IKEA Employees Get Mountain Bikes as Holiday Bonus

I've never had a job where I received a holiday bonus.  Well, not unless you count the plastic cowboy hat my boss gave me last year.  (Don't ask.)

IKEA workers, all 12,400 of them, received a pretty cool holiday bonus this year.  Last week every worker received a swanky mountain bike.  Silver with a touch of IKEA yellow and blue, assembly IS required.

Jobacle gives IKEA a big thumbs up.  The gift promotes healthy lifestyle and gives workers access to alternative transportation.

Surprisingly, only one bike has made it to eBay so far.

Sure beats a year's supply of Swedish meatballs and lingonberries.  And it beats the hell out of a plastic cowboy hat!

Has your boss put something special in your stocking this year?

Comments

[Nancy]

Hey, I got a turkey as a holiday bonus one year. It coincided with a layoff. I told my boss that I'd already received the BIG turkey, thank you very much...

[Steve Schmitt]

IKEA would do well to gift their employees with Traffic Skills 101 classes from the League of American Bicyclists, too, so their new bikes are ridden legally and safely.

[Frankie]

That's great! Assembly required, haha, of course.

[Judy Helfand]

Andrew,
Today has been so crazy that I have no idea how I came to find your post, except that someone in my virtual Twitter world tweeted about it. Your title or your statement about having never received a holiday bonus caught my eye. I have been in the work force for 42 years. I have held a number of positions with some sizable corporations. Here are the ones that actually gave a monetary bonus: Mercury Insurance Company, Beverly Financial Corp and Sober Living by the Sea. Wells Fargo - NO, Fleet Bank - NO, Crocker National Bank - NO, SEARS - NO, Indian Head Bank - NO. The difference between the givers and the non-givers? The FAMILY owned businesses gave a bonus. Even Mercury Insurance (while a billion dollar + company and traded on the NYSE) is 51% owned by the founder George Joseph and typically they paid 1/2 month salary as a Holiday Bonus.
It is a nice feeling to know that the company you work for wants to help make your holiday a little more manageable, but at the same time I have found that the paying companies slipped into the habit of arguing the bonus from both sides. When they want it to be considered in your overall compensation they brag about it, but if the year-end numbers were not looking good they would threaten to not pay the holiday bonus. Terrible way to live. In other words, you really couldn't and shouldn't count on it.

Well, that is my take on this subject. Thanks for listening.
Judy

[JasonCBlais]

Great post! I just heard the news on NPR this morning, and scanned the search engines looking for some HR-related blogs/articles highlighting this giveaway... and found none. I think this is exactly the kind of thing companies should be emulating as they work to build a workforce of engaged and grateful employees. From the job seeker perspective, these are the kind of interesting news stories that help build interest in a potential future employer, and IKEA should be working to broadcast this effort through their recruitment marketing and careers section of their website. Kudos to them- I hope this out-of-the-box thinking will inspire HR leaders far and wide!