All the statements we have made about “Make an impact”, the brand of sustainable communication we have established with our employees, have attracted attention since the first day. Our Global Human Resources Director Gülsünay Uysal Kaba explained ‘Make An Impact’ in an interview with the press.
Here are excerpts from that delightful interview:
Mrs. Kaba, you have added a new one to your work focused on employee value. What is this MAKE AN IMPACT?
As Teklas, our priority is a sustainable business. This requires a sustainable workforce. This can only be possible with a sustainable ecosystem. With the awareness of all these, we wanted to create a brand for our sustainable communication with our employees and potential employees. This is MAKE AN IMPACT…
In what sense do you aim to create impact?
Teklas is a living organism like every company. The fabric of our organism contains the genuine, honest, determined, quality and different. Every employee here has either made or has the potential to make an impact on Teklas with their ideas. This applies to every unit from production to office, from engineering to sales.
So with this program, are you saying to your candidates, ‘Come, Make an Impact!’?
That’s exactly it. Our Employee Value Proposition “Make an Impact” was born after a long period of labor, research and work. The story behind it is as follows; First of all, we intended to understand our employees better. What does this mean? Our employees are talented and unique to us. I am talking about Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Germany, France, Germany, France, China, Mexico, the U.S. Being a Teklas employee means something special to us. There is a dedication. And at the end of it, a deep-rooted heritage that has been going on for half a century. That’s why we don’t want to lose our talents who work with dedication. So we are taking a step forward and we want to express the unique experience of working at TEKLAS to them in a different way to increase engagement and improve retention. In creating this brand, we based on our current behaviors as Teklas Employees. We are creating impact for the future through sustainable business, workforce, ecosystem and communication.
What do you mean by ‘Sustainable Business’?
Within the scope of Sustainable Business, we reduce the negative environmental, economic and social impacts arising from our activities in the market. Moreover, we consider environmental, economic and social factors when making business decisions at Teklas. We closely monitor the impact of our operations so that short-term profits do not turn into long-term liabilities.
So, you said Sustainable Workforce, what is it? Is it the human resources dimension?
For us, Sustainable Workforce means that we provide a working environment that values our employees and cares about their health and welfare. As Teklas, we employ more than 7000 people globally. Around 2000 of them are in Turkey. We all work hard here, we embrace success and celebrate it together, and we believe that all this is possible only if our own society is prosperous.
Could you tell us a little bit about the Sustainable Ecosystem?
With pleasure; it is critical for us to meet the needs of our current employees and future employees without any outside help. Ecosystems cannot be sustained within unstable boundaries. We believe in the importance of a self-sustaining system, which is why we try to meet the needs of our employees and potential employees as a first priority. We have acted this way in every crisis we have faced. When the pandemic started, we first made plans that would not victimize our employees.
With Make an impact, you are saying that we provide sustainable jobs, human staff and systems to sustain them. And we do this through Sustainable Communication. What does sustainable communication mean then?
This is exactly what we are doing here today. Establishing healthy and open communication with our stakeholders. Local press is very valuable for us. Because we care about the geography we are located in. The employment we provide and the added value we add to the industry affect the environment where we produce the most. We communicate with our employees, customers, suppliers, opinion leaders and civil initiatives in order to demonstrate the progress in our sustainability commitments; the supply chain cycle we live in gives us strength, and the main trigger that creates this cycle is communication.
Can you also tell us about Through Ideas, which is written under the Make an IMPACT logo?
Yes, actually, the logo says Make an Impact Through Ideas. At Teklas, we value new ideas. We listen to the employee. This is the trick of the job. Our suggestion systems are very developed and established in all facilities. Employees make suggestions, we implement those that can be implemented, and we appreciate our employees.
Finally, is there anything you would like to add?
This interview is an important opportunity for us to reach our candidates. I would like to add that I look forward to meeting our candidates who believe that they can make an impact with their ideas. Thank you.
