The Koç Group (KG) is one participating company out of 250 participants in Turkey.
Koç Group: ‘Koç’ or ‘Koç Holding’
Country: Turkey Org. Type: Company Sector: General Industrials
Global Compact Status: Active Employees: 88000
Ownership: Publicly Listed Participant since: 05 April 2006 Initiatives carried out by KG
Projects conducted by the Group Companies: Arçelik, Aygaz, Ford Otosan, Koç Information Technologies Group, Opet, Otokar, Otokoç Otomotiv, Tat Gıda, Tofaș, Türk Traktör, Tüpraș and Yapı Kredi
Joint projects conducted by NGOs supported by the Group, The Vehbi Koç Foundation and affiliated institutions.
KG signed the UN Global Compact in 2006. Since then, the principles have become its framework in shaping its sustainability approach. The aim of KG is to help Turkey trough the pioneering steps the Group has taken in innovation, digital transformation and sustainability, thereby transforming its leading position in the country into global success stories. The Group confirms that KG reaffirms its support of the 10 principles of the United National Global Compact and UN Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). As with all other UN Global Compact participants, the KG has to prepare a COP report. Submitting an annual COP is at the heart of the Participant Company’s commitment to the UN Global Compact and provides valuable information to the company stakeholders. The overall format of a COP is flexible, COPs can be prepared in any language. The COP describes the actions taken and the progress made throughout 2016.
According to KG COP Report:2
In signing the Global Compact, the KG’s aim was to share its new business culture and its cognition of social responsibility internally with its Group as much as externally with its stakeholders and companies around KG. Today, KG stands at the point where it is delighted to have acted in favour of Turkey and the world by demonstrating an exemplary corporate citizenship comprised of Group employees, distributors, and vendors.
KG consistently improves its corporate structure, operations, and social responsibility, all of which are illustrated through its projects in parallel with the principles and values inherited from its founder, Vehbi Koç. Since signing the Global Compact in 2006, KG has been acting with a perspective that reflects these global principles. KG closely monitors the data from portals and principles that KG itself has established within this scope, and shapes its decisions, accordingly.
As a board member of the Global Compact Local Network Turkey, KG continues to support efforts to extend and institutionalise the Global Compact in Turkey. KG signed the UN WEPs in 2015, and has taken an active role in the Global Compact Turkey Women’s Empowerment Study Group, which was established to support the learning processes among companies and contribute to spreading them across the country by merging private sector initiatives on gender equality.
In March 2008, KG published its first Corporate Social Responsibility report. Since then, KG has regularly published COP reports reflecting on projects already completed and the progress of its long-term projects. KG is continuously working to improve and disperse best practice among group companies.
2Koç Group COP Report 2016. This report has been prepared by Koç Group (“Koç” or “Koç Holding”) as a COP for the UN Global Compact and WEP Initiatives. All the information and opinions contained in this report (which does not purport to be comprehensive) were provided by Koç Group and have not been independently verified for this purposes. This report is prepared for information purposes only by the Koç Group.
Talent, Diversity and Inclusion
Viewing its employees as its most valuable capital is a common understanding shared across the entire KG. In its business activities, the KG is keenly aware that moving KG forward into the future depends on recruiting well qualified professionals and generating value jointly with them. To this end, KG companies supports their employees throughout their careers starting at the recruitment phase via human resources practices. KG fosters a fair and equal opportunity working environment that is conducive to both personal and professional development.
Diversity is respected, and no discrimination is made at any stage of work life. Improving and ensuring the efficiency of its human resources processes is the responsibility of the human resources departments of KG companies. All employees, with the support of these departments, implement its human resources approach and the policies, strategies, and processes developed in accordance with this approach. Group companies publish human resources guidelines in order to ensure broad adoption of this approach and to raise awareness among the staff. Efforts to ensure the continuity and sustainability of its workplace culture are guided by the KG Code, which serves as a major reference guide for personnel to consult whenever they need direction.
No KG company employs child labour or engages in forced or compulsory labor practices. KG suppliers are also expected to operate with the same sensitivity in such matters.
To ensure compliance with these requirements, KG collects written commitments from its suppliers and monitors their practices. KG respects its employees rights to join trade unions and participate in collective bargaining. Group staff members can be elected to the local and central management bodies of employee or employer associations in addition to serving as members of their respective professional organisations. Besides these memberships and representations, a number of KG employees are engaged in Provincial Employment Boards, Chambers of Industry and Commerce, and in various civil society organisations to contribute to job creation, the Turkish economy, and societal development.
Gender Equality
KG has adopted providing jobs that respect human rights as a principle. The Group is committed to providing equal rights to all employees. Creating a workplace culture sensitive to gender is an important element of KG’s human-centered employment policies. In line with this perspective, KG has joined a number of local and international initiatives and made commitments to create workplace environments that are sensitive to gender equality issues. In 2013, KG became a signatory to the Declaration on Equality at Work, in 2015, KG signed the WEPs. In line with its commitments, KG stepped up efforts to integrate the ‘Equality at Work’
concept in the management approach and business processes. As a result, KG created a management model, starting from the human resources processes, in order to reinforce gender equality within KG. As a first step toward establishing gender equality, we adopted ‘KG Equality Principles and Implementation Principles’ in our workplaces. Modelled after the KG Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and Implementation Principles, the Equality Principles set forth the strategic background and supporting practices regarding gender equality.
One of the most important elements to ensure the best implementation of core principles and practices stipulated in the Equality Guidelines is to increase the Group workforce’s knowledge on gender equality. To this end, KG developed a series of training programmes with the support of expert civil society organisations, international organisations, and universities, for the various needs of a diverse set of target audiences. These training programmes span a broad spectrum, from training that highlights gender norms to leadership development training for women. The gender equality-related training initiatives are being carried out as part of the ‘Supporting Gender Equality for My Country’ project. The project aims to extend practices that target increase in the share of female employees throughout KG and to create a gender sensitive work environment. Seminars are also organised to raise the
awareness of employees, managers and dealers. As part of the project we collaborated with the Mother Child Education Foundation, UNESCO, the Koç University Center for Gender Studies (KOÇ-KAM), and the Turkey Family Health and Planning Foundation (TAPV).
In 2016, KG continued to support the ‘HeForShe’ movement and collaborated with the global business representatives to find solutions to common gender equality problems. The Koç Holding Chairman Ömer M. Koç took on the leadership role, within the framework of the Impact Champions, which was designed to advance gender equality. This achieved its goal of reaching 4 million supporters by 2017, and has made significant progress towards achieving the goal of delivering gender equality awareness education to at least 100,000 people by 2020, leading to the recognition of gender-sensitive workplace culture to help establish equality.
As a signatory of WEP, KG also took an active role in the Global Compact Turkey Women’s Empowerment Working Group, which was established to support the learning processes among companies and contribute to spreading them across the country by merging private sector initiatives on gender equality.
KG are also a part of the Women’s Employment and Gender Equality Working Group in Business World and BCSD Turkey (SKD Türkiye).
In 2016 the Working Group published a report including case studies on gender equality from Koç Holding and other companies. The report was also introduced by a panel hosted by Koç Holding.
Brand communication activities carried out by Group companies were identified as another important area of intervention, since mass media can be a very effective tool for breaking gender stereotypes. ‘Gender Equality in Marketing Communications’ workshops were held with the participation of marketing and corporate communications teams and advertising agencies of Group companies, and guidelines were prepared. These workshops are now being expanded to include all Group companies and their advertising and marketing communications partners.
Occupational Health and Safety
Fostering a work environment where employees and related stakeholders can undertake their roles under healthy and safe conditions, while eliminating risks that may prevent the establishment of this environment, is an indispensable, core priority for Group companies. To this end, occupational health and safety is managed proactively and systematically across the Group. Occupational health and safety specialists, work place physicians, other health of officials, and service providers in this area employed by Group companies, monitor related developments closely and implement required improvements in line with globally-accepted standards. Of the 85 facilities owned by Group companies, 68 are covered by OHSAS 18001
‘Occupational Health and Safety Management System’ certification. The certified facility ratio stood at 80% as of year-end 2016.
The Koç Holding Occupational Health and Safety Coordination Board is responsible for maintaining the particular importance we place on occupational health and safety. The functions of this board include: Reviewing Group-wide practices regularly on an issue-by-issue basis, developing recommendations for improvement and broader adoption, ensuring that best practices are adopted by Group companies, tracking occupational accident statistics regularly and providing recommendations for improvement and development to achieve the zeroaccident goal, and managing processes to ensure complete compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations.
In addition to the Occupational Health and Safety Coordination Board, which is charged with coordination at Group level, occupational health and safety issue is managed by Occupational Health and Safety Committees at company level. As of 2016, KG companies
have 123 active working OHS committees, 1,270 representatives and 1,506 members working on these committees. Occupational Health and Safety is implemented in Group companies via practices that begin with the recruitment process. Employees are asked to provide health information and medical reports, stating that they are fit and healthy for the job as part of the hiring process. Regular health screenings, and medical examinations, and screenings for special tasks are performed across the Group. Workplace physicians, occupational health and safety specialists, and additional health personnel as needed at the Group facilities provide the requisite health services for the staff.
Health and occupational safety-related provisions of collective bargaining agreements are adhered to fully and completely. In addition to various workplace practices, training activities and projects are also conducted for personnel and their families. Group companies organise training activities to raise and bolster occupational health and safety awareness. As a result, measures implemented against identified risks are expanded in scale and scope. To this end, processes and practices are implemented throughout the year to eliminate occupational health and safety risks identified as a result of risk assessment activities. Training was administered to employees of Group companies and contractor firms as needed. In 2016, 561,916 employee-hours of training were provided to 89,898 personnel of Group companies, and 77,663 employee-hours of training were provided to 29,234 contractor firm staff members.
CONCLUSION
As a voluntary initiative UN Global Compact is corporate responsibility initiative to promote innovation in relation to corporate sustainability by helping to establish the business case for human rights, labour standards, environmental stewardship and the fight against corruption.
Participation in the UN Global Compact is open to any company that is serious about its commitment to work towards implementation of the UN Global Compact principles throughout its operations and sphere of influence, and also willing to communicate on its progress.
On joining the UN Global Compact, larger companies are asked to make a required annual contribution to support their engagement in the UN Global Compact. The COP is a visible expression of commitment to sustainability, and participant stakeholders can view it on the company’s profile page.
The private sector is a key partner in efforts to advance gender equality and empower women. Current research demonstrating that gender diversity helps businesses perform better signals that self-interest and common interest can come together, but ensuring the inclusion of women’s talents, skills and energies—from executive offices to the factory floor and the supply chain—requires intentional action and deliberate policies.
The principles of the UN Global Compact were developed as a voluntary framework and resource for companies dedicated to advancing gender equality. Signing the CEO Statement of Support does not constitute any type of binding obligation. However, signing the CEO Statement is a great way to demonstrate commitment to the first principle: ‘Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality’. It has now been signed by over 550 chief executives of companies around the world.
REFERENCES
Rasche, A. and Kell, G. (2010) United Nations Global Compact: Achievements, Trends and Challenges. U.K: Cambridge University Press.
Lawrence, J.T. and Beamish, P.W. (2012) Globally Responsible Leadership: Managing According to the UN Global Compact. U.S: SAGE
Gonzalez-Perez, M.A. and Leonard, L. (2015) The UN Global Compact: Fair Competition and Environmental and Labour Justice in International Markets. U.K: Emerald Group Publishing,
McIntosh, M., Waddock, S. and Kell, G. (2017) Learning to Talk: Corporate citizenship and the development of the UN Global Compact. U.K: Taylor & Francis.
Leonard, L. and Gonzalez-Perez, M.A. (2015) Beyond the UN Global Compact: Institutions and Regulations. U.K: Emerald Group Publishing.
Sagafi-nejad, T. and Dunning, J.H. (2008) The UN and Transnational Corporations: From Code of Conduct to Global Compact. U.S: Indiana University Press.
UN(2017) [Online]. UN Global Compact. Available from: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/
[Accessed 09 February 2018].
Oppenheim, İ. and Bonnini, S. (2007) Shaping the New Rules of Competition: UN Global Compact Participant Mirror. U.S: McKinsey.
1-BF05-5527
COST VERSUS PERFORMANCE BASED EMPLOYEE HR ATTRIBUTIONS AND