Hiring in Turkey: What Foreign Companies Need to Know

Hiring in Turkey is one of the main reasons foreign companies choose to establish operations here rather than serve the market from abroad. The talent pool is large, multilingual professionals are available across functions, and salary costs for equivalent roles run significantly below Western European or Gulf levels. For companies building a regional team, Turkey can be one of the most cost-effective places in the region to do it.

But Turkish employment law is substantially different from Anglo-Saxon or Northern European frameworks, and the differences matter in ways that foreign companies consistently discover too late. Here's what you need to understand before you hire your first employee in Turkey.

The Talent Market

Turkey's workforce of approximately 32 million includes a significant pool of university-educated professionals. Istanbul in particular has a concentration of internationally-oriented talent — people who have studied or worked abroad and returned, bringing language skills, international business experience, and local market knowledge.

For roles requiring English, finding qualified candidates is straightforward in Istanbul. For roles requiring Arabic, Russian, or additional European languages alongside English and Turkish, Istanbul's talent market has depth that is often surprising to foreign companies expecting a more limited multilingual candidate pool.

Senior talent — experienced managers with meaningful international exposure — is competitive but available. The most qualified candidates have options, and salary alone is not always the deciding factor: company growth trajectory, leadership quality, and the caliber of colleagues matter significantly to the senior Turkish professionals you most want to hire.

Employment Law Basics

Turkey's Labor Law (İş Kanunu No. 4857) is the primary framework governing employment relationships. It is significantly more worker-protective than US or UK employment law, and in several respects more protective even than most Western European frameworks.

Probation periods can last up to two months (extendable to four months by collective agreement). During probation, either party can terminate without notice or severance. After probation ends, the full protections of labor law apply.

Notice periods after probation are determined by length of service: 2 weeks (0–6 months), 4 weeks (6–18 months), 6 weeks (18 months–3 years), 8 weeks (3+ years). Either party can pay in lieu of notice.

Severance pay (kıdem tazminatı) is the provision that surprises foreign employers most. Employees who are dismissed for reasons other than just cause, or who resign after at least one year of service for qualifying reasons, are entitled to one month's gross salary for each full year of service. This is calculated on total compensation including regular bonuses and benefits, not just base salary. An employee earning 100,000 TL monthly who has worked for five years is entitled to 500,000 TL in severance.

The severance liability compounds over time and becomes a significant balance sheet item for foreign companies that don't account for it from the beginning. It also means that dismissals require careful handling — terminating an employee for the wrong reason, or without proper documentation of just cause, creates significant severance exposure.

Just Cause for Termination

Turkish labor law distinguishes between termination with just cause (which eliminates the severance obligation) and termination without just cause (which triggers it). Just cause for immediate termination includes: dishonesty, physical assault, criminal behavior, divulging trade secrets, or absence without permission for more than two consecutive days.

Performance-based termination is not just cause under Turkish law — it is termination without just cause, which means severance applies. Managing underperformance in Turkey requires a documentation-heavy, process-oriented approach that is more similar to French or German employment practice than to US or UK practice. Companies that terminate for performance without proper documentation face not only severance liability but potential reinstatement orders from labor courts.

Social Security and Employer Contributions

Employers in Turkey are required to contribute to the Social Security Institution (SGK) for each employee. Employer contributions are approximately 20.5% of gross salary on top of the employee contribution of 14%. This means total employment cost runs approximately 34-35% above gross salary — a significant addition that foreign companies building their first Turkish team budget often don't account for correctly.

Annual leave (yıllık izin) is mandated: 14 days for employees with 1–5 years of service, 20 days for 5–15 years, 26 days for 15+ years. Leave entitlements cannot be waived and must be paid out on termination.

Working with a Turkish Employer of Record

For foreign companies that want to test the Turkish market or hire a small number of employees before fully incorporating, Employer of Record (EOR) services allow you to hire Turkish employees through a local entity without establishing your own. The EOR handles all local payroll, social security contributions, and compliance obligations. This reduces the compliance burden for early-stage hires but comes at a cost premium over direct employment — typically 10–20% above the total employment cost.

EOR arrangements are a reasonable bridge for the first 1–3 employees while incorporation is being completed, but they become expensive at scale. Most foreign companies transition to direct employment through their Turkish entity once they have more than 3–5 local hires.

Finding the Right Candidates

LinkedIn is the primary professional recruitment channel in Turkey for most international roles. Local platforms — Kariyer.net and Secretcv — are important for roles where the candidate pool is primarily Turkish-language. Executive search firms with Turkey coverage are well-established and useful for senior hires, though their fees (typically 20–25% of annual salary) are similar to international norms.

Employee referrals carry significant weight in the Turkish job market — the trust network matters in hiring as much as in commercial relationships. A new executive hire who brings people from their previous teams is common and usually productive. Building a reputation as a good employer in your sector spreads through professional networks faster than any recruitment advertising.

What to Get Right from the Start

The foreign companies that handle Turkish hiring well consistently do a few things from the beginning: they engage a local employment lawyer to review their standard employment contract before making their first hire; they build severance liability into their financial modeling from day one; and they treat their first senior Turkish hires as relationship investments, not just resource additions — because those people's networks will shape who else you can hire.

If you're building a team in Turkey and want to avoid the most common mistakes foreign companies make, here's how I work with companies on Turkish operations and market entry.