Third Anniversary

This is a country making changes. Until recently, the economy was based primarily on agriculture and heavy industry. Today, ‘services’ accounts for almost half of all jobs. This shift is part of Turkey’s aim to join the European Union (EU). Raising living standards, structural reform in a variety of regulatory areas and creating a business nvironment that stimulates foreign investment are key to achieving the country’s EU aspirations. One major area of reform is growing flexibility in the labor market where flexwork and HR services are very much in their infancy.

Foreign investment started growing strongly in 2008. Numerous international companies are looking at Turkey to expand their activities. Anticipating this development, Randstad launched activities in 2006. At the time, our start-up operation was exactly that. Our aim was to use our classic growth model to build up the business. We started in May 2006 by charting the local Istanbul market, hiring our first six graduate consultants. Their focus was search and selection. There was significant demand for this service, especially from international companies entering the Turkish market.

Over the past three years, we have grown. Building relationships is an essential part of how we work with clients. And it has paid off. There are now two Randstad branches and a total of 30 people on staff: one payrolling executive, one accounting manager, two operations managers, three team leaders and 22 consultants. We’ve built a solid client base, not only for search and selection, but we are also now offering some HR Solutions services. We also see real opportunities for launching mass customized and inhouse services. Says Managing Director Altug Yaka, ‘There is still a long way to go. But what we have achieved in the first three years is due to our talented employees. They all have a “client-first” mindset. It’s thanks to their outstanding efforts that we are able to grow our business aggressively. We are ambitious, especially if labor regulations become more flexible. That is what will make us a leading player in the HR sector in Turkey.’