our human
capital

The most important asset we have is people. This understanding guides us in our efforts to boost employee engagement and satisfaction. Within this scope, we conducted our annual Employee Engagement Survey also this year to enhance employee experience at the Bank.

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. 13,316 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 2022 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 2.89 and our voluntary employee turnover rate was 2.66 in this period. We will 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 will 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 take action accordingly.

We create employee journey maps to evaluate employees' perception of our Bank, improve their experiences, increase our points of keeping in touch with them, and offer the best end-to-end experience to them. We have created 14 employee journey maps in 2022. Thanks to employee journey maps, we look into their experience acquired throughout their life cycle at our Bank to identify win points and pain points before developing our action plans.

One cardinal goal for us is to pursue an employee-focused approach, stand by employees for every step they take, and to prioritize their expectations and needs in parallel with changing trends of business life. In 2022, we held one on one experience talks with our employees as we intended to be in close contact with them in our communications. We continue Employee Experience visits with a perspective built on employee-oriented improvement and communications.

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 make them smile and feel valued.

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

We offer a business environment where employees will feel happy and safe to ensure that they look confidently to the future and experience the privilege of being a VakıfBank fellow. In the upcoming period, we plan to produce projects that will 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.

2022 events

• Our Goodwill Ambassadors attended social responsibility courses and a book-writing workshop, after which they penned five sustainability-themed childrens' books certified by pedagogs aimed at children aged 4+ and 6+.
• On March 8, International Women's Day, we conducted water marbling (Ebru) and breathing therapy sessions for disadvantaged women.
• Together with Goodwill Ambassadors, we paid two visits to the Hüsnü Ayık Care Center affiliated with TOFD (Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Türkiye). We presented knee blankets as gifts and visited them during the religious holidays.
• During the week for the elderly, we visited the Darülaceze society with Goodwill Ambassadors. We presented the gifts that our colleagues collected to the residents of Darülaceze.
• As a long-running project, we procured cleaning and daily needs of animal shelters with the contributions of our colleagues, animal food first and foremost.
• We managed to help eight people in need have a wheelchair with the collection of over 3.5 tons of plastic lids by employees in support of the plastic campaign conducted by TOFD (Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Türkiye).
• Thanks to the contributions we raised from employees, we planted seedlings for three forests as part of the project named “a VakıfBank forest every year”.
• We have invited Umut Kafe (Hope Cafe) every month to sell products in our Bank in support of KAÇUV.
• 16 social clubs, established to help employees develop and demonstrate their artistic and sports skills, continued their activities. These clubs include theater, water marbling, Turkish Classical Music, Turkish Folk Music, Polyphonic Music, Football, Basketball, Chess, Folk Dances, and Healthy Life clubs in Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir.
• In addition, employees in various corporate tournaments and organizations represented VakıfBank in different areas, such as swimming and chess.
• We organized five concerts, one theater play, and a water marbling exhibition thanks to our employees' clubs. Water marbling pieces and bookmarks that employees in water marbling clubs created were donated to KAÇUV while putting them on sale to employees from all over Türkiye on the occasion of our "Anniversary". This way, we have raised resources to support the traditional art of water marbling as well as the treatment, education, and families of pediatric cancer patients via KAÇUV.
• Running for good at the 2022 Istanbul Half-Marathon and Istanbul Marathon, VakıfBank employees collected considerable contributions for various non-governmental organizations, such as Darüşşafaka and KAÇUV.
• Under the E-Waste campaign we initiated, we disposed of 2,700 kg of e-waste via TUBİSAD and recycled them for charity to Darüşşafaka in 2022.
• The new year dreams of 400 children in need, reached out through the AİP (Urgent Need Platform) Association, were realized by the employees of VakıfBank.
• At the end of the year, we organized the sales event for KAÇUV, Darüşşafaka, and AİP at our Head Office. We supported these organizations with the gifts our employees purchased at these events.

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).

As we are also a signatory of the Equality at Work Declaration pioneered by the Turkish Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Services in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, we support women's participation in all aspects of social and economic life actively and enjoy equal rights. We also encourage women's participation in labor, as can be seen with the women employed at our institution, while taking necessary measures to guarantee their health, safety, and well-being, and striving to maintain a working environment underpinned by equality and peace of labor. Accordingly, 50.51% of our employees are women at our Bank, and the ratio of women at executive levels is 23.6% as of 2022.

We take care to provide equal opportunities among our employees in both recruitment and career development applications. While female employees constitute 54.1% of our employees who rose to a higher title in 2022, we aim to ensure that our female employees, who are mothers, continue their career path after maternity leave and offer them to benefit from the career opportunities equally, thus ensuring a work environment that maintains their work-family life balance. In this context, 99.8% of 471 female employees who had maternity leave in 2022 returned to work.

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. This framework adopts the essential requirement to comply with International OHS Standards and legal requirements. We succeeded to be the first bank in Türkiye to establish the Integrated Management System (ISO 9001-ISO 14001-ISO 45001) and to receive the certificate after the Integrated Certification Audit by obtaining the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety and Management System certificate. We successfully passed the 2022 interim audits and ensured the sustainability of the Integrated Management System.

For OHS-related matters, we work 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 services under the Occupational Health and Safety Policy. We take European Statistics on Accidents at Work-ESAW methods as a reference 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 2022, we provided in-class OHS training to a total of 210 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.

We mapped our OHS risks with a proactive risk management approach. We categorized them over approximately 120 control issues in our annual branch-department visits. Thus, we identify risks in advance and take the necessary measures. Accordingly, we prepared a Risk Assessment Report and Emergency Plan for 369 branches and departments in 2022. Thus, we have completed the Risk Assessment Report and Emergency Plan in all our departments and branches except for 594 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 120 items once every year by maintaining the Integrated Management System’s continuity (ISO 9001-ISO 14001-ISO 45001).

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 needs 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 specialists 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 (alarm 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 a 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. We are taking steps on a path that boosts employees’ motivation by considering their needs 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 needs, 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 sector’s pioneer. Our performance evaluation system makes a behavioral-based competency assessment for our employees’ career planning once a year and analyzes their training and development needs based on the evaluations. While implementing this system, we support continuous change and development with the innovations we make every year so that our managers can make a healthy evaluation and advance the process with an objective approach.

In 2022, 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.

2,073 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 trains its own executives, we promoted a total of 12% of our employees, 54% women and 46% men among them, 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 will play a more salient role.

While developing our performance system, we work to ensure that our data is processed with advanced algorithms and used effectively with artificial intelligence technology with a progressive analytical approach for use of technological opportunities in our targeting methodology. As part of our digitalization journey, we have completed our activities in 2022 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 have deployed 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.

Our goal is to complete the organizational succession software and implement it in 2023 in an attempt to facilitate business continuity, determine the future requirements for managers from today onwards, 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 2023, we will 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;

• Critical jobs will be defined,
• We will ensure that employees in charge of critical jobs and their successors are determined and are followed up on the system,
• We will create programs to enhance relevant employees' competencies,
• With creating a manager backup system, the entire backup system will be monitored and manageable.

Additionally, 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. In addition, we closely monitor such 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 2022:

• We have introduced a change in the organizational structuring of the Allocation Management Departments to ensure prompt and healthy meeting of loan allocation requests, the creation of effective allocation management, and the implementation of a common allocation policy.
• We have created the Retail Sales Officer role for an appointment at Branches to ensure effective on-site management of the retail segment.
• We have established two Regional Directorates in parallel with the current conditions and requirements.

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 provide in-class, live virtual classroom, e-learning, and video-based training on the subjects determined as a result of the training needs analysis conducted as part of the competencies expected from our employees.

We provide training programs under five main headings:

• “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,
• “Information Technologies Training Programs” will support the employees’ relevant business processes working in the information technologies departments and contribute to their professional development.
• “Online Training Programs” include a wide range of e-learning training developed in the fields of professional/technical, individual/managerial competence development, legal obligations, and social responsibility/hobby.

In our training processes, we use a mixed-learning model that also includes the next generation of digital learning experiences. We collaborate with universities and training companies in the design of educational programs. To monitor and evaluate the development of our employees, we conduct an evaluation test on the training portal at the end of the training and measure the training results.

In addition, taking one step ahead of standard training models, we have deployed the AI-based V-Coach project aimed at providing the support/training any employee may need in that particular instant, i.e. during the task that they are performing, on the customized Core Banking Application Screen they are using. We developed an AI-based model to help employees unlock their potential, boost performance, and make sure their learnings are lasting.

Owing to this project, the Bank was deemed worthy of:

• A second place (Silver Award) in the Future Workforce category at Qorus Awards, a global contest where banking sector nominees from 57 countries contend.
• First place (Gold Award) in the Corporate Innovation category at PSM Awards 2022.
• Third place in the "Future of Work" category at IDC Future Enterprise Awards.

Training duration per employee increased by 40% in 2022.

We increased the duration of our training courses per employee by 40%, ensuring employee participation in 46.5 hours of training courses delivered on average made up of 12 hours of in-class and 34.5 hours of digital courses.

To make sure Head Office employees track development in their field and assist them in continuous development, we facilitated some 1,000 employees' participation in courses, conferences, and seminars organized by external organizations and institutions, primarily including the Banks Association of Türkiye (TBB) and Interbank Card Center (BKM).

We Launched our Digital Library

We have launched the Digital Library that carries book summaries, articles, and audiobooks as well as podcasts accessible by employees 24/7 to support our learning culture in addition to the training and development opportunities our Bank offers to employees.

We will focus on employees' learning and support their development by tapping into customized developed journeys and refresher practices in 2023. We will also diversify digital learning channels with e-learning, video courses, and live virtual classes, contributing to employees through hybrid learning models.

OUR HIGHLIGHTED EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN 2022

Sustainability

We organized various training courses with different target groups as part of our strategic goal for sustainability.

• We delivered the "Stress Management" e-course to help employees stay away from the stress caused by their work and private lives on World Stress Awareness Day.
• As part of the Green Housing Project, a deal struck between the Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD), we delivered Green Housing courses to employees who deliver services in this field to raise their awareness on sustainability, energy efficiency, benefits of green housing, and the green housing loan to be offered to customers.
• We facilitated the participation of employees, who have specialized in sustainability, in Sustainability Certification Programs and courses to assist them with their continuous development.
• We delivered various sustainability courses and thus helped employees raise their awareness on this topic.
  • Sustainability Basics and Advanced Sustainability for Banking
  • ISO 9001 Quality Management System
  • ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
  • ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System
  • Zero Waste
  • Code of Conduct
  • Approach for Disability - Sign Language
  • Integrated Management System and Auditor

Data and Analytics School

We undertake activities aimed at improving employees' data analytics skills with the Data and Analytics School. Accordingly, we have organized courses at different levels by considering employees' differing levels of preparedness.

• Aiming to introduce an understanding of using and making sense of data while working with it, and improve their data literacy levels, we designed a Data Awareness Digital Development Program and rolled it out for all employees.
• We designed a digital development program for SQL, which is a frequently used tool for data analytics, and provided it to employees.
• To enhance the skills of employees working at big data-intensive functions, we provided training courses on, first and foremost, Python and SAS software.
• To promote the widespread use of tools supportive of data-driven decision-making processes, we have organized dashboard creation and data visualization courses and workshops where employees can work on their questions with experts.

Certification and Development Programs

• The New Executive Development Program, made up of four modules on orientation, branch management, management skills, and managing business and designed for delivery over time was supported by digital materials consisting of Harvard Business articles and podcasts to help improve newly-appointed executives' managerial and technical competencies.
• We continued the "Product Demand Design Development Program" that we designed to help employees working on the process of new product and service design speak the same language as IT units. We increased the number of employees we trained in this field by 60%.
• We collaborated with Frankfurt School in organizing courses aimed at improving employees' capabilities related to agricultural banking.
• We continued with the TFRS Development Program designed in coordination with Boğaziçi University and enabled employees to obtain internationally-recognized expertise certifications.
• 317 employees successfully passed the development program we designed to help field employees specialize in foreign trade.

Other Good Practices

• 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.
• We delivered training on data security, customer data protection, and compliance with legal regulations to enhance stakeholders' awareness of information security.
• In 2022, we offered internship opportunities to some 900 university students under the Presidential Internship Mobilization Project. Interns were trained and got to know the banking sector and our Bank during this period.
• In 2022, we delivered intensive virtual class courses to help portfolio managers keep their knowledge of new products and services fresh.
• We vocalized our course book on banking regulations and practices and offered it to employees in the form of a podcast episode.
• We facilitated access to global content providers and digital platforms for employees working at IT functions to support their training and development journeys.

√ It has been subjected to limited assurance by the Independent Audit Firm.

In recruitment processes, we aim to carry out our activities effectively with our optimum number of employees and employ young and competent candidates who will bring dynamism to our Bank. Accordingly, to meet our Bank’s increasing workload and the need for employees in IT departments, in 2022, we recruited 659 new employees. As of year-end, our employees’ number reached 16.961 with the recruitments we made throughout the year.

We have prioritized ensuring that the onboarding and adaptation process for new recruits is carried out more effectively. Through our Onboarding Representatives, we seek to facilitate the onboarding and adaptation of our new employees, increase employee belonging throughout the organization, and better convey the Bank's corporate culture, mission, and objectives to newly recruited employees.

Meanwhile, we have participated in national career events with a view to introducing young talents to our Bank and providing information about our career and internship opportunities in 2022. Intending to enhance our Bank's visibility, explore new talents, provide information on our internship processes, present our career opportunities, and earn new graduates for our Bank, we attended exhibitions organized and led by the valuable universities of Türkiye including Ondokuz Mayıs University, Karadeniz Technical University, Atatürk University, Fırat University, Gaziantep University, Çukurova University, Erciyes University, Süleyman Demirel University, Ege University, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, and Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University.

In addition, we attended a series of events in a variety of cities including Gaziantep, Konya, Antalya, Adana, Kayseri, Samsun, Erzurum, Diyarbakır, Van, and Istanbul as part of the "Government Incentives Promotion Days" organized under the auspices of the Presidential Directorate of Communications. At these events, we carried out interview simulations to help students acquire interview experience and assist them with dealing with their anxiety. Offering the experience of an interview made up of structured questions, we then provided them with feedback on how they could more effectively express themselves and convey their competencies to interviewers.

In addition, we granted internships in our departments/branches to help university students gain work experience and some insight into the banking profession. As part of the “National Internship Mobilization Program,”Mobilization Program, carried out under the coordination of the Human Resources Office of the Presidency of Türkiye, we recruited our intern students from among the candidates who applied to the “Career Gate” platform. We approved the application of 865 students to do internships at our Bank’s Departments/Branches for the internship calendars we have created on the Career Gate, with the work we have carried out as part of the “National Internship Mobilization Program.”

At the end of Bootcamp, which we organized for the first time this year, we offered the candidates selected by the Bank the chance to start their software careers under the roof of VakıfBank. This way, we presented an important opportunity for young people wishing to lead a career in the field of software.