Sunay Karamik Ozbek is the founder and Managing Partner of SelectKRM-Karamik Yonetim Danismanlik A.S. After receiving her BA in International Relations from the University of Istanbul in 1989, she worked for four years as special assistant to the CEO of a Turkish holding company that had at the time US$500 million in gross annual revenues. She went on to complete the CSSA program in Administration and Management at Harvard University.

She has held the position of Treasurer and then General Secretary of KA-DER, which is one of the most powerful NGOs dealing with women’s issues in Turkey. KA-DER’s mission is to increase the number of female representatives in both parliament and local government. She is currently a board member of GYIAD, the Turkish association of young professionals, and business people. She is also one of the founders and board members of the Women Entrepreneurs Association. As a columnist of the prestigious management magazine POWER, she wrote articles about management issues for two years. In 1999 she was both producer and chairwoman of a weekly television programme (the first live TV Turkish programme on Human Resources Management) for Channel E.

Sunay was selected as one of the most successful young women of Turkey in 1998 and 1999 by both management and women’s magazines. She lives in Istanbul and is married with a son.

Q. Could you tell us a little bit about the background of your firm, SelectKRM-Karamik Yonetim Danismanlik A.S? In particular, what prompted you to found it and what is its main line of business nowadays?

A. KRM was founded in 1994 and is now one of the leading staffing firms in Turkey. My initial inspiration was quite simply the oppor tunity to help people to find jobs.

The services we now offer include Executive Search & Selection, Temporary Staffing, Call Centre Staffing, Handicapped Placement, Assessment & Development, and Payrolling. The staffing industr y is a young market in Turkey, with a history of only fifteen years. During the 1990s the main line of business was search and selection (or permanent placement in other terms). In more recent years, however, the payrolling ser vice in par ticular has grown rapidly.

Q. Is there increasing demand in Turkey for such staffing services companies or is yours unusual?

A. Economic instability in the last decade, and especially the largest economic crisis in our history in 2001, made our business quite challenging. In 1990s, our added value to clients was to ’find’ the right candidate. However, after the 2001 crisis, the unemployment rate increased to 18 % (and even to 33 % among young university graduates) and with this figure, our added value has become to ’select’ the right candidate for the client. This brought with it the demand of outplacement and assessment & development services.

As in every country, Turkey has its own and maybe unique dynamics. Although the staffing sector is a young market, it is over populated in permanent placement. Despite the lack of formal data, it is known that there are around 3000 competitors in this segment alone. With the success of new government, there is economic and political stability in Turkey and the growth rate is record breaking. With this positive trend, increasing foreign investment, and successful privatisation/liberalisation, permanent placement is improving.

Q. How does the demand differ across the country? Is it principally focussed in Istanbul and Ankara or is there increasing demand elsewhere as well?

A. Istanbul is the main area for the staffing industry. However, since most of the clients have operations nationwide, they need our services elsewhere, especially in Ankara, Bursa, Izmir, and Adana in the south east of the country. In addition to that, there are cer tain industries that are traditionally located in these cities; for example,the tobacco industry in Izmir, the automobile industry in Bursa, the defence industry in Ankara, and food and textiles in Adana. Each have different requirements.

Q. What is the legal position on staffing services companies and is there further legislative change in the pipeline?

A. New legislation for permanent placement services came into force last year, which means that we must now have a licence for permanent placement services. Temporary staffing is not regulated yet but it is expected to be so soon.

Q. What is the attitude to temporary work in Turkey? Is it still regarded as the preserve of the farm labourer or is it becoming accepted in more skilled occupations?

A. We can say that temporary placement is still at an early state here. It is slowly becoming accepted in more skilled occupations, such as clerical and administration, accounting, and call centres, but it is still largely focussed on the multinational firms.

Q. What has been the reaction in Turkey to the no votes in the French and Dutch referendums on the EU constitution? Do you believe they are likely to affect the Turkish process towards accession to the EU?

A. I do not think that France and Holland voted specifically against Turkey and I do not believe the “no” votes are likely to affect the Turkish process towards accession to the EU. The voters of both countries said no to the EU constitution for a raft of other reasons which EU members should analyse thoroughly. Though it is quite clear that the EU as it stands at the moment has serious internal problems.

Turkey is not in any case a new country on the way to EU membership. We entered this road when we signed the Ankara agreement way back in 1962 and we have experienced several set backs since then. Besides the refusal of the EU constitution in France and Holland, Luxembourg initially said formally “no” to Turkey’s membership, then said “maybe” in Helsinki, said “yes” in Copenhagen but only provided certain criteria were met and then finally said yes in Brussels.

To come to this point, we have said yes to several ‘bitter prescriptions’, such as one sided customs union. Our government broke a historical record by making 850 laws, of which 240 concern human rights. After all these effor ts, Turkey will never give up the EU – and that counts for both the Turkish people and the Turkish state.

Of course there may be short term reactions. For example, last December, the rate of pro EU votes was 75% according to the opinion polls, whereas right now it is around 60% in Turkey. But then that is not really surprising given the confusing signals from the EU.

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