2016 Activities
In an intensively competitive sector in which there is a significant international capital presence, Ziraat Bank advances its stature as the biggest and strongest nationally-owned bank year after year. Recognizing that it owes its unique and distinguished position in the sector to superior human resources whose unrivaled market knowledge and experience enable them to supply customers with the right value, at the right time, and through the right channel, Ziraat Bank continues to implement the progressive human resources management system that it has adopted.

Seeking to deliver innovative and trustworthy products and services that satisfy the requirements of both the banking industry and of international competition, Ziraat Bank had a total of 25,015 people on its payroll as of end-2016. As of the same date the average age and length of service of the Bank’s workforce were 34.8 years and 10.5 years respectively while 87% of the Bank’s employees held associate, undergraduate, graduate, and/or doctoral university degrees.

As in previous years, in 2016 Ziraat Bank once again continued to seek out and recruit young people wishing to pursue a career in banking.

572 Teller/Service Desk Officers and 24 attorneys joined Ziraat Bank Family, who were shortlisted in the recruitment exams held in 2014 and 2015.

In keeping with the transparent career management approach to which it adheres, Ziraat Bank seeks to train its own managers itself as much as possible. 2,869 existing employees who successfully took the written and oral promotion exams that were conducted in 2015 were promoted to a higher job category. The average pass rate on these exams was 49%.

As a huge family of more than 25,000 members, Ziraat Bank gives great importance to its employees’ job satisfaction and it provides its personnel with career-path opportunities that allow them to advance themselves in different aspects of banking. For example to meet its requirements for internal controllers, interviews were conducted among banking staff on 22-26 February 2016 and twenty people were transferred from their existing positions to new ones.

Two Management Training Program exams were organized in August and December 2016 in order to ready the personnel who have reached the authorized-level for branch and headquarters management-level positions and duties. 43 employees who have successfully completed the technical program, which was the first one of these programs, were included in the managers pool. The interviews for the field program will be held during 2017. More than 200 employees were appointed to branch or unit management positions shortly after successfully completing these programs.

Due to the Bank’s need to hire a certain number of personnel employed in permanent security guard positions and due to the planned transfer of a significant number of personnel placed in permanent security guard positions in 2015 to Banking Positions in order to meet the Bank’s personnel need in 2017, 188 personnel working under the title of Private Security Guards, who had been serving the Bank via a contractor for 5 years and longer, have been transferred to permanent positions as of 30 December 2016 in order to meet the Bank’s need for permanent security guards.

Career Paths, Job Positions and Assignment Charts, which are attached to Ziraat Bank Human Resources Guidelines, have been revised. The new versions that will take effect as of 1 January 2017 have been announced to the entire personnel.

The Fin@rt Transfer Request program is conducted twice a year to increase Bank personnel motivation, minimize operational workloads, and ensure that transfer processes are carried out quickly, effectively, and methodically. Applications to take part in this program are accepted in December-January and in June-July. Last year 812 transfer requests were submitted in the first round and 1,274 were submitted in the second. Of these, 564 and 873 transfers were approved respectively.

The Department of Disciplinary Committee was shut down, and its duties were handed over to the Department of Human Resources, and the revised Disciplinary Guidelines were integrated within the Human Resources Guidelines.

Personnel Transfer Protocols were executed by and between the Bank and Ziraat Participation, and by and between the Bank and Ziraat Teknoloji A.Ş. This allowed easy reassignment of personnel to companies within Ziraat Finance Group, while preserving all personnel rights of relevant employees.

The Articles of Foundation were revised as necessary so that the employees of Ziraat Participation within Ziraat Finance Group will be subject to the Ziraat Bank Pension and Relief Fund in terms of social security, and the procedures were completed. Relevant personnel now have Ziraat Bank Pension Fund social security coverage.

Personnel and employment data of Ziraat Bank personnel subject to the Pension Fund for Civil Servants in terms of social security (4/c), and any information in relation to equalization of their pensions, have been transferred to the Social Security Institution’s Service Tracking Program (HİTAP), and all data for such personnel were integrated into the program.

As a result of the negotiations held between Öz Finans-İş Trade Union, which was established on 23 August 2013 and authorized to make Collective Agreements with the Bank on 9 September 2014, and the Bank, the Collective Agreement was renewed, which will be effective for a period of two years effective from 1 January 2017.

2017 salary adjustments were made in accordance with the Collective Agreement signed on 30 December 2016.

During 2016, systemic practices were introduced with regard to salaries and payments. Within this frame;

• Work was carried out to execute payments to exiting personnel such as Severance Pay, Vacation Payment, and Reasonable Benefit Payment through the system and the payroll.
• Work on the payroll accrual program for the “Automatic Enrollment System” that will enter force on 1 January 2017 was completed in the second half of the year.
• A roadmap was devised for the remuneration of expat personnel appointed on temporary assignment to international subsidiaries of the Bank and standard salaries were defined. In addition, standard salaries commensurate with the Bank’s practices were set with respect to the remuneration of local personnel to be employed by international subsidiaries, taking into consideration country-specific needs.

Furthermore, consultancy support was provided to all domestic/international subsidiaries under the Ziraat Finance Group for the preparation of their HR regulations, and development of their career management and remuneration systems. Work started on the installation of the Humanist system infrastructure at domestic subsidiaries.

Also, organizational support was extended for the written recruitment exam and interviews of Ziraat Participation, which were held in February 2016 and April 2016, respectively.

Human resources consultancy and support services were provided during the establishment of Ziraat REIT, a Ziraat Bank subsidiary that was incorporated on 1 November 2016.

Ziraat Bank Individual Performance Bonus System
Created in 2013 to be compatible with the Bank’s new marketing and sales-focused organizational structure and strategy and informed by the principle that earnings should match success, the Ziraat Bank Individual Performance Bonus System was designed so as to reward employees who demonstrate superior performance and productivity by paying them more. Determined and paid on the basis of periodically conducted individual performance reviews, individual performance bonuses are intended to strengthen the Bank’s customer-focused business model, to promote a marketing and effectiveness-focused approach to work, to increase company loyalty by motiving personnel, and to provide tangible benefits to those whose individual achievements are compatible with the Bank’s corporate objectives.

A current bonus budget is being implemented taking the Bank’s profitability and operational results into account with the proviso that the budget’s total amount not exceeds 8% of the Bank’s aggregate monthly salary payments. This allocation is paid out to recipients as an individual performance bonus at three-month intervals along with their February, May, August, and November salaries based on objectively defined and numerically expressible specific criteria. In this system, which has been set up to focus mainly on marketing in line with the Bank’s strategies and targets, bonuses are paid so as to enhance the earnings of those who contribute more to the realization of those strategies and targets.

Branch segment and scale group rankings that have been determined according to individual performance report cards in line with the numerical performance measurement results at three-month intervals are notified to employees based on their performance bonus coefficients.

The different coefficients that are used when calculating bonuses are determined jointly by business units according to branch segment and scale, individual performance ranking, and job position criteria. Marketing group personnel bonuses are calculated in direct proportion to the numerical performance points in each section. The bonuses of counter personnel are calculated based on the performance of the counter to which they were assigned.

As is the case with other banks in Turkey, the Ziraat Bank Individual Performance Bonus System has been designed to reward superior performance and essentially to increase the productivity of sales personnel. However individual performance bonuses are also paid to operational personnel in branches and to headquarters employees in line with stipulated criteria.

The Bank plans to start differentiating not only the individual performance bonus payments that are currently being made to personnel in headquarters units whose numerical performance is being measured but also in line with the results of the numerical performance system that is being set up for headquarters sales units.

The second competency evaluation was initiated across the Bank as of year-end 2016. The results from the competency evaluation are intended to be taken into consideration in the individual performance system and career management in the future.

2017 Outlook
Ziraat Finance Group will continue to offer career opportunities fitting the relevant positions and contemporary working conditions both at the Bank and at the subsidiaries also in 2017.

Through the recruitment exam planned to be held in August, personnel will be employed for placement at Ziraat Bank’s subsidiaries under the Ziraat Finance Group.

In order to fulfill staffing needs quickly, it is planned to place outsourced personnel in the Bank’s permanent staff gradually during 2017.

In addition, since the permanent Security Guards, who were started to be employed as the Bank’s permanent staff as of year-end 2015, quickly adapted to the Bank’s culture and practices, and due to the prevailing positive impressions regarding these personnel members, it is planned to transfer a significant number of them to the Banking Positions in order to fulfill the Bank’s staffing need in 2017, and to transfer contractor personnel currently serving at the Bank to the Bank’s permanent positions in their respective units/provinces.

Promotion exams will be held for existing employees in the second half of the year as prescribed by the Bank’s human resources principles, procedures, and practices.

The interviews for the Field Management Trainee Program conducted in December 2016 will be held in 2017. Authorized-level personnel who are successful in the relevant programs will continue to be appointed to branch/unit manager positions as needs dictate.

A project is currently being conducted to allow requests and opinions concerning changes in employees’ job assignments and locations to be submitted online through Fin@rt. For the time being, personnel transfer requests will continue to be accepted in June-July and in December-January.

Under the heading of the transformation projects being undertaken to increase both synergies among Ziraat Finance Group members and the operational effectiveness of the Bank’s domestic and international units, the work of matching the staff and job-positions of all of our international units and of revising remuneration systems and other entitlements will be completed in 2017.