Alternatif Bank celebrated “Values Week”, Launched Through Common Sense to Reinforce Corporate Culture as the Beginning of a Special Tradition.

Alternatif Bank, operating in Turkish banking sector for more than 30 years, takes firm steps in its growth journey based on the ‘Prudent and Consultant Banking’ approach. Alternatif Bank, believing that the most important factor in this journey is employees of the organization, also conducts innovative studies to carry its established corporate culture further with its employees. In this context, the Bank organized the “Values Week” event for the values, which it established as the fundamental component of corporate culture, to be adopted and internalized by all employees. Many events, such as workshop activities, contests, and interviews, were conducted during the week, organized with the motto “Every day is a Value with You."

“We identified 5 values that define being part of Alternatif Bank with our employees”

Alternatif Bank Human Resources EVP Hale Ökmen Ataklı, indicating that reinforcement of employee engagement plays a key role in strengthening corporate culture, stated that the ‘Corporate Culture’ project, which defined the philosophy of Alternatif Bank, was implemented in 2019 and expressed “As a result of workshop and common sense activities, conducted with active participation of 30% of our employees, we identified 5 values that defined being part of Alternatif Bank. These values, defined as “We Are Pioneers” “We Work Tirelessly” “We Come Up With Solutions” “We Approach Sincerely”, and “We Embrace Our Clients”, currently play a key role in development of corporate culture and strengthening employee engagement. During the pandemic, which we left behind, we were able to observe the extent of importance of these values. Thus, we organized various events every year after the pandemic came to an end to ensure that these values, operating as guidelines for our personal and corporate development, are internalized by all employees and particularly our young colleagues that recently joined us. As the obstacles to physical gathering were eliminated, we addressed the process with a wider perspective and organized the ‘Values Week’ this year. Within the scope of the week, which we celebrated for the first time in May, we conducted workshop activities, motivational events, contests, and interviews with leading experts under the title AlternatifTalks to reinforce corporate values with more than 300 employees. Besides, we identified voluntary “Value Ambassadors” among our employees to ensure that values are spread throughout our bank and adopted sincerely. After our Value Ambassadors complete the special training program offered within the organization, they will develop projects to ensure that Alternatif Bank values are recognized, adopted, and reflected to behaviors by their colleagues and individuals interacting with them.” 

“We established corporate culture with common sense and opinions of our employees” 

Hale Ökmen Ataklı, emphasizing that ‘people oriented’ approach for employees and clients had an important place at the core of all activities conducted by Alternatif Bank, stated: “As the bank, we consider being people oriented as primarily being employee oriented. We built our corporate culture, also called Alternatif Bank philosophy, on 5 fundamental values that we identified with the common sense and opinions of our employees. We completely identified our corporate and values, which are identified by other organizations by outsourcing consultancy services, within our organization thanks to valuable contributions and devoted works of our employees.” 

“We are building the future of our bank together, shoulder to shoulder with all of our employees” 

Hale Ökmen Ataklı noted that building a strong corporate culture and reinforcing employee engagement constituted the strategic priority of Alternatif Bank, and completed her statement: “The ‘Values’ that we established determine how Alternatif Bank employees will act against any situation that encounter, and define being an Alternatif Bank employee with how we do business. Alternatif Bank employees shape our values with their actions, and our values shape them. Therefore, each of our employees is actually a value ambassador for us. Ultimately, it is possible for an organization to achieve its goals, maintain its stability, and build its future only with a culture with solid foundations, and qualified and well-equipped employees that feel themselves as valuable members of their organization… We are working toward this goal, we say ‘Always Forward Together’, and we are building the future of our bank together, shoulder to shoulder with all of our employees.”