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If you need to recruit professionals for your international team, an employer of record in Turkey can help you quickly and compliantly hire top talent in this attractive emerging market without setting up a local entity.
Located at the meeting point between Europe and Asia, Turkey has seen significant growth since the turn of the century and is home to expanding pools of highly skilled professionals available at competitive rates.
An employer of record (EOR), sometimes also known as an international professional employer organization (international PEO), will hire professionals on your behalf via its local entity, overseeing their payroll and other administrative matters as part of the service.
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Your EOR in Turkey will also have an established recruitment network and be able to help you identify outstanding candidates for the roles you need to fill if you don’t already have people lined up.
That means you can have local team members in place in only the time it takes to find them, with those professionals reporting directly to you and able to be integrated as remote members of your existing team if needed.
At all times, your employer of record in Turkey will work under the guarantee of full compliance with local regulations and assume the vast majority of liability in the event of an unexpected non-compliance issue arising. So you do not have to worry about unexpected legal complications or financial penalties.
If you are interested in hiring in Turkey, contact us to find out how we can assist you.
Turkey: country overview
Turkey is a transcontinental country of 85 million people, located between Western Asia and Eastern Europe, with coasts on the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas. Thanks to its strategic location and maritime connections, this country has historically been a key meeting point of Europe and Asia and home to important cultures, civilizations, and empires. Today, it is a democratic republic affiliated with NATO, the OECD, and the G-20.
Although Turkish is the only official language of this country, Kurdish, Arabic, and Bosnian are also spoken while English and German are popular among younger people in metropolitan areas. In terms of religion, the majority of residents adhere to Islam. The national currency is the Turkish lira (TRY).
The most important cities are Ankara, the political capital, and Istanbul, Turkey’s historical, financial, economic, and cultural center. Some other developed urban centers include the major port cities of Trabzon and Izmir, and the industrial hubs of Bursa and and Adana.
As a result of the mixture of Western and Eastern elements, Turkish culture is vast and diverse, with a strong religious influence seen, above all, in the architecture. Music, cinema, and literature are products of great cultural value exported by this country, while soccer is the most popular sport.
To boost the local economy, Turkey has pursued a series of strategies called the Turkish Economic Model in recent years, which aims to lower interest rates, increase domestic investment, and devalue the lira to boost exports and reduce imports.
Turkish market highlights
Turkey is an emerging economy driven by industry, services, and the agricultural sector, with the latter accounting for around 20% of employment nationwide. Essential export products include honey, poultry meat, and wool.
Turkey is famed for its textiles, as well as being known for automotive and electronics production. Mining is also important to the economy, helping make Turkey one of the world’s most significant producers of steel, boron, and chromium.
Germany is Turkey’s leading trading partner, a country with a large Turkish population to which many young Turks emigrate to study or search for better job opportunities. The wider EU, the United States and Iraq are also key trading partners, so also play a crucial role in the Turkish economy.
The Ministry of National Education is in charge of primary education, which is compulsory and free in public schools between the ages of 6 and 14. Turkey’s higher education system includes state universities, vocational schools, and private higher institutions.
According to the OECD, about 40% of the Turkish population aged 25-64 has a university education and a second or third language is often required for finding employment. Thus, workers here stand out in software development, IT, and services related to the automotive industry.
Companies interested in doing business in Turkey will face a growing market with investment facilities. In addition, thanks to its location, it is a platform for expansion and growth for doing business in Europe and Asia, so an employer of record in Turkey can help you enter new markets.
Hire professionals with an employer of record in Turkey
Working with an employer of record in Turkey has many benefits for companies. This third party will hire employees or international independent contractors on behalf of its clients through its local entity, so international firms will not have to open any representative offices or subsidiaries in this country.
Once the best and most competent talent has been identified, either to join the company or to collaborate on a specific project, the employer of record in Turkey will take care of their onboarding, manage administrative aspects such as payroll, as well as their eventual departure from the organization, all in compliance with local Turkish law.
As a permitted employer, an EOR in Turkey will assume most of the legal responsibility for talent recruitment so its clients will minimize potential legal problems, financial penalties, or termination of operations. This is why working with experienced employers who know the market well is essential.
Companies that choose to acquire the services of an employer of record in Turkey will pay a fee for each person employed in Turkey. While this is an expense for expanding companies, it will likely be less than the costs involved in setting up an entity and hiring the HR staff to manage a local team.
When working with an EOR in Turkey, in addition to being less costly than opening a representative office or subsidiary, companies can relax throughout the process of recruiting and managing professionals, have specialized expertise, and access local talent faster than recruiting people directly.
As part of its offering, an employer of record in Turkey can assist its clients with visas and work permits, especially when they intend to move team members to a new territory for headhunting or relocate part of their operations.
Local regulations your EOR will handle
In Turkey, labor relations are established based on Labor Law No. 4857, which specifies, among other things, labor contracts, working hours, and minimum wages. An EOR, as your legal employer, will be responsible for compliance with the clauses described below:
Contracts: these may be fixed-term, indefinite-term, part-time, or project-based. Note that probationary periods are up to two months.
Working hours: the legal working week in Turkey is 45 hours, with a maximum of 11 hours per day. Employees working on Sundays and public holidays are entitled to additional pay, usually double the average salary. Any working hours over the 45-hour workweek limit are considered overtime.
Minimum wage: TRY8,506.80 per month, (approximately US$310).
Bonuses: an employer of record in Turkey is not required to offer a salary bonus, such as a 13th month’s pay, as in other countries.
Vacations: depend on the employee’s seniority in an organization, but from one to five years, they can enjoy 14 paid days, from five to 15 years to 20 days, and from 15 years or more to 26 days per year with pay. Holidays, on the other hand, are seven by 2023.
Sick leave: employees are allowed sick leave, which varies according to the time of service within an organization. Employees with the same employer for at least one year are entitled to 30 days of sick leave. Maternity leave is 16 weeks, eight weeks before and eight weeks after birth, while paternity leave is five days. In addition, employees in Turkey have three days of paid leave for marriage.
Social security: covers health insurance, retirement insurance, insurance against accidents at work, and unemployment insurance.
Taxes: VAT is 18%, while income tax ranges from 15% to 40%.
For more information about Turkey, consult our Knowledge base.
How to hire employees with the help of an EOR
Any expanding company interested in recruiting professionals quickly and compliantly through an employer of record in Turkey should follow these steps to add the best professionals to their teams in the shortest possible time:
1) Define employee requirements
Hiring internationally requires defining in advance and according to your business objectives what kind of professionals and how many you need. An EOR can also help you determine the profile of the right employees, as they have a broad knowledge of the talent in Turkey and know the local market. This is why looking for experienced recruiters who understand your needs and fit your budget is necessary.
2) Complete preliminary screening
By defining the roles, experience, and competencies your employees will need in Turkey, the EOR will share these vacancies on its recruitment channels, so resumes and letters of motivation will arrive quickly. After a thorough screening, only those profiles that meet the stated requirements will be shortlisted for a first round of interviews.
3) Carry out interviews
If agreed at the outset, your employer of record in Turkey will interview the candidates, but a team within your organization can also interview them remotely. Interviews can serve both as a first filter to screen out applicants and to check whether they have the knowledge and skills required to join your company.
4) Send job offers
Once the interview phase ends, your EOR will present you with the strongest candidates to add to your international team. After you select your new employee(s), the employer or record in Turkey will send job offers, negotiate salaries and benefits if necessary, and sign the contracts based on Turkish Labor Law No. 4857. As an expert in local regulations, working with an EOR will minimize any risk of non-compliance related to hiring professionals.
5) Initiate employee onboarding
In addition to finding and hiring professionals in record time, your employer of record in Turkey will handle the administrative tasks involved in working with professionals worldwide. They will manage payroll, benefits, and vacations. And when necessary, they will also address the departure of these professionals from your company. By minimizing administrative responsibilities, onboarding new employees and assigning them their first tasks will be faster.
Alternatives to hiring via an EOR in Turkey
If you want to try your luck with other recruitment forms than through an employer of record in Turkey, you can open a local entity to recruit staff directly. This means that you will be fully responsible for complying with local regulations and taking care of the administration of your employees.
An entity, either a representative office or a subsidiary, can be a good idea if you plan to have a long-term presence in the Turkish market or if you need to hire many professionals in this country. However, keep in mind that this alternative is costly and time-consuming.
Even if you decide to invest in your entity and bear the expenses it will represent, you can still rely on the services of an employer of record in Turkey. An EOR offers a variety of solutions, so it can be an interim talent recruitment option while you set up your company in this new territory.
However, if opening your local entity doesn’t work for you either, you can opt for hiring contractors overseas. These freelancers work individually or in groups for their own company, which provides services to foreign clients for specific projects.
Contractors are likely to charge slightly more for their services than full-time employees, but they usually have their tools and equipment. Although they are not subject to receiving the same benefits as regular workers, they are protected by specific local rules worth knowing.
For this reason, be aware that many countries are cracking down on the misclassification of in-house employees as contractors. However, if you have an emerging project, freelancers are a good alternative thanks to their flexible schedules and experience.
You can also use an employer of record in Turkey to work with international contractors. Through their robust recruitment networks, these outsourcing experts will supply you with profiles of freelancers, evaluate your needs, and provide you with the best possible services.
Serviap Global can be your employer of record in Turkey
At Serviap Global, we offer international PEO / EOR solutions and contrractor hiring in over 100 countries worldwide, including Turkey. So if you need an employer of record in Turkey, we can help.
We started out in Latin America over a decade ago, where we are known for our unrivaled expertise, and we have expanded internationally to become known as specialists in hiring in emerging markets.
Contact us to find out more.
