IKEA Philippines still hiring, welcoming 322 more people to their growing team
It was in 2014 when IKEA finally decided to expand its business to the Philippines.
As most of us already know, they opted to make it their largest branch in the world. The question is: why?
“It’s very much driven by our logistic needs. The Philippines is far away from our distribution center, which is in Shanghai, so we need a certain structure,” Georg Platzer, development manager in Southeast Asia, told PhilSTAR L!FE. “We need to have a warehouse holding all these groups for many weeks and that requires a certain space.”
IKEA Philippines will consist of five storeys—aside from a warehouse, it will also house a call center and an e-commerce hub. In order for them to consistently achieve their vision “to create a better everyday life for many people,” they are looking for 322 more people to add to their growing team (with a total of 600).
As stated in its official website, among the job openings are finance specialist, product, requirements, and compliance specialist, and shipping and customs specialist on a full time basis as well as product recovery associate, food assistant, and sales associate on a part time status. Interested applicants may drop their résumés here.
It's important to note, however, that they are prioritizing residents of Pasay City in their recruitment, given their partnership with the local government unit.
“We have a need to bring these people very soon on board because we need to give them good training,” explained Platzer. “We want to prepare them for our customers, we want to give them confidence and competence, and they should also have the time to fall in love with IKEA products. If they need to sell, then they need to love our things.”
With the second half of the year as their target opening schedule at the SM Mall of Asia Complex, IKEA is looking to welcome its employees by July. “This is still a bit fluid due to the pandemic situation and our dependency on different things, but based on my latest belief and my hope, I would say that’s the last month we will bring people on board for this one store,” he shared.
“This is just the beginning,” declared Platzer, letting slip that they have been in talks about opening more IKEA branches in the country as early as now.
Photos courtesy of IKEA