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SUSTAINABILITY

Equal Opportunities

At Eczacıbaşı Group, we firmly believe in the value of people, which is why we place them at the heart of our human resource strategy. We are dedicated to providing equal opportunities to all individuals, irrespective of their gender, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic that makes them unique. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is an essential component of our company culture, and we strive to create an environment that fosters respect and appreciation for differences.

Equal opportunity practices in our Group go back a long way:

2012: Gender Equality Award from the Ministry of Labor and Social Services.

2013: Signing of the United Nations’ “Women’s Empowerment Principles” and introduction of flexible working schedules.

2014: Inclusion of equal opportunity goals in our Group’s key performance indicators for sustainability.

2015: Renovation of existing lactation rooms in our production plants and offices.

2016: Comprehensive evaluation of our equal opportunities performance and the implementation of the remote working model.

2017: Launching of our equal opportunities platform ALLforALL. Becoming the first business group in Turkey to adopt gender-blind CVs.

2019: Becoming a founding member of Unstereotype Alliance Turkey. Provision of daycare support in our production plants.

2021: Expansion of daycare nursery support to cover all Group sites and locations. Extension of paternity leave to three weeks after the birth of the baby and one day per week for the following three weeks.

On our equal opportunities platform, "birliktebiz", we are redesigning all our business processes, from recruitment to management training, with a special focus on areas within the Group where women are under-represented in the workforce.

We are continuing our efforts by working with our committees for Women in Technology, Women in Sales, and Women in Production to increase female employment, diversify our practices for women, and promote equal opportunities. Our aim is to increase the representation of women in our Group from three different perspectives: women in the recruitment process, women in the workforce and women in management.

Our candidate lists for specialisation and management positions include female applicants, and we ensure female employees who depart are replaced by female colleagues. We guarantee that the physical characteristics and job qualifications of the newly created workplaces have the conditions that can be fulfilled regardless of whether they are male or female.

Birliktebiz inspires and empowers our female workforce through bespoke programs.

The LiderizBiz programme, operational under the Birliktebiz equal opportunities umbrella, fosters the growth of our female managers. Additionally, our DesteklerizBiz mentoring initiative provides guidance to students, who benefit from interaction with LiderizBiz alumnae, to crystallise career paths and skillsets.

We offer specialised assistance to our female staff during their maternity period, alongside our comprehensive efforts to ensure the comfort of our expectant workers. Within our production plants and offices, we provide dedicated breastfeeding areas. To assist our female colleagues in resuming their career progression smoothly upon their return to work, we have expanded our nursery assistance programme to encompass working mothers across our entire organisation.

Together, we do not differentiate between women's work and men's work.

As a Group that recognises no gendered roles, we firmly believe that both mothers and fathers have equal responsibilities in the development of their children. Accordingly, we offer paternity leave for fathers for up to three weeks following the birth and one day a week for the following three months. Additionally, we provide our male employees with relevant training on fatherhood to support them in their new roles. We aim to facilitate a better work-life balance for all Eczacıbaşı employees by introducing flexible and remote working models.

We are aware that our efforts to enhance equal opportunities within our Group are crucial not just for our organisation but for the wider community. With this understanding, while promoting actions that allow women to have an active and equal participation in the business community, we formulate our human resource policies and practices with this perspective in mind. We strive for continuous improvement by monitoring, measuring, and reporting our performance in this area.