Discussing Human Resources and Sustainability with Ayça Güneş Egemen
Nilgün Aytekin // 02.08.2024
This week, our guest on the Interview Blog is my dear friend Ayça Güneş Egemen, owner of Human Network Human Resources firm. Our friendship dates back to our school years. With her kindness, humble demeanor, and different perspectives on matters, she is one of the rare friends whom I consult on important issues.
Ayça, first of all thank you very much for accepting my invitation. Sharing this platform with you means a lot to me. First, can please tell about yourself a bit? Who is Ayça and why did you choose to work in the Human Resources field?
Ayça Güneş Egemen: Nilgün, thank you for this opportunity. You have very valuable and impactful work in the field of sustainability. I will try to share my observations and knowledge from my own field. Our acquaintance goes back to postgraduate education, but another common point is that both of us have engineering education. Our fields were different; mine was Computer Engineering, but in general, engineering education makes understanding and adapting to many topics easier. I can say that my education made my job easier. Instead of progressing and working in the field of Computer Engineering, I felt closer to the field of human resources, especially Recruitment and Placement, influenced by the courses and studies during my postgraduate education. After a short corporate job experience, I founded Human Network Human Resources firm in 2009. For 15 years, I have been providing services in Recruitment and Placement. If I need to relate my process to our main topic, sustainability, finding the field I wanted to work in allowed me to do this job long-term, thus enabling me to sustain my work.
As an expert who has worked in this field for many years, what changes have you observed in human resources over the years? Can you share your observations with us?
AGE: I would like to start answering this question with a brief historical background. The foundation of Human Resources Management was laid in the late 19th century under the name of personnel management, and in the 1980s, it started to be seen as a source of investment rather than a cost element, thus it was named Human Resources Management. The importance of this is that it can be seen as a sustainability movement for that period. Investing in human resources is an attitude that will allow employees to work long-term. Concepts such as performance evaluation, career management, and training began to be included in the 1990s. The first human resources site in Turkey started its activities in 1999. Until today, there has been rapid change and development in the HR field. The pandemic process we all experienced worldwide caused a very rapid change and transformation in working methods. The possibility of remote work has also brought a system that removes the concept of local employees. Additionally, working styles such as freelance and part-time have become widespread. Therefore, there has been a significant change in working styles in terms of human resources. Another issue I can share regarding human resources is the problem of not being able to find the talent to do certain jobs. The reality known as talent shortage is a problem both in our country and worldwide. In Turkey, the fact that talent prefers to go abroad is also a separate problem we face. In practice, we experience difficulties in searching for many positions due to this.
Now the business world has a topic called ‘sustainability’. How does the field of Human Resources get affected in this change process that requires increasing stakeholder engagement?
AGE: In the field of Human Resources, we can talk about the sustainability of both manpower and systems, and HR policies that support social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Today, talents tend to work freelance and become entrepreneurs. This shows that it is more challenging than before for companies to attract and retain talent within the company. It is necessary to focus on what needs to be done on the company side to make talent stay in the organization and make their contribution sustainable. In many companies, flexible working styles that focus on doing the job timely and efficiently are adopted. In some companies, talent can be involved in different projects outside the company. Well-being practices, which we call employee well-being (stress management, work-life balance, supportive work environment, development opportunities, health services, etc.), are being implemented. Educational support is provided for young talents. Environmentally, the approach we call Green HR ensures that basic HR functions are applied with an environmental sensitivity.
I would also like to ask a question about young people entering the business world. What advice would you give to young friends so that they do not struggle in their career journey?
AGE: The career path is a process whose foundation is laid at a young age. There is a saying, “Every child is born with their own story.” Those who are mothers have heard this sentence more. This is actually the reality we realize more clearly as we grow up, that we are not replicas of each other and that we have our own strong and areas that need to be developed. Our education system in our country does not provide an environment that can reveal the individual strengths and areas where children and young people will be successful. It is very important for children and young people to find the areas they are interested in, the subjects they are talented in, and the areas where they enjoy being, are happy, and can make a difference. What do you love doing? This is a question that needs to be thought about and time spent on. As I said at the beginning, this is your own story. It takes effort and responsibility to write this story. Young people should do internships, work, attend training that will develop themselves, and take part in social responsibility projects at every opportunity. It is important for young people to be aware of not seeing any job as ordinary and respecting the effort put in. Working, showing effort, and putting in labor always pay off. Therefore, when faced with failure, it is very important to continue the right actions, address the shortcomings, but still keep going. The career path is shaped by the schools we choose, what we add to ourselves while studying at those schools, our social skills, our relationships with people, and the relationships we establish. Communication skills and the ability to collaborate, being open to learning and differences are important in business life. Considering that professions will transform in the coming years, I see collaboration and relationship management as areas young people should develop themselves.
My dear friend Ayça’s advice is incredibly valuable especially for our young friends. Nowadays, everything is developing and progressing very quickly. The changing dynamics of the business world also affect the career journeys of our young friends. I hope that the experiences shared will help the ones who has recently started their corporate journey.
In this enjoyable interview with Ayça Güneş Egemen, where we discussed the intersection of sustainability and Human Resources, we talked about the changes happening on the people side, which is an important element of sustainability, and the impacts of sustainability in this sense. I would like to thank Ayça for her contributions and I am delighted to share this valuable chat. I hope this interview will provide inspiration and insight to our young friends.
