A case study on gender balanced business model of IKEA India

Organizations in India are striving to create gender inclusive work environment to promote gender equality. IKEA India (“Company”) is one such Company which has successfully created a gender balanced workplace by employing approximately 48 % female co-workers in its overall workforce and 60 % women in senior leadership positions. The expertise manager of the Company stated that this gender balanced workforce has been made possible due to the Company’s work culture, where like-minded people come together for a shared purpose.

The Company engages female staff in a wide range of roles including logistics, management and work in furniture assembly which constitutes an area typically dominated by men in Indian retail. The idea of such gender inclusive work is deeply embedded in the culture of the Company, which is reflected through its policies and the training modules which are gender neutral, tailored to ensure equal representation of the employees across all genders. The Company conducts awareness sessions on “Equal Work Equal Pay” and regular unconscious bias training for all managers, to ensure that biases don’t creep into performance evaluations or promotion decisions.