We promote an open culture of trust, fairness and honest communication. If our co-workers have a concern at work, we encourage them to raise this with the person involved in the first instance, where this is appropriate. When this isn’t suitable, concerns should be raised with their line manager, local risk manager or People & Culture representative.
Co-workers can anonymously raise a concern through our Trust line. The platform is independently operated by a third party. It is available in all countries where we are present, except for Austria and the USA. In the USA, we provide a similar service called iSpeak. Concerns are evaluated by Trust line managers, and where an investigation is required, this is carried out by a designated manager within our People & Culture or Business Risk & Compliance functions.
We offer clear guidance on how to manage situations of misconduct, and undertake regular risk assessments, both nationally and within our functions and three businesses (IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres and Ingka Investments). We take every case of potential unethical behaviour and policy breaches very seriously. We investigate and respond quickly and carefully, following our investigation procedure to ensure confidentiality, consistency and accountability.
There were 219 concerns raised via Trust line (FY20: 185). The majority of the concerns related to potential breaches of our human resources policies and were raised by retail co-workers.