Ikea Lost $5,000 When Each Worker Quit. So It Began Paying More

Ikea’s workers were quitting in droves in the US. In the UK and Ireland, half of all new hires were leaving before their first anniversary. Globally, each departure cost Ikea $5,000 or more to replace.

To stem the bleeding, the Swedish furniture behemoth needed to figure out what was making its store workers so unhappy — and fix it fast. By 2022, more than 62,000 employees were departing a year for various reasons, equating to about a third of its workforce, and the pandemic-era labor shortage made it difficult to replenish its ranks.

Workers “suddenly became very scarce,” said Jon Abrahamsson ...