Prepare for IKEA’s Assessment Tests and Interview

PLI-style assessment tests are IKEA’s most common pre-employment tests. Our customized PLI-style PrepPacks™ will prepare you for every aspect of the IKEA recruitment process and have been designed with your success in mind.

The Predictive Index Learning Indicator (PI Learning Indicator), also known as the Professional Learning Indicator (PLI), was designed to evaluate applicants’ general cognitive capability. Among cognitive abilities assessed by the PLI test are digesting and implementing complex information, reasoning, adapting to new environments and conditions, analyzing, planning, and problem-solving.

Yet this is not to say that passing the PLI test is easy. What is challenging on this test is not the difficulty of the questions but rather the short time limit allowed to answer them. There are 50 questions on the test, which you need to answer within 12 minutes. Thus, you will have only 14.4 seconds to think over each question. To be able to answer questions so quickly and correctly, you need to practice beforehand. JobTestPrep offers you an opportunity to improve your test results with the help of its exclusive PLI PrepPack™. Practice with our materials and prove to your prospective employers that you have got professional aptitude to work at IKEA.

Learn more about your IKEA PLI Test Score!

The PI Behavioral Assessment is used by IKEA to evaluate prospective employees' skills and behavioral patterns. To minimize the risk of employing unsuitable people, the company asks job candidates to take the PI test that predicts how they will likely deal with employment situations and different managerial styles. The PI Behavioral Assessment focuses mostly on six traits of human personality:  

• Dominance shows how closely you control your environment.
• Extroversion indicates the extent to which you seek social connections, leadership opportunities, and novel experiences.
• Patience says whether stability and consistency in your environment are important to you.
• Formality demonstrates how strictly you conform to formal rules and structures.
• Decision-Making analyzes your thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options.
• Response Level evaluates your general energy, activity level, and stamina.

The scenarios presented on SJTs always ask for a resolution of a given conflict which, although being hypothetical, might very much rely on, or represent, realistic situations that occur in a workplace. You will then be asked to choose a preferred method of action out of a number of possible options. You are encouraged to choose your responses spontaneously, based on intuition; however, analyzing the scenarios and choosing responses that highlight your skills will allow you to better present yourself on the test.

As you begin planning your IKEA personality test, take some time to ponder the following questions:

• Is the company suitable for you?
• Is the position suitable for you?
• Is this a position you truly want?

The personality test will provide your potential future employer with insights into how you work in groups, comply with rules, cope with stress and pressure, as well as your ability to solve problems and manage others in an effective manner. There is no right or wrong answer, however, your answers will indicate your levels of suitability for the position.

After you submit your application form, résumé, and cover letter online you will have a phone interview with the company’s representative.

Phone Interview: Your interview with IKEA’s Human Resources manager will center around your work history and expectations about your new role at IKEA.  The manager will also ask you personal questions to get a sense of your personality. Your phone interview may last up to 20 minutes. In some case, you may have an interview online instead of a phone interview. In an online interview, you will be given one minute to submit a reply to each question.

The PLI and PI Tests: If you impress the Human Resources manager, you may be invited to take IKEA’s aptitude and personality tests, depending on the position for which you applied. The PLI test aims to evaluate your general cognitive capability. It measures how well you understand and implement complex data, reason, analyze, solve problems, and plan actions and events for the future. The PI Test assesses your conduct and predicts how you will behave in specific situations at workplace.

Other assessments: It's important to mention that you may encounter some other assessments, depending on your desired position at IKEA. This assessments may include Excel exams, behavioral assessments, and personality tests. JobTestsPrep can prepare you for a variety of assessment tests you may encounter. Check out our PrepPacks™ at the top of the page and choose your required assessment.

Face-To-Face Interview: Provided you did well on the PLI or PI tests, you will be scheduled for the second interview at one of IKEA’s locations. In this interview, you will talk with the Human Resources representative and your prospective managers. Questions posed in the interview will be competency-based. Prepare also to answer situational questions testing your behavior and reaction to specified working circumstances. You may also be shown around the store during the face-to-face interview. Sometimes, you may be invited for a group interview, where you and a few other job applicants will have a conversation with several managers. 

Job Offer Interview:– The final stage of IKEA’s hiring process is a background check and credit report. If both your credit and criminal history are confirmed to be clean, you will be invited for another in-person interview, during which you will be offered a position.

Note that you receive an opportunity to impress IKEA’s representatives in a personal conversation only after you successfully pass the company’s aptitude and personality tests. Practicing before the test is, therefore, essential to your success. Go through a few dry runs with JobTestPrep’s practice materials and be short-listed for the desired position.

Before starting your interview at IKEA do your homework on the company. It is important to show your interviewer that you identify with the company’s missions and goals. They not only want to see your skill-sets (very important), but also how you will fit in personality wise to company culture. Second prepare your own list questions and make sure you can identify what the interviewer might ask. Lastly, prepare to demonstrate how your background and skills will be of value.

In order to get a job at IKEA, you need to apply online by submitting your résumé and cover letter. After this, you will have a phone interview with a Human Resources manager. For some positions, you will need also to take the PI Behavioral Assessment Test or the Professional Learning Indicator test. If you succeed on your test, you will be scheduled for a face-to-face interview at one of IKEA’s stores.   

The ultimate preparation to pass PLI Tests is to practice. However, there are further factors that can enhance and speed up your preparation process. For this reason, JobTestPrep created a concise preparation pack that contains not only PLI-Style Tests but also solving strategies, practice tips, and further tools designed by our specialist to help you gear up for the assessment. Start practicing today with JobTestPrep.

Personality tests are used to assist your interviewer in obtaining a better-rounded profile of your workplace suitability, more so than a written resume can. IKEA uses these tests to ensure that they will be hiring someone who fits the position’s competencies and their company standards. There are technically no right or wrong answers on a personality test, however, certain answers can have an adverse effect on your overall personality profile and may hinder your ability of being considered for the position.

During your IKEA interview you can expect a wide range of questions from “tell me about yourself?” to more difficult questions like “why are you the best candidate for the position?”; You might even get some outside the box question like “Why are manhole covers round?” or “If you were hosting a dinner party and could invite three people, dead or alive, who would you invite?”. So, what is the interviewer setting out to accomplish? They want to get a sense of your skill base, knowledge, character and experience to assess if you are the right fit for the job and the company at large.

Preparation is key to putting your best foot forward throughout the IKEA recruitment process. Preparing for the IKEA pre-employment assessments will give you an advantage over the other candidates who have applied for the same position. You will be able to familiarize yourself with the test formats as well as improve in crucial areas.