OPET - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Campaign of the Year

Company: OPET, Istanbul, Turkey
Entry Submitted By: Business Awards Consulting
Company Description: OPET, which was born in 1982 when its founders Fikret and Nurten Öztürk quit teaching and started selling fuel and mineral oil, opened its first fuel stations in 1992 and became Turkey's leading fuel company by breaking new grounds in a short time.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Nomination Title: OPET Women's Power

Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
The project is launched at the end of 2018; the submission subjects the communication on 2020-2021

In the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum(WEF), Turkey ranks 136th in women's labor force participation and equal opportunity, and 130th in gender gap indexes.

In Turkey, only one-third (35%) of women join labor force, and only 3/10 women in labor force continue working. Female employment rate is 3 times lower than males, only 26.3%. Only 1/5 young Turkish women work. In addition, 6% of working women quit their jobs every year due to household chores.

OPET, Turkey's leading fuel company, has made a radical change with theWomen's Power Project, which it started in 2018 with the aim of contributing to the increase of women's employment in Turkey.By breaking the prejudices of the society and offering employment opportunities to women in positions such as fuel sales officer, station manager and shift supervisor, which are perceived as male-specific occupations with the understanding of"Careers has no gender".The number of female employees at the stations has exceeded 3,000 since the beginning of the project.

OPET, which employs female fuel sales officers in 77 provinces of Turkey, increased the number of female fuel sales officers working at the pump from 27 to 808 and increased the number of female market employees from 576 to 1111 with the Women Power Project aiming at least two women at every station in all regions of the country.

The Women's Power project is an awareness and gender equality program initiated to employ female front-line employees in different positions at gas stations, which is known as a male-dominated job.

OPET Board Member Filiz Öztürk said, “We set out with our project with the aim of creating a significant change not only in OPET but also in our society. We aim to ensure that the perception that the profession has no gender and to show that women can successfully exist in all areas of working life if given equal opportunity‘’

In 2019 and 2020, OPET organized widespread communication campaigns throughout the country to deliver the campaign to all segments of the society, and to ensure that women from different socioeconomic status and education levels are aware of the project.

OPET undersigned a prominent communication project to raise awareness about the low labor force participation rate of women:

In order to draw attention to the low 35% female labor force participation rate in Turkey, OPET collaborated with one of the most listened radio programs spon soring Women's Day program. In the campaign carried out on Twitter, the announcement "OPET offers 35% of the program" drew attention to the female labor force participation rate. It was announced on Twitter that this time would be increased in parallel with the interaction of OPET's awareness tweet, and the campaign attracted great interest and attention in a short time. The campaign received over 2 million interactions and subsequently received a lot of media coverage.

"Women's Power" is not only considered as a recruitment and human resources policy, but also as a social responsibility project implemented to raise awareness of the whole society.

OPET WOMEN'S POWER PROJECT IN NUMBERS

• The number of female employees at the stations throughout the projecthas increased by 75%.
• The number offemale employeesat OPET stations has approached3,000.
• While the rate of female employees at stations was only 8% in 2018, this rate increased to 17% in June21.
• While there were female employees at OPET stations in only 14 provinces of Turkey at the beginning, female employees were employed at OPET stations in77 of Turkey's 81 provincesin 2021 with the Women's Power project.
• While the number ofFuel Sales Officersworking at the pump was 27 at the beginning of the project, it increased to808in June21.
• Women's Market Sales Executive, which was 576 at the beginning of the project, reached1111in June21.
• The number of retailers employing Women's Power in OPET increased by 274%. Considering that OPET stations are scattered all over the country and that the retailers come from very different socio-cultural backgrounds, this rate is quite a success.
• 61%of women working within the scope of the Women's Power Project were employedby high school and university graduates and women with postgraduate degree.

In addition to winning many reputable awards such as Prida Communication Awards, Golden Compass Turkey Public Relations Awards, Mediacat Felis Awards in 2020, OPETS Women's Power was selected as the social responsibility project of the year by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

It also won the Women's Empowerment award at the Sustainable Business Awards and "Honor Certificate for Contribution to Employment" by the Energy Journalists Association.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:Youtube English subtitles are available, if does not appear automatically, please turn on using menu

Apx1: Women's Power Project TV Commercials
Apx2: Women's Power 2021 Communication Campaign Film
You can find the details of the Communication campaign with radio on 2021 Women's Day in this video.
Apx3: 2020 "I am a Woman" Movie
TV commercial broadcasted in 2020 to draw attention to the gender inequality in women's participation in the workforce and to emphasize the idea that women can do anything, from this link.
Apx4: Women's Power Posters, Ads and Pictures; Media Coverage
Apx5: OPET Kilometer Women's Power Magazine
https://kilometer.opet.com.tr/p/pdf3.html?id=3
OPET's quarterly Kilometer magazine is published every 2 quarters as Women's Power issue. In these magazines, current status of the Women's Power project is conveyed, inspiring stories of female employees are shared, and videos are published with promises to female employees.
Although magazines and interviews are in Turkish, they are shared in the link above in order to give an idea to the dear members of the jury.