Turkey Vodafone Foundation Invests in Women-Focused Projects

Vodafone aims to increase the proportion of women employees in Turkey from 44 percent to 50 percent by 2025. Through projects implemented by Türkiye Vodafone Vakfı to empower women, the company has reached nearly 61,000 women over the past 11 years while investing a total of TRY 8.7 million. Vodafone continues to develop projects that encourage women's participation in economic and social life. Through initiatives undertaken both by Vodafone Türkiye and under the Türkiye Vodafone Vakfı, the company, which is one of women's supporters, aims to increase the proportion of women employees across the company from 44 percent to 50 percent by 2025. Meanwhile, through projects implemented by the foundation to empower women, nearly 61,000 women have been reached over the past 11 years and a total of TRY 8.7 million has been invested. The company's projects for women and future targets were shared at a meeting attended by Vodafone Türkiye CEO Engin Aksoy and Vodafone Türkiye Executive Board Deputy Chairs Hasan Süel, Meltem Bakiler Şahin, and Ayşegül Arıcan Şeker.

"A 1 percent increase in women's employment worldwide increases Gross Domestic Product by 80 billion dollars"

Vodafone Türkiye CEO Engin Aksoy, delivering the opening remarks at the meeting held on International Women's Day, said: "As a company, we believe that everything we do must serve a purpose. Our most important goal is to contribute to social transformation as a company that touches every segment of society through the products and services it provides. In this transformation, women, who constitute half of our population, have an important role. According to research, a 1 percent increase in women's employment worldwide increases Gross Domestic Product by 80 billion dollars. If complete gender equality is achieved by 2025, it is possible to provide an additional 28 trillion dollar contribution to the global economy. These figures clearly demonstrate the need to encourage women's participation in economic and social life. We believe that ensuring equality in social life and, in turn, increasing women's employment should be adopted as a 'smart economy model'. With this view, we continue to develop projects aimed at empowering women," Aksoy said.

"We ensure 50-50 gender parity"

Aksoy, noting that the company bases its policies and strategies on gender equality, stated: "We prioritize creating an institutional culture in our company where everyone has equal opportunities. To this end, we have many initiatives both within and outside the company. For example, within the company, in recruitment, we ensure 50-50 gender parity in candidate pools of equal competence and qualifications for the same position. We aim to place women candidates in positions vacated by or transferred from senior and middle management. Today, as Vodafone Group, the number of women employees we directly employ worldwide exceeds 36,500. However, we also provide employment indirectly to hundreds of thousands more women across our global supply chain. Looking at our impact in Turkey, while the proportion of women employees in the telecommunications sector is 30 percent, at Vodafone this rate is 44 percent. The proportion of women employees in middle and senior-level positions is 41 percent. The proportion of women employees at our dealers is 40 percent. In our call centers, the proportion of women employees is 72 percent. Of the 169 employees we have transferred abroad to date, half are women. As Vodafone Group, we aim to be the best employer for women by 2025, and to increase the proportion of women in management and leadership roles to 40 percent by 2030. As an extension of this global target, we have set our own target for Turkey. By 2025, we aim for the proportion of women employees across our company to be 50 percent," Aksoy said.

Support for women employees

Vodafone has many projects worldwide and in Turkey aimed at supporting women. For example, approximately 30 employees in Turkey have benefited so far from the "ReConnect" recruitment program, launched in 2017 by Vodafone Group to bring mid and senior-level management women who had taken career breaks back into the workforce. With the Global Parental Leave policy, implemented for the first time within Vodafone Group by Vodafone Türkiye, all employees whose spouses give birth or who become parents through adoption can use up to 16 weeks of paid leave during a time period of their choice within the first 18 months, and upon returning to work, they can work four days a week and receive full salary during the first 6 months. On the other hand, under the Domestic Violence Procedure published by Vodafone in all countries where it operates, including Turkey, employees who request support against violence are provided with counseling, referral and support services. Employees exposed to violence are provided with up to 10 days of additional leave and financial support, while employees who wish to support a colleague who is a victim of violence can take up to 2 days of leave.

Work from home opportunity for women

The company, through a next-generation work system based on working from home that it implemented within Customer Services, offers individuals who have been away from working life for any reason the opportunity to earn income by working location-independently. In the system where individuals can work as they wish, whenever they wish, and from wherever they wish thanks to digital technologies, housewives, individuals with disabilities and university students are prioritized. The number of housewives Vodafone employs through this system has exceeded 270.

Foundation projects reach approximately 61,000 women

Türkiye Vodafone Vakfı has successfully continued its projects aimed at empowering women for 11 years. During this period, the Foundation has implemented important initiatives such as Women in Technology Movement, Women First in Soma, Red Light, Women First in Entrepreneurship, and Digital is My Business, reaching nearly 61,000 women through these projects and investing a total of TRY 8.7 million. Through the Foundation's ongoing Digital is My Business project, women over 18 years of age receive Digital Literacy and Digital Marketing training in classrooms and in digital environments at public education centers under the Ministry of National Education. The project, which has reached a total of more than 5,000 women in 13 provinces to date, has resulted in 63 women graduates from the training programs being employed within Vodafone Customer Services. According to the project's social impact research, the training provided has generated TRY 5 million in social value in one year, and for every TRY 1 invested in the project, TRY 5 in value has been created. The project aims to reach a total of 12,000 women in 20 provinces in the coming period. The Red Light mobile application, launched by Türkiye Vodafone Vakfı in 2014 with the support of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, continues to be an important tool in combating violence against women. Red Light, which enables women experiencing violence to easily notify law enforcement or loved ones, has been downloaded a total of 371,000 times to date and has reached 1,031,000 monthly active users.

"I am here in every field," standing with women who say this

Through its "I Am Here" movement, Vodafone aims to show that women also exist in fields generally associated with men and considered to be male-dominated, and to break down sexist perceptions, encouraging women to assert their presence in every field they choose for themselves. Publishing a manifesto on this subject, the company achieved a "I Am Here" awareness score of 33 percent in just three months through its initiatives based on the understanding of "I Am Here for 100 percent equality in every field." Meanwhile, Vodafone, which has supported Beşiktaş Vodafone Women's Football Team for the past 10 years, aims to increase awareness of women's football through this support, which includes chest and name sponsorship. Vodafone's "I Am Here" documentary, which recently featured the stories of Beşiktaş women footballers, reached over 3.3 million views on YouTube, achieving significant success. The company will also use revenue from the sale of jerseys specially designed and produced for the tenth year to contribute to the football training of a total of 200 girls.

Stores with all employees, including investors, being women

The company also supports increased women employment in the dealer channel. Through "Women's Labor at Vodafone" stores, where all employees, including the investor, are women, the company provides women with opportunities to increase income, access technology, and become entrepreneurs. Currently, 55 women are employed across 13 stores in 9 provinces under the project scope. Female investors wishing to participate in the project are required to employ only women staff for a minimum of 1 year, while each investor is provided with monthly insurance premium support of TRY 1,500 per employee.

Support for women employment in technology

The company, as in all fields, is working to increase women employment in technology roles. The company launched the Women in Technology Internship Program and the Women in Sales Internship Program for fourth-year female students wishing to advance their careers in sales in the technology sector. With internship programs starting in February this year, a total of 74 people were hired, with 61 percent of this number being women. Meanwhile, under the Vodafone Discover Young Talent recruitment program for university fourth-year students, recent graduates, and those with at most one year of full-time work experience, employment efforts are being carried out with targets of 60 percent women in technology and 50 percent women in total recruitment.