Hiring in Turkey FAQThe questions employers actually ask us.

Do you work with companies that have no legal entity in Turkey?

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Yes, for the search itself. We can map the market, approach candidates and run the assessment before your entity exists. The employment relationship, however, has to sit somewhere — either with your Turkish entity once it is established or with an employer-of-record arrangement. We are not an employer of record and do not act as one; we will tell you plainly where the line is.

How long does a search take?

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We normally present the first shortlist within about fourteen days of agreeing the brief. Interviews, assessment and reference checks usually add three to five weeks, and the candidate's statutory notice period adds a further two to eight weeks depending on their length of service. Plan on two to three months from brief to first day for a manager-level hire.

How is your fee calculated and when is it payable?

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We work on a success basis and the amount follows a fixed rule, not a negotiated percentage: one month of the candidate's gross salary for white-collar roles, one month of their net salary for blue-collar roles. There is no fee to open an assignment and no fee for presenting candidates; the fee is earned when the candidate starts work. Payment terms and the replacement guarantee are set out in the contract before the search begins.

What happens if the person leaves shortly after joining?

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Our replacement guarantee runs six months or more, on the terms set out in the contract. The contract specifies which leaving reasons are covered, the notification conditions and how the replacement search is run — worth reading closely in any proposal you compare, ours included.

Do you recruit blue-collar and volume roles as well as management?

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Yes. That includes shift supervisors, technicians and skilled production and field roles alongside management, in every sector and anywhere in Turkey. The method differs — volume hiring is a different exercise from direct search — and we will say which one your role needs.

Will candidates be interviewed in English?

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We interview in Turkish and report to you in English. Where the role genuinely requires working English we assess it directly rather than inferring it from the CV. Screening only on English-language CVs removes most of the Turkish market, including strong candidates who would do the job perfectly well.

Can you run a search confidentially while the current post-holder is still in place?

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Yes, and it is one of the situations where an external search earns its cost. No advertisement is published, your name is disclosed to a candidate only when they are seriously in play, interviews can be held away from your premises, and references are taken in a way that does not expose either side.

What is the difference between a recruitment agency, a staffing agency and an executive search firm in Turkey?

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Recruitment agencies Istanbul throws up three different business models, and picking the wrong one costs money. Staffing agencies supply people who stay on the agency's payroll and are invoiced to you — used for temporary, seasonal and outsourced work. Recruitment agencies and recruitment consultants find candidates who join your own payroll; the agency is paid once and the relationship ends there. Executive search firms do the same thing at management level, but reach people who are not applying for anything, through direct and confidential approach rather than advertising. Yönetici İnsan is the second and third: we do not supply agency staff and are not an employer of record.

Are you one of the bilingual recruitment agencies — can we work entirely in English?

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Yes. We are English speaking HR consultants Turkey-based, and everything on your side runs in English: briefing, shortlists, consultant reports, interview feedback and contracts. You deal with one named consultant throughout. Candidates are interviewed in Turkish unless the role genuinely requires working English, in which case we assess it directly. That distinction matters: screening only on English-language CVs removes most of the Turkish market, including people who would do the job perfectly well.

What do your HR consulting and HR advisory services actually cover?

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HR management consulting covers four areas, and among HR firms in Istanbul the mix differs from one to the next. Pay: salary benchmarking in net, gross and total employer cost, because those three numbers diverge through the Turkish tax year. Structure: job architecture, grading and written role definitions. Process: designing the hiring process itself — who decides what, at which stage, against which criteria. Capability: training your local HR team. Companies usually start with one of these rather than all four; corporate HR solutions sold as a single package tend to deliver the parts you did not need.

How do we choose between the top HR companies in Istanbul?

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There is no ranking that transfers to your situation. Four questions separate them quickly: how many searches like ours have you run and how many closed; how many candidates do you commit to on the shortlist; how long is the guarantee and which leaving reasons does it cover; do you provide a written consultant report on every candidate. A firm that cannot answer all four plainly may still be a good firm, but not for a role you need to fill on a deadline.

Is talent management consulting the same as talent acquisition services?

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No, and confusing them wastes money. Talent acquisition services bring people in: sourcing, assessment, offer. Talent management consulting keeps and develops the people already there: progression paths, performance review design, succession, retention. If the same role keeps re-opening, buying more acquisition is treating the symptom — the problem is usually on the management side.

Do you provide payroll services?

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No. We are a recruitment and HR consulting firm, not a payroll bureau, and we do not run payroll in Istanbul, Ankara or anywhere else. What we do provide are free calculators for the arithmetic employers most often get wrong — gross to net, net to gross, severance, notice and total employer cost — all built on current Turkish statutory parameters. For running payroll itself you need a licensed accountant (mali müşavir); we can tell you what to ask them.

Which cities and regions do you cover?

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There is no geographic limit. Our office is in Istanbul, but where a search runs is decided by where the candidates are, not by where we sit: all of Turkey, and assignments outside it as well. The volume today sits around Istanbul, Kocaeli, Bursa, Ankara and İzmir, and we regularly run assignments for plants in Anatolia. Outside the main industrial regions — and in cross-border placements — the hard part is rarely finding the candidate; it is persuading them to relocate, which changes both the timeline and the package.

Is assessment included or billed separately?

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Included. Our assessment centre instruments and, where the role warrants it, a case study written around your business are part of the assignment fee, not a separate line item.

What do you need from us to start?

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The role, the location, who it reports to, the team around it, the salary band you have in mind and when the person needs to start. If the band is unclear we will benchmark it and come back with what the market actually pays — that conversation is free and often changes the brief.

For the wider picture — the talent market, pay structure, statutory notice and what a termination costs — see our employer's guide to hiring in Turkey.