Building Better Lives Empowering Refugees

Contributing to thriving Communities

Building skills for employment

We want to play our part in contributing to thriving and inclusive local economies, We aim to have a positive impact on communities and people in our value chain and to use our voice to highlight important issues.

Our approach includes: partnering with community organizations to find solutions to social and environmental challenges; creating income opportunities for vulnerable people by working with social enterprises; investing in skills and work experience for refugees, migrants, people with disabilities, engaging our co-workers and customers to contribute to their local communities.

Our commitment to that diversity means we see the potential talent and everyone - including those who are struggling to access the labor market. We want to support people who lack skills, experience, or face other barriers, to find work with us or another employer. By reflecting the diversity of our local communities, we broaden our customer base into new countries and better understand our customer’s needs.

We’re supporting young people, people with disabil-

ities, people over 50 years old, migrants, refugees, and women who have been out of the workplace. In FY19, we ran in projects in 16 countries ,often in partnership with local NGOs in public bodies, providing skills development and work experience placements.

We ramped up our commitment increasing Refugee inclusion this year. In FY19, stores in nine countries ran initiatives to support refugees’ skills development and help them find work within our companies. In five countries, we sold TILLTALANDE, a textile collection from the Jordan River Foundation, that has created 250 jobs for local Artisans and women refugees in Jordan in partnership with IKEA.

We’ve launched several initiatives to support refugees

and scale up our impact. By 2022, we aim to have 300 units supporting refugees with skills for employment initiatives. We’ll also contribute to creating more jobs for local artisans and female refugees in Jordan by selling their products in all countries.

By advocating for positive change for refugees and Society we want to show other companies, organizations and key decision-makers the value of refugee integration into host communities and businesses.

Welcoming refugees is not charity. For us, it is a chance to have a positive impact on individual lives and local communities, while also benefiting from more diverse skillsets in our workplaces.

co-creating change

Asma arrived in Norway from Afghanistan in 2016, and in 2018, she became one of the newest recruits to the IKEA Furuset store in Oslo.

“This project has changed my life 100%. I could not imagine at all that I would get a job within the first year of arriving in Norway, but I now have a part-time job and I make my own money. At the same time, I have colleagues and friends at work that I can talk to and keep practicing my Norwegian,” she says.

Our skills for employment programs give refugees like Asma the chance to gain work experience and develop their language skills. The aim is to prepare them for future employment either with us or another company. It also enables them to actively contribute to their new communities.

250 Jobs Created

In FY19, we helped create 250 jobs for local Artisans and women refugees in Jordan in partnership with IKEA.