Hiring employees in Turkey should be run as a controlled sequence, not as an interview followed by paperwork. Before the start date, the employer should confirm the legal employer and workplace, define the role, select candidates fairly, use candidate data lawfully, agree the employment terms, resolve any work-permit requirement, submit the correct SGK entry notification and complete day-one safety and payroll controls.
Last reviewed: 17 September 2026. This guide covers a typical private-sector employee. Sector rules, collective agreements, protected roles and the facts of the working relationship can change the process.
| Hiring gate | Decision needed | Evidence before moving on |
|---|---|---|
| Employer ready | Which Turkish entity and SGK workplace will employ the person? | Authorised signatory, workplace file route and payroll owner |
| Role approved | Employee, genuine contractor, director or another status? | Role description, budget, location, hours and reporting line |
| Selection controlled | Are criteria job-related, consistent and non-discriminatory? | Scorecard, interview notes and candidate privacy notice |
| Offer cleared | Are compensation, conditions and start-date dependencies explicit? | Approved written offer and draft employment contract |
| Right to work cleared | Does the candidate need a Turkish work permit or exemption? | Valid authorisation matched to employer, job and workplace |
| Start authorised | Are SGK, OHS, payroll and access controls complete? | Submission receipts, signed documents and onboarding record |
Confirm the employing entity and workplace before recruiting against a start date.
Step 1: make the employer ready to hire
Start with the legal employer, not the candidate. Identify the Turkish entity that will sign the contract and pay salary, its registered workplace, authorised signatory, SGK workplace number or automatic-registration status, payroll operator and OHS owner. A foreign parent cannot simply put a person on a Turkish work schedule without resolving who employs and reports them.
Use the SGK employer-registration and first-hire guide to determine whether the workplace file was opened automatically through Trade Registry integration or requires a separate route. Do not promise a start date until the company can make the required pre-start submissions.
Step 2: define the role, status and total budget
Write a practical role brief covering duties, manager, work location, normal hours, travel, equipment, language, required qualifications and objective success measures. Then decide whether the relationship will operate as employment. Calling someone a freelancer does not control the result if the company determines when, where and how the person works as part of its organisation.
Budget gross salary, regular benefits, employer social-security cost, variable pay, overtime exposure, equipment and recruitment/onboarding expense. Use the current Turkey minimum wage and employer-cost guide for the statutory floor. For a foreign candidate, the salary offered may also need to meet a role-based work-permit criterion above that floor.
Step 3: publish a fair, accurate vacancy
Turkish law does not impose a universal rule that every private vacancy must be publicly advertised. If an advertisement is used, it should match the approved job, distinguish essential from preferred criteria and avoid direct or indirect discrimination. Law No. 6701 addresses discrimination across access to employment, selection criteria, hiring conditions and employment itself; Labour Law Article 5 adds equal-treatment controls in the employment relationship.
- Describe duties and required capability, not the “type of person” the team wants.
- Use age, sex, disability, marital/family status, belief, ethnicity or similar criteria only where a specific lawful occupational requirement can genuinely be demonstrated.
- State location, work pattern and travel honestly; do not advertise remote work if regular office attendance is expected.
- Do not imply visa sponsorship or a guaranteed work permit before the employer and role pass the official criteria.
- Keep the published version and approval record so later selection can be compared with the original criteria.
This guide explains the hiring workflow. For help finding and selecting candidates, explore Workon’s Recruitment Coordination in Turkey page. If you are looking to join Workon rather than hire through Workon, see Careers at Workon.
Step 4: control candidate data under the KVKK
A CV, interview note, reference, test score and recruiter comment are personal data. Before collection, map the data controller, purpose, legal basis, recipients, international transfers, security, retention period and candidate notice under Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK). Consent is not a universal cure: use the legal basis that actually fits each processing activity and keep data limited to what the role requires.
| Data activity | Safer employer control | Risk to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| CV and application | Collect role-relevant fields through an approved channel | Requesting unnecessary identity, family or health details |
| Interview notes | Record evidence against the scorecard | Subjective or derogatory comments that cannot be justified |
| Reference check | Define scope, source and lawful basis before contact | Informal sharing across employers or undisclosed contact |
| Assessment platform | Review vendor access, hosting, transfers and retention | Uploading candidates to an unapproved foreign tool |
| Rejected candidates | Apply a documented retention/deletion rule | Keeping every CV indefinitely “just in case” |
The Turkish Data Protection Authority has specifically examined data-controller roles, candidate access rights, recruitment-platform sharing and compliance with the principles of purpose limitation, proportionality and retention. Give human reviewers controlled access and preserve a route for candidate rights requests.
Foreign ATS / group-HR control: if CVs, interview notes or assessment data are sent to a foreign recruitment platform, overseas group company or cloud service in a way that constitutes an international transfer, check the current KVKK Article 9 transfer route before uploading the data. As of 17 September 2026, the Authority states that no country, sector or international organisation has yet been designated under an adequacy decision. For continuing transfers without an adequacy decision, an applicable appropriate safeguard must be established; where the official standard-contract route is used, the signed contract must be notified to the Authority within five business days. Do not treat candidate consent as a routine shortcut for an ongoing global ATS architecture.
Step 5: interview and assess consistently
There is no general two-interview legal maximum. Use as many stages as are proportionate to the role, but tell candidates what to expect and avoid repetitive collection. A structured scorecard improves both decision quality and evidence: ask candidates comparable role-related questions, score against pre-agreed criteria and record a concise reason for progression or rejection.
Do not seek pregnancy plans, family intentions, religion, political views, broad medical history or other sensitive information merely because it may affect attendance. If a role has a genuine health or safety requirement, route the legally necessary assessment through the appropriate occupational-health process and restrict access to the result needed for the employment decision.
Skills tests should reflect real work, have a defined scoring method and avoid obtaining valuable unpaid production. A “trial shift” in which the candidate performs productive work under company direction can create wage, SGK and OHS exposure. Do not use an unpaid trial day as a substitute for a lawful probation clause.
Step 6: run proportionate background and reference checks
Employers do not have blanket authority to investigate every aspect of a candidate’s life. Define each check by role risk and legal necessity. Verify identity, qualifications, licences or employment history only to the extent relevant. Criminal-conviction and health information require especially careful legal analysis, access controls and handling; public availability does not automatically make unrestricted processing lawful.
- Tell the candidate which check will be made, why and through whom.
- Confirm a valid legal basis and whether special-category rules apply.
- Use an authoritative source and give the candidate a way to correct an error.
- Share only the decision-relevant outcome with the hiring panel.
- Delete or restrict the underlying material according to the approved retention rule.
Do not rely on informal social-media screening that cannot be connected to the role or applied consistently.
Step 7: issue a controlled written offer
The offer should identify the legal employer, role, manager, location, expected start date, gross compensation, regular benefits, normal working time, contract term and genuine conditions such as work authorisation or verification of a mandatory licence. State that detailed terms will appear in the employment contract and identify who may approve changes.
Use a gross-salary figure and explain variable-pay conditions. A net promise can shift future tax and social-security changes to the employer unless carefully drafted. Do not allow a recruiter or manager to promise a bonus, remote status, severance package or visa result that the authorised employer has not approved.
Step 8: sign the correct employment contract before work
Best practice is to sign before the employee starts. Labour Law No. 4857 requires written form for contracts lasting one year or longer. Where no written contract was signed, Article 8 generally requires the employer to provide a written document within two months stating the main working conditions, daily or weekly time, basic wage and additions, pay period, contract duration if fixed, and termination provisions. That backstop is not a reason to delay a clear contract.
A fixed term needs an objective reason; repeated fixed terms need an essential reason. Put any probation clause in the contract—normally no more than two months, or four under a collective agreement. Remote work should be documented with the required written terms. Align the contract with the broader Turkey labour-law employer framework rather than copying a foreign template.
Step 9: clear the work permit before a foreign employee starts
The Ministry states that foreigners within Law No. 6735 must obtain a work permit or work-permit exemption before starting work in Turkey. A residence permit alone generally does not grant the right to work. An employer-specific permit is tied to the approved employer, job and workplace; it is not a portable authorisation to work anywhere.
Before making the offer unconditional, check whether the role is reserved for Turkish citizens, whether the employer and candidate meet the current evaluation criteria, which domestic or overseas application route applies, and whether the salary and contract match the intended application. Keep the detailed process with the Turkish work-permit guide.
Step 10: complete the pre-start SGK, payroll and OHS file
For a typical employee insured under Article 4/1-a of Law No. 5510, SGK states that the insured entry notification is generally submitted at least one day before work starts, with statutory exceptions for specified sectors and situations. Confirm the exact rule for the hire; do not assume every employee follows an exception.
Use this start-authorisation checklist:
- valid work permit or exemption where required;
- signed contract and policy acknowledgements;
- SGK workplace and employee-entry submission receipts;
- payroll identity, bank and benefit setup using authorised data channels;
- candidate-to-employee KVKK notice and access permissions;
- role-specific risk, OHS training, emergency and health-surveillance controls;
- equipment, system access and segregation-of-duties approvals; and
- manager’s day-one plan and probation-review dates.
After the start date, hand the approved terms and attendance inputs to the monthly payroll process. Recruitment should not keep changing salary or start dates outside the controlled HR/payroll record.
Day-one evidence and the first 90 days
On day one, confirm attendance, deliver mandatory information and training, issue equipment against receipt and show the employee how working time, leave, expenses, safety concerns and personal-data requests are handled. Record any discrepancy immediately—for example, a different workplace, role or manager from the permit or contract.
Use 30-, 60- and 90-day reviews based on the role scorecard. Probation is an evaluation period, not an exemption from wage, SGK, OHS, equal-treatment or documentation duties. If performance concerns arise, record facts and feedback while there is still a real opportunity to respond.
Common hiring failures to stop before the start date
- recruiting before identifying the employing entity and workplace;
- using contractor language for an employee-like relationship;
- collecting broad health, criminal or family data without a role-based need;
- using different interview criteria for comparable candidates;
- letting a candidate work while the permit or SGK step is still “in progress”;
- leaving gross salary, benefits, hours or remote status to verbal agreement;
- treating unpaid productive work as an interview test; and
- failing to hand approved terms and start-date evidence to payroll and the manager.
Official sources
- Labour Law No. 4857 — official consolidated text
- Human Rights and Equality Institution Law No. 6701 — official text
- Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 — official text
- Turkish Data Protection Authority — current international-transfer framework and adequacy status
- Turkish Data Protection Authority — standard-contract notification requirements
- Turkish Data Protection Authority — recruitment-platform decision summary
- SGK — employer obligations and employee-entry timing
- Ministry of Labour and Social Security — work-permit FAQ
- Ministry of Labour and Social Security — current work-permit evaluation criteria
- Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 — official text
Workon can coordinate role design, candidate sourcing and the operational hiring file through its Recruitment Coordination in Turkey service. Where the case requires legal analysis, regulated filings, work-permit eligibility review or payroll treatment, Workon can align the hiring workflow with the appropriately authorised Turkish professionals responsible for those workstreams.
Current-rule note: Hiring requirements depend on the employer, workplace, role, employee status and proposed start date and can change. Confirm the current SGK, work-authorisation, employment, KVKK and payroll position for the actual hire with the competent authority and the appropriately authorised professional where required.
