Ikea, a global leader in furniture retail, faced challenges in its HR operations due to the cumbersome process of accessing and sharing HR records across different global territories.
The process of accessing HR records was a daunting task, especially when it came to sharing files across their numerous global territories. They approached Crown Records Management for a digital solution that could streamline their HR records, encompassing over 20,000 employees, while ensuring compliance was adhered to and they had ease of access to the files.
Crown Records Management initiated a comprehensive approach to review and address Ikea’s needs. The digital solution was proposed, and they had to go through several steps to achieve the results required. These included:
- Utilisation of Crown’s scan-on-demand service enabling swift digital delivery of requested files to the client by the next day.
- Adherence to BS 10008 standards for preparing and scanning all files.
- Employing OCR and ICR technologies for page-level classification of over 60 document types, including Contact, Training and Development, Right to Work, Health and Wellbeing, and Employee Relations documents.
- Manual indexing of ‘unknown’ documents by highly trained specialists.
- Create a hierarchical structure for each employee dataset to ensure data retention and compliance with security standards.
- All data was ingested into Crown Records Management’s cloud system, with access granted to over 40 users based on territorial permissions.
- Implementation of collaborative cloud-based systems accessible 24/7 across devices with multi-factor authentication for added security.
- Comprehensive training sessions were conducted over three consecutive weeks to equip Ikea employees with the necessary skills to utilise the new system effectively.
RESULT
Ikea’s HR operations were significantly optimised, with enhanced accessibility, collaboration, and compliance.
The cloud-based system provided seamless access to HR records anytime, anywhere, fostering productivity and efficiency. The short-term CRM cloud solution served as a transitional phase, with plans underway for data transfer to the global OpenText system through a custom API developed by Crown Records Management.
Compliance with BS EN 15713 standards also ensured the secure destruction of hardcopy records.
EXPANSION TO SWITZERLAND
Through a tailored approach combining cutting-edge technology, meticulous processes, and expert personnel, Crown Records Management successfully enabled Ikea to optimise its HR operations both in the UK and Switzerland.
Crown Records Management extended its services to Ikea Switzerland, addressing similar HR digitisation needs across four languages. This included;
- Crown’s expert teams conducting manual classification, indexing, and translation of documents.
- Specialist equipment facilitated on-the-fly translation of documents.
- A streamlined process implemented for collecting and processing 9,500 employee records across 12 locations in Switzerland, optimising efficiency and accuracy.
The implementation of digital solutions not only enhanced accessibility and collaboration but also ensured compliance with stringent industry standards, setting a benchmark for efficient HR record management in a global context.
“Our relationship with Ikea spans many years, and we have really enjoyed working with them on their digital strategy goals. The solution we designed for Ikea covered many of our technology suites and has been a great example of how these enhanced platforms have been able to drive many efficiencies for Ikea and support the company’s goals and ambitions.
It was exciting to see how our software coped with identifying, classifying and splitting data automatically and how our teams managed the exceptions to ensure an extremely high-level success rate.
We look forward to working with Ikea in other territories worldwide and supporting our global teams in ensuring a fully uniformed approach.
Matt Read, Head of Digital Services, Crown Records Management“
