Ikea’s Approach To Measuring Performance

I love IKEA. I don’t like shopping, but I love IKEA. For me, the most attractive thing about the Swedish furniture and home accessories chain is its focus on simplicity.

I did a presentation today to the Managers and Supervisor’s of IKEA’s Customer Support Centre at its national HQ in Tempe, Sydney. I arrived early so I had the opportunity to have a quick look around the store, (and to have some of their famous meatballs!).

On the way out of the the cafe I noticed a sign asking ‘How was your dining experience today’? As you can see in the photo above, the Happy Or Not panel has four options. No written survey that would take minutes and might have 10 or so questions, just four coloured buttons with emoji faces.

Simple to participate in, simple to analyse the results. My guess is they get a really high participation rate due to its simplicity.

Part of my presentation to IKEA’s managers was about how to increase employee engagement. One of my Care Factor 100 Principles is to give honest and regular feedback on performance. I reckon one of the reasons managers don’t do this is because they perceive it to be too complex (eg annual performance reviews). My theory is that if we kept it simple, really simple, we would do it more often and the effect would be better performance and better engagement.

Imagine using the Happy or Not approach once a week with your employees? You would then follow it up with a conversation that would improve performance and increase engagement.

What do you think? Happy or Not?