2015 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 unrivalled 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 25,697 people on its payroll as of end-2015. As of the same date the average age and length of service of the Bank’s workforce were 34.5 years and 10.5 years respectively while 86% of the Bank’s employees held associate, undergraduate, graduate, and/or doctoral university degrees.

As in previous years, in 2015 Ziraat Bank once again continued to seek out and recruit young people wishing to pursue a career in banking.

Interviews with those who successfully passed the written exams that were conducted in collaboration with Anadolu University on 11 October 2014 to fulfill the Bank’s 2015 manpower requirements were completed last year and a total of 2,008 people were taken on, 973 as tellers and 1,035 as service desk officers.

As a result of written and oral exams conducted in 2015, 144 personnel consisting of 32 assistant inspectors, 93 assistant specialists, and 19 attorneys were also hired last year. Another 85 people joined the Ziraat Bank family in various positions in line
both with the Bank’s needs and with the requirements of laws and regulations.

As a result of new branch openings, mutual agreements, voluntary retirements, and the like, there has been a substantial decline in the number of personnel employed in “Permanent Security Guard” positions at the Bank in recent years. As a result of the shortage in Permanent Security Guard personnel which caused by the transfer of a significant number of people in this job category to Banking Staff positions in 2014, a total of 1,249 people who had previously been employed as guards at the Bank for at least five years and who had been provided by private security companies, were enrolled under Private Security Guard title at the Bank as of 31 December 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. 3,196 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 63%.

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 15-16 April 2015 and eleven people were transferred from their existing positions to new ones.

A management trainee program was conducted for personnel who have reached the Authorized level in order to ready them for branch and headquarters management-level positions and duties. About 350 existing personnel were appointed to branch or
unit management positions shortly after successfully completing this program.

The Finart 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 1,223 transfer requests were submitted in the first round and 1,096 were submitted in the second. Of these, 742 and 708 transfers were approved respectively.

The highlights of the new payroll management system governing salary and other payment practices that was introduced in 2015 are summarized below.

• The salaries of employees covered by the collective bargaining agreement signed on 31 December 2014 were adjusted as mandated by that contract.
• Payments that previously used to be made by hand for such things as return from leave without pay and out-of-pocket expenses and for performance bonuses are now being calculated by the system and added to the appropriate monthly payroll.
• Unearned salary and bonus payments that were made to terminated personnel or to personnel on leave without pay are now being recovered through the Finart system.
• As part of the overall process of systematizing personnel-related payments and collections, interim payments are being made through the bank’s internal system while unearned amounts are being recovered through the Finart system.
• As a result of a project undertaken jointly by the Subsidiaries & IT Management Group and the International Branch Banking Department, a career progression and remuneration system has been set up for the bank’s international operations.

Support was also provided for the preparation of human resources regulations and the formulation of remuneration systems for three members of the Ziraat Finance Group (Ziraat Insurance, Ziraat Life & Pension, Ziraat Technology) and for the conduct of Ziraat Technology’s 2015 recruitment exams.

Human resources consultancy and support services were provided during the establishment of Ziraat Katılım Bankası, a Ziraat Bank subsidiary that was incorporated on 10 October 2014. Support was also provided prior to the conduct of the recruitment exams which that bank held on 27 February 2016 to fulfill its staffing requirements.

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.

Beginning in 2014, a current bonus budget was allocated 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. The same procedure was followed in 2015. 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. Beginning with the fourth quarter of 2014, the bonuses of counter personnel started being calculated based on the performance of the counter to which they were assigned. The same procedure was also followed in 2015.

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.

In the period ahead 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.

Human resources in 2016

In 2016 Ziraat Bank will continue to provide its employees with position-compatible career-path opportunities and with progressive working conditions.

722 of the prospective teller and service desk officer candidates who were shortlisted on the basis of the interviews conducted among 2,000 people who sat for the 11 October 2014 written exams will be hired in 2016.

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 results of the Competency Evaluation System will be integrated into the Career Management System.

Authorized-level personnel who are successful in the management trainee programs conducted in 2016 will continue to be appointed to branch/unit manager positions as needs dictate.

Continuing to provide its employees with new career-path opportunities, Ziraat Bank will conduct an exam for those wishing to transfer to an internal controller position.

A project is currently being conducted to allow requests and opinions concerning changes in employees’ job assignments and locations to be submitted online. 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 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 was largely completed in 2015. Work will continue on updating HR regulations accordingly in 2016.