What is the recruitment process and why plan it?
The recruitment process is the full set of steps a company follows to find, assess and hire the right candidate for an open role. In many companies it is treated as little more than posting an ad and reading the CVs that arrive. Unplanned hiring, however, leads to costly outcomes: long time to fill, candidates judged against different criteria, withdrawn offers and new hires who leave within the first months.
For foreign companies operating in Turkey, a planned process has an extra benefit: it helps the global hiring standard meet local rules on employment contracts, social security registration and personal data. A structured process delivers three things. First, every candidate is assessed against the same criteria, which makes decisions fair and defensible. Second, expectations between the hiring manager, HR and the candidate become clear. Third, the process becomes measurable: without knowing how many applications each channel brings, how many candidates drop out at each stage and how many days a role takes to close, you cannot improve it.
What are the steps of the recruitment process?
Details vary with company size, but hiring in Turkey generally follows this sequence:
- Headcount approval: Confirm the role is budgeted and whether it is a new position or a replacement.
- Job description and candidate profile: Write the duties, must-have and nice-to-have competencies, and the pay range.
- Posting and sourcing: Prepare the ad and choose channels such as the careers page, job boards, employee referrals and direct search.
- Screening: Check CVs against the must-have criteria and run short phone screens.
- Interviews and assessment: Use competency-based interviews, technical interviews, case studies or work samples.
- Reference checks: Speak to previous managers with the candidate's consent.
- Offer and negotiation: Put pay, benefits and start date in writing.
- Acceptance and onboarding prep: Collect documents, prepare the SGK (Social Security Institution) employment start notification and plan orientation.
How do you prepare a headcount request and job description?
This is the step most often skipped. When a hiring manager says "we need someone", HR's first task is to get answers to a few questions: What results will this person deliver in the first six months? Which skill is missing in the team? Is the role full time, part time or remote? Is the pay range consistent with the company's pay structure?
Separate "must-have" from "nice-to-have" criteria. Listing everything as mandatory shrinks the candidate pool for no reason. For example, "at least 3 years of payroll experience" may be a must-have while "knowledge of a specific software" is a nice-to-have. To set the pay range, compare it with your salary bands and check the total employer cost of the gross salary you plan to offer with the employer cost calculator.
How do you write a job posting?
A good posting attracts suitable candidates and helps unsuitable ones screen themselves out. It should include:
- The job title and the team it belongs to
- The purpose of the role and daily responsibilities (5 to 7 bullets is enough)
- Must-have and nice-to-have qualifications under separate headings
- Work model (office, hybrid, remote) and location
- If possible, the pay range and main benefits
- How many stages the hiring process has
Postings must not contain discriminatory criteria based on personal characteristics unrelated to the job, such as age, gender or marital status. Under KVKK (Turkey's Personal Data Protection Law), it is good practice to link a privacy notice explaining why applicant data is collected and how long it is kept.
Which channels do you use to source candidates?
Relying on one channel limits both volume and diversity. Common channels in Turkey are:
- Company careers page: Brings candidates who already know the brand, at low cost.
- Job boards: High application volume, but a heavier screening load.
- Employee referrals: Usually a good fit; the referral bonus policy should be written down.
- Direct search: Reaching passive candidates through professional networks.
- İŞKUR: The Turkish Employment Agency accepts job postings; some hiring incentives may require İŞKUR registration, so check current conditions in the latest SGK announcement.
- Universities and internship programmes: A long-term source for entry-level roles.
Record the source of every application. After a few hiring cycles you will see which channel produces hires and which only inflates application numbers.
How do you screen candidates?
The aim of screening is to separate candidates who do not meet the must-have criteria quickly and consistently. Turn the must-have items in the job description into a checklist for CV review. Then hold a 15 to 20 minute phone or video call with suitable candidates to cover salary expectations, start date, fit with the work model and basic motivation.
Asking every candidate the same screening questions makes comparison easier at later stages. Getting back to rejected candidates within a reasonable time also matters for your employer brand.
How should interviews and assessment be designed?
Structured methods give far more consistent results than free conversation. Define 4 to 6 core competencies for each role, assign 2 or 3 behavioural questions to each competency and score answers on a shared rating scale. For sample questions, scoring methods and topics you must not ask about, see the interview questions and competency-based assessment guide.
Having at least two people on the panel balances individual bias. Each panelist should record their score before hearing the others, followed by a joint debrief.
How many days does it take to fill a position?
Time to fill depends on seniority, the candidate market and how fast the company decides. Setting a target time for each stage helps. The table below is a sample plan for a specialist-level role; update it with your own data.
| Stage | Target time | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Headcount approval and job description | 3-5 working days | Hiring manager, HR |
| Posting live, collecting applications | 10-14 days | HR |
| Screening and phone calls | 5 working days | HR |
| Interviews and case study | 7-10 working days | Panel |
| Reference checks and decision | 3 working days | HR, manager |
| Offer and acceptance | 3-5 working days | HR |
How do you measure the hiring funnel? A worked example
The hiring funnel shows how many candidates remain at each stage. These ratios help you estimate how many applications the next posting will need. The example below starts with 200 applications:
| Stage | Candidates | Conversion from previous stage |
|---|---|---|
| Applications | 200 | - |
| Phone screen after CV review | 40 | 20% |
| Panel interview | 12 | 30% |
| Final stage | 4 | 33% |
| Offer | 2 | 50% |
| Accepted | 1 | 50% |
Here the offer acceptance rate is 50%. If acceptance is low, review the pay range, the length of the process or the information given to candidates.
How do you prepare a job offer and calculate its cost?
The offer letter should state the job title, gross salary, whether figures are gross or net, benefits, work model, probation period and start date. Net pay is commonly discussed in Turkey, but payroll is calculated from gross pay, so stating the gross amount clearly prevents later disputes.
For example, a gross monthly salary of TRY 60,000 in January 2026 looks like this:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | TRY 60,000.00 |
| SGK employee share (14%) | TRY 8,400.00 |
| Unemployment insurance, employee (1%) | TRY 600.00 |
| Income tax payable (after exemption) | TRY 3,438.67 |
| Stamp duty payable (after exemption) | TRY 204.70 |
| Net salary (January) | TRY 47,356.63 |
| Employer cost, outside manufacturing (19.75% SGK + 2% unemployment) | TRY 73,050.00 |
The employer cost in the table applies to a workplace outside manufacturing. In 2026 the total employer SGK share is 21.75%, and the Treasury discount is 2 points outside manufacturing (pay 19.75%) and 5 points in manufacturing (pay 16.75%). In manufacturing the total cost is TRY 71,250.00; an employer that does not meet the discount conditions pays 21.75% and the cost rises to TRY 74,250.00.
Net pay falls during the year as the cumulative income tax base rises. This employee's cumulative base passes TRY 190,000 in April, and net pay drops to TRY 42,640.40 from September onward. If you quote a net figure, explain this change to the candidate. You can try other gross amounts with the salary calculator and see current rates on the payroll parameters page.
The probation period can be set at up to 2 months in the employment contract, or up to 4 months under a collective agreement. State it at the offer stage.
What should the employer do after the offer is accepted?
Acceptance is not the end of the process; it is the start of onboarding. Prepare a written employment contract, collect documents for the personnel file and submit the SGK employment start notification before the employee starts work. For the required documents see the hiring paperwork guide, and for planning the first days see the employee onboarding process guide.
Tell other candidates the outcome too. Finalists who were not selected form a valuable pool for future roles; before retaining their data, assess under KVKK whether explicit consent or another legal basis is needed.
Which legal points matter when hiring in Turkey?
- Equal treatment: Hiring decisions cannot be based on gender, race, religion, political opinion, marital status, pregnancy or similar grounds.
- Personal data: Collect only data relevant to the role, meet the duty to inform and set a retention period.
- Health data: Health information is special category personal data; do not ask about it beyond a health report the job genuinely requires.
- Foreign nationals: Do not let foreign candidates start before the work permit process allows it.
- Disabled and ex-offender employment: Workplaces above a certain headcount have quota obligations; confirm the current rules with the official source.