DEI Initiatives at Terra Pizza

“We believe in the power of an Inclusive Culture at the workplace”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have become an important topic in business, education and social relations today. The importance of recognizing, understanding and fairly valuing people’s differences is increasingly understood.

Understanding individuals with different cultures, ethnicities, sexual orientations, age groups, disabilities and religious beliefs and seeing this diversity as a richness has a transformative effect on society and workplaces. Accepting people in all their aspects, not just one characteristic, diversifies perspectives and produces more creative and innovative solutions.

We strive to create an environment in our company where everyone can be heard equally, express their ideas freely and develop themselves without discrimination. DEI practices allow us to build a stronger team spirit while unlocking the potential of our employees. An environment where individuals with different backgrounds can have their voices heard and be included in decision-making processes means a brighter future for our employees and our organization.

Inclusive Culture Vision

As Terra Pizza, providing an equal and inclusive working environment is the basis of our local priorities as well as the necessity of our global vision. We aim to transfer this culture to future generations in a sustainable way. Diversity is a value that we see as the fundamental richness of our human and cultural policies. We listen to the voices of all our employees regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or way of thinking and work with determination to develop this richness. Our first step was to understand and develop employee loyalty. We started with a satisfaction survey to determine our priorities. We defined concepts such as loyalty, satisfaction, and sustainability. Being human-oriented and sustainable were the cornerstones of this process. While evaluating the survey results, we considered our company's demographic structure, employee needs, and elements such as work-life balance.

We have taken concrete steps to increase the happiness and loyalty of our employees:

• First Day of School Leave: We gave leave to parents who wanted to take their children to school on this special day.

• Education and Seniority Leave: We have provided special leave to employees who want to complete their education and additional leave to those who have worked with us for many years.

• Hybrid and Flexible Working Models: While implementing the hybrid working model in our headquarters, we offered solutions rarely seen in the sector, such as two days off for our production and restaurant employees.

• Menstrual Leave: We stood by our female employees with the menstrual leave application we launched in 2023.

Women Empowerment

We are taking concrete steps to empower our female employees. We are resolutely implementing the principle of equal pay between female and male employees and ensuring that gender has no impact on pay. We also offer flexible working hours and remote work opportunities so that women can fulfil their family responsibilities. However, we are careful to provide this flexibility in a balanced manner for our male employees.

Our future plans include more comprehensive mentoring and training programs. Fifty percent of our board of directors consists of female leaders. In addition, many female managers are assigned to our branches and administrative staff. The presence of female employees in some positions traditionally considered to be held by men in our company indicates that we are breaking the mould in this area. For example, our IT Director and Production Manager are female engineers.

We implement supportive family policies such as maternity leave, parental leave and childcare so women can continue their careers. We are careful to ensure these rights apply to our male and female employees. In addition, the maternity package that we include in our health insurance coverage helps our employees go through this period more stress-free by eliminating the financial burdens that may arise during the pregnancy.

People with Disabilities

Legal obligations alone are not enough for disabled individuals to have better experiences and equal opportunities at work. We have taken the following steps to increase the participation of these individuals and improve their working conditions:

• Physical and Mental Well-Being: We include services where our employees can receive psychological support under health insurance.

• Flexible and Remote Working: We provide flexible working hours and remote working opportunities for disabled individuals who find it difficult to reach the workplace.

• Technological Support: We quickly provide technological solutions such as special software, voice command systems and screen magnifiers.

• Equal Opportunity: Our Board of Directors guarantees that disabled individuals are evaluated equally in the recruitment, development and promotion processes.

• Inclusive Policies: Our Human and Culture department prioritizes evaluating disabled candidates for open positions under equal conditions. We also have disabled candidates for managerial positions.

• Proactive Monitoring: We regularly evaluate the needs of our disabled employees and provide timely support.

  
  

We aim to ensure disabled individuals can make their voices heard and have equal opportunities.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of TDX Consulting or the Workplace in Action® program. The content and ideas presented by the authors are their personal opinions and should not be considered the official policy or stance of TDX Consulting or the Workplace in Action® program.