Why is this important?

Due to demographic change, there will be fewer young and well-qualified professionals in the Turkish labour market in near future and, at the same time, society is ageing. It is therefore becoming increasingly important for companies to consider their internal training and professional development options and how they will deal with an ageing workforce. Companies that themselves train and subsequently employ young people can help to develop the specifically skilled workers they need. Offering experienced employees access to interesting professional development opportunities can likewise help a company to position itself as an attractive employer while ensuring that the employees can apply themselves optimally at all times. There should also be some consideration of how the different technical and social skills of young and older workers can be linked with each other. Mixed teams can help to ensure that the employees’ skills complement one other and that there is active knowledge management.

What do the terms mean?

The term employability is understood as the ability of people to participate in working and professional life. The prerequisites for this are, for example, having the technical and social skills which are in demand in the labour market and being of a healthy constitution in order to be able to perform the activities required. A healthy constitution encompasses not only physical but also mental aspects, with the latter requiring extra special attention as they can impact on an employee’s performance and well-being as well as on physical complaints. The structural change that the working world is currently undergoing due to digitalisation is both a blessing and a curse. You can therefore broaden your perspective in this criterion to include, for example, how you use it to establish a healthy work climate.

What needs to be borne in mind?

This criterion focuses in particular on the question of training and professional development, e.g. formalised programmes, special budgets for seminars and vocational training, and a proactive approach to paid educational leave. Please address in particular how you deal with demographic change (e.g. including the form jobs take and the composition of teams) and the challenges of digitalisation. In relation to employee health, please outline how you promote the physical and in particular mental health of the employees above and beyond compliance with the statutory occupational health requirements (see criterion 14) so as to safeguard everyone’s employability (e.g. vocational training on stress management and conflict management).

A1

Report on the goals and planned goal achievement time frames for promoting the employability of all employees, in particular in relation to training and professional development, health management, digitalisation and dealing with the challenges of demographic change.

A2

Report on the strategies and concrete measures for promoting the employability of all employees, in particular in relation to training and professional development, health management, digitalisation and dealing with the challenges of demographic change.

A3

State whether previous goals were achieved and, if so, to what extent, and disclose any goals which were not achieved and why.

A4

Report on the material risks arising from your business activities, your business relations and your products and/or services that are likely to have a negative impact on qualifications.