing. As my problem formulation is focused
on the internal topic of employee engagement emphasis will be on the internal point of view.
External marketing of employer branding set the company up as an “employer of choice”
which thereby makes it possible to attract the best and most qualified applicants. The
presumption is that the characteristic nature of the brand helps the company to gain the best
possible human capital. Thus facilitating a smooth process for the recruits from being
attracted to the brand by the brand to developing a connection and assumptions about the
company they can use in support for the company and strengthen their commitment to the
company.
The internal marketing focuses more on the creation of a workforce and work environment
that competing companies will not be able to copy. If a workforce is consistently exposed to
the values and the employee value propositions then the culture in the company is being
moulded around the goals of the company and will eventually result in the culture being
dissimilar from other employers and thereby be more attractive for the employees. (Backhaus
& Tikkoo, 2004 p. 508)
Employee engagement
As lacking as employer branding is when it come to theoretical foundation then employee
engagement is not much better. However, the core idea of engaged behaviour is “to be
mentally, emotionally and physically interested in one’s work” (MacCormick, et al.,
2012)Having an engaged workforce can result in employee working longer hours, work more
intense and have a better sense of direction in work being done meaning that engagement
generates something good for both employers and employees. But where you have the
concept of engaged employees, you will also have to take into account the opposite i.e.
disengaged employees.
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Disengaged employees can be divided into three different states; controlled motivation,
amotivation and reactive autonomy. Controlled motivation is when an employee makes a
conscious choice not to engage in specific tasks, meetings etc. at certain places, times or
ways. Amotivated behaviour can be seen as mental inavailability for example employees
sitting in a meeting but focusing on something else than what was intended such as phones,
computer etc. The third and final behaviour of reactive autonomy may stem from a reaction
against control i.e. not wanting to adhere to role-requirements. (MacCormick, et al., 2012)
Psychological contract
The theory of the psychological contract and its effect on the employee organizational
relationship provides a second foundation for employer branding. In the traditional concept of
the psychological contract between workers and employers, workers promised loyalty to the
firm in exchange for job security (Hendry and Jenkins, 1997 in MacCormick, et al., 2012).
However, in the recent years there has been a tendency to downsize, outsource and find other
ways to make profit which affect the level of job security the company can offer. This also
means a shift in the psychological where employers instead of the usual job security offers
learning, development and training in return for flexibility, time and effort. (Baruch, 2004 in
MacLeod & Clarke, 2009)
Correlation between theories
The two theories of employer branding and employee engagement relate to each other and to
extent through the psychological contract. When a company can offer a good organisational
culture then the employees in return feel more engaged in the company and the work they are
doing. If the company furthermore provides more than fulfilment of the basic needs i.e. a job
with a salary with which the employee can lead a decent life then the employee and a good
organisational culture then the employee will merely be a happy employee and not an
engaged one. The more engaged your employees are the stronger the employer brand will be
since the employees are the best ambassadors for the brand.
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Analysis
Table 1
Results in VOICE
Store mgmt
All managers
Non-managers
Nr of people
172
1133
5046
Individual Engagement
81
75
56
Given Responsibility
92
90
71
Competence Development
87
80
61
Open
85
78
54
Daring to be different
84
81
65
VOICE Index
861
815
671
The question for individual engagement is again done from the premise of the Likert scale
where the employee has to choose between strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and
strongly disagree. Examples of questions are “I feel strongly involved in my work and most of
the time I do more than what is expected of me” and “I am proud of working at IKEA and
would gladly tell people about it “(IKEA, 2013) These are then compiled into the statistics
seen in Table 1 above.
The numbers in the statistic is the percentages of employees that have answered either
strongly agree or agree meaning that there is not a distinction between the two
The top priority in a list of initiatives to increase people’s engagement seems to be
communication and more specifically it is for the employees having the opportunity to feed
their views and opinions upwards as the most important driver of people’s engagement.
Furthermore being kept informed about what is going on in the organisation is also one of the
key aspects in employee engagement. This is interesting and can be taken to emphasise that
people want a sense of involvement – of being to some extent in a partnership with their
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
employer. In turn, employers can generalise from this to increase people’s engagement. They
can go beyond communication to ensuring that, in every possible way, people are treated not
as a ‘mere employee’ but as a valued individual.
What we know is the assumption that people will be more engaged to the extent that their
needs are met by their employer (Woodruffe, 1999)
All of the above are things that we know needs to be in place but when scrutinising the
numbers from IKEA UK&IE’s internal survey “VOICE” the situation is quite different.
For example is there an overall individual engagement of 60 % (IKEA, 2013), which cannot
be said to be satisfactory but when it is split up between managers and non-managers the
situsation changes to being more grave. As seen in the table above the individual engagement
for non-managers is only 56 % whereas it is 75 % for managers. This testifies that there is a
wide gap in the perception of what IKEA has to offer in the psychological contract that
appeals to both managers and non-managers and the willingness to walk the extra mile. There
is a difference in how work in IKEA UK&IE is perceived depending on your position in the
organisation. The management layers are highly positive to their conditions for work, as well
as their level of engagement. The many co-workers, the non-managers in the organisation, are
less positive in their view on IKEA UK&IE; they do not see the same level of openness or
opportunities for competence development within the company, and as a group have a lower
level of engagement. (IKEA, 2013)
Furthermore it is visible in the following that not only does IKEA UK&IE have an overall
percentage of 60 that are engaged but there are 34 % that feel either frustrated or alienated in
their job.
Table 2
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Even though the numbers look grim then individual engagement has improved somewhat
since the previous survey, but there is still a high level of frustration in the organisation that is
holding back the full potential of these co-workers and they do not contribute to improving
the brand. Moreover alienation is more common among non-managers working part-time in
IKEA UK&IE, whereas frustration is a problem both for part-timers and full-timers. Almost
61% of the workforce in IKEA UK&IE are part-time workers and the fact that a large part of
of them feel alienated is disturbing and may indicate a work environment that in reality is not
very inclusive.
From a branding perspective this is not promising neither for external use or internal use
since this indicates that there is something in the work environment that does not live up to
the expectations of the company where 75 % or above is the success criteria for the survey.
The fact that there are frustrated and alienated employees out on the shop floor in the
different stores does not help either the business or the organisational culture. When arguing
that frustrated or alienated employees does not contribute to the business it is from the notion
that a negative influence from frustrated or alienated employees can harm both the internal
culture of the employees who are engaged in their work but are influenced by the others.
Furthermore customers will not be receiving as satisfying service from the frustrated or
alienated employees as they would from either happy or preferably engaged employees. The
customers are important and in order for them to return they have to have a good experience.
This experience will not be up to par when the internal culture is lacking and the employees
are not fully engaged in their work or the customers that need their help.
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
Conclusion
In order to sum up on my problem formulation “How is it possible to strengthen IKEA
UK&IE’s employer brand through employee engagement“, I need to take the analysis and all
the theories into consideration when trying to see how employee engagement can strengthen
the IKEA employer brand. Through my analysis it has become clear that employee
engagement is an area where IKEA UK&IE needs to make an effort to change the
employees’ feelings towards working in IKEA. The benefits of having engaged employees
will in the end outweigh the effort that needs to be put in to achieve a more engaged
workforce. However, in a situation as the one IKEA UK&IE is in at the moment it is not
something that can be expected to happen overnight. It is a long term strategy and process
that all management and employees must undertake together in order to see some results that
can be perceived as desired. Furthermore the gap between co-workers and managers is one of
the largest within the IKEA world and in combination with the employee engagement this
gap should also be addressed in the long term strategy. When focusing on employee
engagement we need to factor in that engagement is not simply about the relationship
between manager and team members, it’s also about organisational culture where it is from
within that IKEA UK&IE needs to change in order to make use of employee engagement in
any external branding or internal for that matter. The employees are the brand ambassadors
and if they are engaged and willing to go that extra mile this will spread like ripples in the
water into a better working environment and thereby more employees recommending IKEA
as a good place of employment, customers will be having a better experience and it is a result
that can be seen on the bottom line. It is always important to remember that there is a
difference between happy employees and engaged employees and to distinguish between the
two so IKEA UK and IE know where to make an extra effort and to create a strategy that can
change the organisational culture to a more positive and inclusive culture. The possibilities
employee engagement brings to employer branding are immense and the people are what
makes a business so as to the whether or not employee engagement can help strengthen the
employer brand then the answer is a clear yes and as mentioned before it affects the employer
brand in a way that more engaged employers will go that extra mile and that will be visible
for both customers that contemplate coming to work at IKEA UK&IE and the current
employees that experience an organisational that differentiates from other companies and will
therefore be more confident in their job.
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Mette Matthiasen Larsen
Portfolio
Aalborg University, CCG 9th semester
January 2, 2014
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