Our Human
Capital

We direct our efforts to increase the loyalty and satisfaction of our employees with the awareness that the most valuable capital of our Bank is its human resources. In this context, we conducted the Employee Engagement Survey, which we organize annually to enhance the experience of our employees, in the year 2023 as well.

Our Employee Engagement Survey helps us measure employee engagement, satisfaction with their job, ways of doing business, and work-life balance, in addition to their perception of the Bank’s brand, performance, remuneration, career, reward, and recognition systems. We then analyze the data obtained from the survey and formulate road maps to improve the matters expressed in the survey. 13,023 employees from among our Bank’s personnel, as well as the staff of Vakıf Finansal Kiralama A.Ş., Vakıf Faktoring A.Ş., Vakıf Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş., Vakıf Gayrimenkul Değerleme A.Ş., Vakıf Pazarlama San. ve Tic. A.Ş. and Vakıf Gayrimenkul Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş. under the umbrella of VakıfBank Finance Group have participated in the 2023 edition of our employee engagement survey. We continue our efforts non-stop to plan actions and monitor improvement in light of the data obtained from the survey.

We are aware that high employee engagement also contributes to a low employee turnover rate. Our employee turnover rate was 3.03 and our voluntary employee turnover rate was 2.92 in this period. We aim to determine the areas where our employees want investment, their sentiments and thoughts, and the issues they want to be improved by studying the satisfaction variables that impact engagement within the scope of the research, and we shall make progress in these areas. In addition, we aim to increase employee engagement and satisfaction by closely following employee opinions and thoughts through the platforms that we have implemented.

We are always driven by our sensitivity toward employees’ happiness. Backed by our approach focused on employee experience, we continue introducing practices aimed at contributing to their engagement and satisfaction, boosting their motivation, and making them feel the privilege of being a VakıfBank employee. In 2022, we deployed Employee Experience screens where we analyze data provided by them as part of our analytical HR activities. It is thanks to these analyses that we know, see, and understand our people better and plan actions accordingly.

We closely follow new generation human resources practices. In this context, in line with the changing trends and expectations of working life, we announced the “Birthday Leave” practice to all our employees at the end of 2023 in order to allow our employees to celebrate their birthdays with their loved ones and we shall start implementing it in 2024.

One cardinal goal for us is to pursue an employee-focused approach, stand by employees for every step they take, and prioritize their expectations and requirements in parallel with changing trends of business life. In 2023, we continued our Employee Experience Visits covering our Head Office employees and employees working in our regional directorates and branches located all around Türkiye with a perspective built on employee-oriented improvement and communications.

Within the scope of our internal communication strategy, in 2023, we carried out in-house social responsibility activities with the “Goodwill Ambassadors” consisting of 125 Bank employees working on a voluntary basis. We organized trainings and workshops for our Goodwill Ambassadors who want to raise their awareness and develop themselves in this field by voluntarily participating in our Bank’s corporate social responsibility projects.

We organized activities within the scope of our internal communication strategy to support our employees in contributing to social life. We visited shelters in Istanbul and Ankara with our Goodwill Ambassadors and delivered the food and shelter requirements accumulated in the Goodwill Safe.

We acknowledge that there is a positive relationship between our colleagues’ and our customers’ happiness. Therefore, we continued to actively use our internal communication channels as in every period, to raise a smile on the face of our employees and make them feel valued.

We have also organized VMeets events through online meeting applications to inform our Bank staff on issues such as banking, innovation, leadership, managerial, personal integrity, Türkiye, and the world agenda.

We offer a business environment where employees shall feel happy and safe to ensure that they look confidently to the future and experience the privilege of being a VakıfBank employee. In the upcoming period, we plan to produce projects that shall contribute more to sustainability, expand our in-house social responsibility projects, benefit more people, and identify our volunteer ambassadors by increasing our colleague’s participation in our projects.

2023 events

• We organized various trainings and workshops to raise the awareness of our Goodwill Ambassadors and to develop them. One of the trainings organized in this context was a storytelling training. The books written and printed by our Goodwill Ambassadors on social responsibility issues were presented to students with our trained colleagues at public schools in various cities.
• With the Coffee Waste Project, we started collecting filter-based coffee waste at the Istanbul Finance Center Head Office building. In this context, we aim to prevent carbon emissions from filter coffee wastes.
• We visited shelters in various provinces with our Goodwill Ambassadors. We delivered the food and supplies collected in the Goodwill Safe to the shelters.
• As part of sustainable banking, corporate promotion materials (notebooks, calendars, cube notes) were distributed to all employees featuring recycled covers and FCS (Forest Management Council)-certified papers. We also sent our technological and user-friendly “Welcome Kits” consisting of recycled products to our newly recruited colleagues.
• After relocating our head office to the Istanbul Finance Center, we distributed glass water bottles in the building to encourage the use of purified water and reduce the use of plastic bottles.
• We supported the special issue of Bilge Çocuk Magazine for visually impaired children with the Braille alphabet and ensured that more than 1,000 children had access to the magazine.
• We launched a sapling donation campaign for our employees to contribute to nature and greenery. In this context, we have created a total of five forests with the “One Forest for Every Year” campaigns carried out since 2019
• In addition, in 2023, when the earthquake disaster struck, we went to the Hatay earthquake region with the VakıfBank Search and Rescue Team “VAKUR” and took part in search and rescue activities.

Within the framework of our sustainable banking approach, our goal is to establish a modern workplace that respects human rights and disseminate this understanding to raise employees’, customers’, and stakeholders’ awareness.

At VakıfBank, we exert our best efforts to deliver on the requirements of the Labor Code, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the key principles of the International Labor Organization, as well as other international treaties of which Türkiye is a state party. Pursuant to our Human Rights Policy, we do not finance those operations prohibited or restricted under national laws and international treaties that Türkiye is a party to. We also do not extend funds to the operations or projects of individuals and organizations determined to have employed children or violated human rights. Accordingly, we demonstrate an inclusive and fair approach for all by protecting and promoting human rights. We place human rights at the heart of everything that we do, from operations and supply chains to our relations with stakeholders.

We provide equal opportunity and rights to employees in parallel with the importance we attribute to equal opportunity and diversity. In this regard, we take the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights principles, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) as guides in our human resources practices that value people. We are a signatory of the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs).

In addition to these, as a signatory of the Equality at Work Declaration, which is prepared under the leadership of the Ministry of Family, and Social Services and in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, we support the active participation of women in all areas of social and economic life with equal rights. We support women’s participation in the workforce with our female employees and aim to maintain a work environment where equality and business peace prevail by taking the necessary measures to ensure all our women-men employees’ health, safety, and well-being. In this context, in 2023, 50.97% of our employees and 23.48% of our employees in managerial positions were women across the entire Bank.

We determine our remuneration policy within the bank following the risk and responsibility assumed at all levels, pay fair remuneration, and provide fringe benefits by considering our employees’ fundamental rights.

We determine the wages of our managers and employees at all levels by regarding the effective remuneration policy and budget possibilities of the Bank, the job description and responsibility level of the employees, individual performance, competencies, and compliance with the internal and external legislation of the Bank based on our bank’s compliance with internal balance and strategic goals. In addition to the “Base Salary,” which is the main salary, we make compensation payments to our employees for the tasks, foreign language competencies, licensing, and expertise, taking into account the duties and responsibilities they undertake. Additionally, we observe sectoral developments, analyze data, and evaluate our sector’s position according to the banking sector wage survey results carried by independent organizations.

Furthermore, we determine wage and salary increases for our in-scope employees with the Collective Bargaining Agreement made with the Bank Finance and Insurance Employees Union (BASS) and our employees who are out of scope with the board of directors’ decision. This year, we concluded the 26th Term Collective Bargaining Agreement covering the period 01.05.2023 - 30.04.2025 and made improvements in the wages of our employees, taking into account the economic conditions of our country. In 2023, the ratio of employees working under a collective bargaining agreement was 84%.

In addition to social benefits such as marriage benefits, maternity benefits, disaster benefits, death and invalidity benefits, we offer opportunities to meet basic requirements through various leaves of absence. We raise our daily food allowance in line with the conditions of the day and make sure employees have better conditions in access to lunch services. In addition to wages, we pay bonuses, performance premiums, and dividends. In doing so, we implement a motivating and fair remuneration policy based on merit, adopting a corporate culture, competitive, rewarding, based on balanced performance targets, encouraging sustainable success. You can find our Bank’s remuneration policy here.

Furthermore, we include our employees in the Group Pension Plan with Employer Contribution to support their income in retirement, make contributions, and take out life insurance for them every year.

With our Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Policy, we consider offering our employees a safe and healthy work environment as one of our fundamental responsibilities. Within this framework, we adopt acting in accordance with international standards as well as legal requirements on OHS as a basic requirement. In 2023, we successfully completed the Integrated Management System (ISO 9001-ISO 14001-ISO 45001) audits and ensured the sustainability of the Integrated Management System. In line with our objectives and goals by determining our energy policy, we received the ISO 50001 Energy Management System certificate in 2023 and incorporated it into our Integrated Management System.

For OHS-related matters, we elaborate in coordination with the Career Management and Employee Experience Department. Our Bank’s Occupational Health and Safety Policy is available at https://www.vakifbank.com.tr/Default.aspx?pageID=2788 We guide all employees, including the staff at our Bank, as part of support service under the Occupational Health and Safety Policy. We reference European Statistics on Accidents at Work-ESAW methods to track OHS performance indicators. We regularly provide in-class and e-learning training to raise OHS awareness across the Bank. We ensure that every newly recruited employee joins a one-day OHS in-class course within the scope of orientation training. In 2023, we provided in-class OHS training to a total of 1,553 participants. In addition, the Occupational Health and Safety Data Bank, which we have prepared for our employees, is among our publications on the corporate portal.

With our proactive risk management approach, we have mapped our OHS risks and categorized them over approximately 120 control issues during our annual branch unit visits. Thus, we identify risks in advance and take the necessary measures. Accordingly, we have drawn up a Risk Assessment Report and Emergency Plan for 938 branches and departments in 2023. Thus, we have completed the Risk Assessment Report and Emergency Plan in all our departments and branches except for 25 branch units. Within the scope of our service procurement, we care about OHS processes, and we supervise 100% of all our employees as part of our practices, including our subcontractor workers. We aim to maintain 100% compliance with the control issues at all locations in the upcoming period and realized over 162 items once every year by maintaining the Integrated Management System’s continuity (ISO 9001-ISO 14001-ISO 45001-ISO50001).

Following the earthquake disaster in our country, we first examined all branches in Istanbul in terms of earthquake safety. We have identified our branches that are deemed unqualified and started to work to ensure that our branches quickly operate in more secure service centers. We plan to complete our work, which we expanded for the entire Türkiye, in 2024. We are also monitoring the earthquake early warning system installed in two pilot locations as part of our earthquake early warning system efforts. We plan to expand the system if it works properly.

We installed a building health monitoring system consisting of state-of-the-art sensitive seismic sensors at our Bank’s location in the Istanbul Finance Center. Thus, our Bank became the first organization in the Financial Center complex to have a completed and operational building health and monitoring system. We completed the interior design and applications of our building in the Istanbul Finance Center in accordance with LEED certification and ergonomics requirements.

Regarding Intrusion Alarm, Fire Warning, and Security Camera Systems; we continued our activities of installation and elimination of malfunctions in existing systems and their regular maintenance, meeting the need for new fire extinguishers, replacing the necessary ones with new ones and their regular maintenance in new branch openings and branch renovations in line with the reports of workplace safety specialist regarding “fire safety.” Within the scope of the improvement and development of electronic security measures; to eliminate the risk of the alarm system being disabled as a result of the failure to enter the alarm password during the closing of our branches or forgetting to enter the password, we started the application of sending an e-mail to the branch manager and text message to the branch security guard.

We migrated the job request processes concerning physical security (security guard), electronic security (alarms and security cameras), and fire extinguishers to the system so that requests are met more effectively and quickly. To ensure that the installation, maintenance and repair, and progress payment control processes of the electronic security system are systematically, flawlessly, and rapidly carried out, we made improvements and advancements to the software installed at our bank’s locations in line with user feedback.

In this period when everything is changing rapidly, our Bank has adopted the philosophy of continuous development with a human-centered approach to achieve our strategic goals, keep up with the change and gain a competitive advantage. Our most critical mission is to follow a path that increases our employees’ motivation by considering their requirements and expectations in line with our human resources policy.

In this context, we seek to manage our human resources effectively and efficiently, meet our employees’ personal development requirements, and support our Bank’s corporate development through the career management studies we conduct.

At VakıfBank, we ensure that corporate strategic goals are transformed into individual goals with the Performance Management System to provide for our employees’ corporate and personal development with an innovative approach and continuous learning, increase solidarity and cooperation, and support their focus on corporate strategies.

We continue to improve our employees’ competencies to reach our goals and become the industry’s pioneer. Our performance assessment system makes a competency assessment for our employees’ career planning once a year and analyzes their training and development requirements based on the assessments. We support continuous change and development with the innovations we make every year so that our managers can make an healthy assessment and advance the process with an objective approach.

In 2023, we included all our Bank employees in our performance system and completed a successful period in which our employees made a difference with their performance. We presented performance achievement awards to our employees by evaluating individual performance objectively and transparently.

2,251 of our employees were promoted to a higher title as a result of the assessment of the provisions governing promotions of the Regulation About Career and Wage Management System and the Regulation About Specialized Staff. As part of our career planning efforts in line with our vision as a bank that raises managers internally, we promoted a total of 13% of our employees, 51.04% of whom are women and 48.96% of whom are men, to higher positions.

We continue such efforts aimed at identifying employees with a manager potential to play a key role in the Bank’s future, providing a fair competitive environment in career development, supporting their skills and competencies with training and development programs, and utilizing such skills effectively and efficiently. As a result of the work we have carried out this year, we are making a transition to a promotion model in our career planning system where personal competencies and performance shall play a salient role.

While developing our performance system, we use the capabilities of technology within our targeting methodology. Within this scope, with our advanced analytical approach, we continue our efforts to process data with advanced algorithms and use it effectively with artificial intelligence technology. As part of our digitalization journey, we have completed our activities in 2023 by strengthening our system’s technical infrastructure, including the entire performance management system, and providing our users with reporting screens that offer them the chance for interactive and straightforward use. In this respect, we deploy the Corporate Performance Management System on three key modules including Regional Directorate and Branch Performance Module, Employee-Based Unit Performance Module, and Competency Management Module, to measure and monitor all employees’ performance.

We thus aim to further improve the performance system by increasing the use of data more effectively through performance analytics and improving quantitative performance indicators. In competency assessment processes, we aim to ensure that employees have a more efficient development process by reviewing feedback/forward feedback processes and redesigning the competency assessment and development form.

In this period, we set both branch- and employee-based performance targets in operational issues such as branch and ATM cash balance management to increase the quality of service we provide to our customers, direct transactions to digital channels, and reduce waiting times at the counters.

Our goal is to complete the organizational succession software and implement it in 2024 in an attempt to facilitate business continuity, determine the future requirements for managers, and ensure an easier tracking method for employees who meet such requirements.

With the Human Resources Reserve Management Project, we aim to ensure business continuity throughout our Bank and to reduce the dependence of processes on individuals to avoid any disruptions in ordinary and extraordinary situations. In 2024, we shall also create a structure enabling us to monitor the Successor Management app, which is defined in our Career and Wage Management System, via the Bank’s Human Resources module.

Thanks to this project, we will;

• Define critical jobs,
• Ensure that employees in charge of critical jobs and their successors are determined and followed up on the system,
• Establish programs to enhance relevant employees’ competencies,
• Enable the entire backup system to be monitored and managed by creating a manager backup system.

Furthermore, in line with our organizational goals, we effectively conduct our Bank’s norm staff activities to provide an optimum employment number according to the workload. Besides, we closely monitor these employees by creating talent pools to meet the workforce needed in the short, medium, and long term with high performance and potential employees within our Bank.

Changes within the organizational layout of the Head Office in 2023:

• We have introduced a change in the organizational structuring of the Allocation Management units to ensure prompt and healthy meeting of credit allocation requests, the creation of effective allocation management, and the implementation of a common allocation policy.
• We changed the organizational structures of the Marketing units to increase efficiency and focus in product development and marketing activities, as well as to carry out coordination activities with customer groups more effectively.
• We established new units in regional organizations in parallel with the requirements and requirements of the current conjuncture.
• Within the scope of our Bank’s growth targets, we established the Field Management Department to monitor branches and sales teams more closely.

We support and promote employees’ occupational, technical, and personal development and thus contribute to sustainable business efficiency in line with the human resources policies that our Bank pursues. We support our employees with in-class trainings, live virtual classroom trainings, and digital trainings on topics determined by training requirements analysis, particularly our Bank’s strategies and the competencies expected from our employees.

We provide our employees with training programs under four main headings:

• “Orientation and Basic Training Programs” for new recruits,
• “Development Programs” aimed at contributing to employees’ personal and occupational/technical development based on their roles
• “Manager Development Programs” aimed at increasing the managerial, professional, and technical competencies of employees in executive positions,
• “Digital Training Programs,” which encompass a wide range of training programs in the areas of professional, individual, and managerial competency development, legal and social responsibilities, as well as hobbies

We design “Role Transition Digital Training Programs” to facilitate the learning and development of our employees as their roles or titles change. Thus, we aim to improve the competencies of our employees and support them in adapting to their new roles or titles, ensuring continuous learning.

In 2023, we allocated an average of 39.44 hours of training per employee, comprising 18.65 hours of classroom and 20.79 hours of digital training.

We have supplemented our in-house training programs by facilitating the participation of over 1,400 employees in external training sessions, conferences, and seminars, aiming to keep our Head Office personnel updated on industry developments and foster their ongoing professional growth.

As part of our Bank’s training and development strategy, we offer global content provider digital training platforms to our IT teams, audit units, and Head Office employees.

In our training processes, we use a mixed-learning model that also includes the next generation of digital learning experiences. To monitor and evaluate the development of our employees, we conduct an assessment test on the training portal at the end of the training and measure the training results. We continuously monitor the development of our employees through learning journeys.

OUR HIGHLIGHTED EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN 2023

Sustainability

As part of our bank’s sustainability strategy, in 2023, we conducted 60,794 hours of training on various topics tailored to specific target groups, aiming to enhance employee awareness and promote their specialization.

With the “Basic Level Sustainability for Banking,” “Climate Change” and “Water Awareness” e-trainings, we enabled our employees who have specialized in this field to participate in the “Sustainability Expertise Certificate Program.”

Furthermore, as part of the Green Mortgage Project carried out with the French Development Agency (AFD), we provided “Green Mortgage” training to more than 1,200 branch employees on energy efficiency, the advantages of green housing, and the green housing loans to be offered to our customers.

With the motto “That’s one small step for us, one giant leap for our future,” we supported our employees to update their knowledge by re-presenting the e-trainings we offered on International Climate Action Day.

• ISO 9001 Quality Management System
• ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
• ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System
• Zero Waste
• Code of Conduct
• Right Approach to Disability
• Integrated Management System and Auditor
• Leading a New Era for Climate Action
• Future of Energy
• Growth through Global Sustainability
• Creating Sustainable Performance - Sustainable Living

Data and Analytics School

We contributed to the competencies of our employees through development programs at different levels that we offered as part of the development of our employees’ data-based skills.

• In 2023, as part of the Data and Analytics School project, we contributed to the development of data-based skills of more than 700 employees in the development programs we designed with university and digital platform collaborations:
• Level 5: Data Science Certificate Program
• Level 4: Data Science Online Development Program
• Level 3: Advanced Methods in Data Analytics Bootcamp Development Program
• Level 2: Data Analytics Development Program
• Level 1: Data Awareness Online Training
• In the project, we paid attention to employee experience. We placed each of our employees who participated in the Data and Analytics School participant selection test in a training program suitable for their level of knowledge; we stood by our employees by providing feedback and support throughout the process.
• Our participants, who were evaluated based on exam results and project presentations, were entitled to receive certificates.

We aim to strengthen data-driven solutions and offer more effective and sustainable financial services with our increased employee competence thanks to these programs.

Certification and Development Programs

• We provided 14 person/hours of training to the employees of allocation units through the Allocation Management Development Program, which we designed specifically for our employees working in credit allocation processes.
• By including an experience sharing session to the orientation module of our new Executive Development Program, we brought together our new managers and our employees who were managers in the previous period.

Our Good Practices

• We provided over 170,000 hours of in-class training to ensure the continuous development of our employees serving our customers in our branches.
• To provide better service to its customers and improve the communication skills of its employees, our Bank released a video series titled “Case Analysis for Customer Satisfaction and Legal Compliance” with the slogan “Let’s Watch Together for Better Customer Communication.”
• We provided intensive training to our customer representatives as part of the “Customer Contact Center Development Program.”
• With the opening of our new Head Office building in Istanbul Finance Center (İFM), we provided training on protocol rules, compliance with courtesy rules, and corporate representation to our stakeholders in the roles of security, catering employees, and executive assistants who provide services to our guests and employees.
• We organized courses and workshops to raise the awareness of Goodwill Ambassadors who voluntarily take part in the Bank’s CSR projects and help them develop themselves in this particular field.

In recruitment processes, we aim to carry out our activities effectively with our optimum number of employees and employ young and competent candidates who shall bring innovative perspectives to our Bank. We further acquaint our candidates with our competency-based interview questions, thereby giving them opportunities in areas that match their skill sets. To this end, we carried out recruitment processes in line with the requirements of our business units, IT units, and branches, as well as our Bank’s strategies. With 1,594 new employees joining our family, the number of employees reached 17,263 by the end of 2023.

We value the effective conduct of the orientation process of our new colleagues during their onboarding phase. We facilitate the orientation of our new employees and convey the culture of our Bank to them through our Work Compliance Representative program. This is how we increase employees’ sense of belonging to the organization and ensure that they learn our Bank’s mission and goals better.

Furthermore, we participated in domestic career events within the scope of Talent is Everywhere fairs organized under the coordination of the Presidential Human Resources Office in 2023. In order to increase the visibility of our Bank, to discover talents, to provide information about our internship processes, to introduce our Bank to new graduates by promoting our career opportunities, we participated in fairs organized under the leadership and with the participation of Türkiye’s reputable universities such as Anadolu University, Atatürk University, Erciyes University, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Ondokuz Mayıs University, and Trakya University.

At these fairs, we organized an interview simulation event for students to help them gain experience in the interview process. We provided feedback to the students who participated in the event on how they better express themselves and convey their competencies by providing interview experience with competency-based questions.

As part of the “Connection With Business” career event organized by Bilkent University Young Leaders Community, we made a presentation to students on how to create a CV and conducted an interview simulation with candidates.

We proceeded with our career activities in the field of information technologies as well as in banking. We have concluded our fourth “Hack to the Future” event, which we have traditionally organized with the perspective of “Digital Facilitates.” At the event, awards were presented for the outstanding projects produced by the students by coding. We completed the second Bootcamp program, which has become a culture in our Bank like the Hackathon event. By offering young people the opportunity to design the banking of the future in the field of software, we have enabled the candidates to work at our Bank whose projects were appreciated, among our young software developer candidates, who were carefully selected from among more than 6,000 applications with the “FullStack Bootcamp Program.”

We also offered internship opportunities to university students in our units and branches as part of the “National Internship Program” coordinated by the Human Resources Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye to help them gain experience and make observations about banking. Nearly 2,000 students completed their summer internships at our Bank as part of this program, gaining familiarity first-hand with banking.

At VakıfBank, in 2023, our goal was to provide opportunities for the young people of our country and contribute to their careers. In line with this goal, we communicated with thousands of students through fairs and events and tried to support them in determining their career paths.