In a poll of employers conducted by Aon Best Employers, Tofaş was chosen “Turkey’s one of the Best Workplaces”. To qualify for such Aon Best Employer certification, a company is rated on the basis of four different benchmarks: employee engagement, leadership, performance culture, and employer brand.

Tofaş regards human resources who are both experienced and creative as a driving force of its ability to quickly adapt to changing competitive conditions and to be a leader. The foundations of the Tofaş human resources policy is laid on employing qualified people who are compatible with the company’s operations and on providing employees with a highly motivating workplace environment.

As of end-2019, Tofaş had a total of 6,714 people on its payroll, of whom 1,543 were those paid monthly salaries, and 5,171 were those paid hourly wages

In 2019, production activities at Tofaş were temporarily suspended for a total of 36 days for such reasons as scheduled maintenance & repairs, stock planning, and personnel taking annual leave.

NUMBER OF PERSONNEL
Monthly salaries	1,543
Hourly wages	5,171
Total	6,714

 

BREAKDOWN OF EMPLOYEES BY GENDER
Male (monthly salaries)	1,188
Female (monthly salaries)	355
Male (hourly wages)	4,832
Female (hourly wages)	339

 

AVERAGE AGE OF EMPLOYEES
Monthly salaries	37
Hourly wages	34
Total	35

 

HIRING PROCEDURES

In the conduct of its recruitment and hiring processes Tofaş Human Resources makes use of reliable tools and methods that will help identify and select the best candidates. These tools and methods include competency-based/technical interviews, video/telephone interviews, Assessment Center practices, personal inventories, and reference checks. When adding to its candidates’ pool, Tofaş not only makes use of extramural resources but also publishes position vacancies through the internal announcement systems of Koç Group companies. As part of its efforts to spot and manage talent at an earlier stage, the company keeps its employee-candidate pool replenished by means of a variety of short- and long-term traineeship programs. Through its Assessment Center, which is used to select personnel for managerial roles, it conducts digital “Pre-boarding” and “On-boarding” programs that support the adaptation and development of newly-hired employees by bringing them up to speed more quickly.

In 2019, the innovative learning & development solutions which Tofaş Academy has developed earned the academy a total of seven (3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze) awards in the Stevie Awards for Great Employers and the Stevie International Business Awards programs.

TOFAŞ ACADEMY

Tofaş Academy provides training & development services for about 15,000 people consisting not only of Tofaş employees but also the employees of its dealership network, Customer Contact Center, and suppliers.

Tofaş Academy defines its mission as “Providing Tofaş and its value-creation chain with a learning experience that is the most appropriate to their ability to do today’s tasks better and prepare themselves for the future” and its vision as “Inspiring the automotive industry and other sectors’ academies with its original techniques, and its pioneering activities.”

With its 265 company-employed instructors, Tofaş Academy is able to take care of some 90% of the company’s training requirements through the utilization of company-owned resources. Programs addressing specific leadership- and behavioral-development needs are also prepared by training specialists and supported by 11 in-house coaches and 95 mentors.

In 2019 Tofaş Academy opened an “Industrial Development School” whose aims are to support the development of employees working in the field and to help them achieve the competency levels that are expected of them. The academy also reorganized the Dojo Work Safety Training Area, a role-playing space in which potential work-related accident situations are simulated, as an in-house center.

“Bir Bilene Sor” (“Ask someone who knows”), a corporate mentoring program that was introduced last year, gives Tofaş employees one-on-one access to mentoring resources. One goal of this program is to promote the spread and transfer of corporate experience and memory. In its first year of operation, 96 mentors and 242 mentees took part in the program.

Stakeholder development

Last year Tofaş Academy continued to expand the scope and range of the technical training that it provides company suppliers through its own resources. Because continual innovation is one of the Tofaş’s strategic priorities, the academy also employs its own resources to support it by providing training, coaching, and counselling support dealing with human-centered design, lean enterprise, and business agility issues.

Tofaş Academy conducted special training & development programs for Tofaş dealership and service network personal through its “Sales School”, “Services & Spare Parts School”, and “Leadership School” all year long in 2019. Last year an integrated digital learning platform was also launched to address the particular needs of these programs while learning systems were made more agile through the use of the academy’s video, virtual classroom, and livecasting resources.

In 2019, the innovative learning & development solutions which Tofaş Academy has developed earned the academy a total of seven (3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze) awards in the Stevie Awards for Great Employers and the Stevie International Business Awards programs.

PARTICIPANT	REPORT HEADING	VALUE
Office personnel	Total number of participants (8 hours classroom training)	5,424 people
	Total number of participants (Distance learning)	23,317 people
	Average training time/person	58.9 hours
Field personnel	Total number of participants (8 hours classroom training)	4,151 people
	Total number of participants (Distance learning)	8,322 people
	Average training time/employee	22.9 hours
Business partners	Number of supplier firms	50 firms
	Number of supplier personnel taking part in training	1,273 people
	Total training time	12,593 hours
Dealership personnel	Total number of participants (8 hours classroom training)	2,513 people
	Total number of participants (Distance learning)	20,635 people
	Average training time/person	19.24 hours

 

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

All Tofaş employees are covered by a performance management system that is designed and managed so as to support a corporate culture that focuses on performance and development. The two crucial cornerstones of this system are “Targets” and the “Leadership Principles” referred to as behavioral competencies. Targets are defined at the beginning of each year and are reviewed between an employee and their supervisor during the remainder of the year.

Field personnel technical competency assessment

A system for assessing the technical competency of field personnel was introduced in 2018. This system was designed to respond to the need for a way to keep track of role-based development which would be capable of adapting quickly to Tofaş’s constantly evolving and changing processes, which would conform to specified quality standards, and which could be managed through a single technological platform. The system allows field personnel to keep track of their own progress and to see what competencies they need in order to qualify for other possible positions within the company.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Every white-collar employee who begins working for a Koç Group company joins the Koç Holding Pension & Assistance Fund as part of the hiring process. Blue-collar workers who are hired by Tofaş may elect to sign up for this fund as well. The fund invests contributions deducted from wages and salaries in marketable securities and real estate assets. Such deductions and their earnings are repaid upon retirement or withdrawing from the fund as a lump sum or pension. Both active fund members and pensioners as well as their spouses and dependent children are covered by health insurance and may also be entitled to various rights such as housing acquisition assistance, financial support to cover specified needs, and insurance against such risks as death, incapacitation due to sickness, and partial disablement.

All Tofaş employees are covered by a complementary health insurance scheme whose premiums are paid entirely by the company. Employees may elect to have coverage provided for their spouse and dependent children as well. As of end-2019, 5,635 Tofaş employees along with 5,660 of their family members were benefiting from this coverage.

To date, 2,171 students have benefited from the scholarship program that Tofaş originally introduced in 2011 for its employees’ dependent children. (2019: 285)

In 2016 the company introduced daycare assistance for the dependent children of female employees in order to encourage women’s participation in the workplace and to help them better balance their working and home lives. 442 Tofaş employees have benefited from this program (2019: 138)

As an employer, Tofaş is a member of the Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries (MESS). The collective bargaining agreement that MESS entered into with the Turkish Metalworkers’ Union on 30 January 2018 expired on 31 August 2019.

New contract negotiations between the union and MESS, which commenced on New term contract negotiations dated 23 January 2020 continued until the end of 2019 between Turkish Metal Union and MESS.

As of 31 December 2019, Tofaş had a total severance pay liability of TL 189,685,046.68, all of which amount is covered by provisions that have been set aside. Employees are regularly and systematically provided with such rights and entitlements as may be mandated by laws and regulations.

The fringe benefits provided to the top management within the year ended on 31 December 2019 are explained in the note 27 of the financial report.

The 22 clubs and 16 teams that have been voluntarily formed by Tofaş employees organized 235 events in 2019. More than 30 thousand employees and their family members and guests attended these events last year.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

The 22 clubs and 16 teams that have been voluntarily formed by Tofaş employees organized 235 events in 2019. More than 30 thousand employees and their family members and guests attended these events last year.

Located at the Tofaş Bursa plant is an employee rec center that contains a restaurant, a cafe, and indoor and outdoor playgrounds that may be used by all Tofaş personnel and their families. Outdoor sports facilities consisting of a synthetic pitch, tennis courts, and a basketball court that were opened last year also give all employees the opportunity to take part in sports. Located within the Mustafa V. Koç Sports Complex at the Bursa plant are a fitness center, basketball courts, and a table tennis area for the use of those who enjoy sports. Tofaş’s headquarters in İstanbul houses a fitness center that may be used by all employees.