A research on labor force requirement ın turkish ready-wear ındustry

Today, the Turkish ready-wear industry is undergoing a transformation process from acontract manufacturing to full package manufacturing. The most important input in theproduction of ready-wear is undoubtedly the labor force. For this reason, the success of thetransformation process is possible by meeting the qualified personnel needs of the industry. Inthis study, labor force requirement of the Turkish ready-wear industry is examined. Qualitativeresearch method is used in this study. Job adverts on ready-wear industry are investigated onwww.kariyer.net which is Turkey’s largest human resources website. Firstly the job positionswhich are most needed by the ready-wear industry and then the characteristics required forcandidates for these positions are determined. The obtained data are subjected to frequencyand percentage analyzes in the SPSS 21.0 program. According to the result of the research; themost needed personnel positions of Turkish ready-wear enterprises are "stylist", "merchandiser"and "sales consultancy" respectively. It has also been found that ready-wear enterprises areprimarily seeking communication skills and suitability for teamwork from the personnel who willwork in these positions. The main problem for ready-wear enterprises is to meet the need forpersonnel from outside the production area such as merchandiser, sales consultant, becauseenterprises request professional knowledge as well as marketing knowledge frommerchandisers and sales consultants. However, the marketing knowledge is given in themarketing programs and the professional knowledge is given in the professional departments inTurkey. This situation leads to the loss of time and money since firms have to give profesionaltranings to the marketing graduates for merchandiser position. The opposite of this case is alsotrue; the staff with professional knowledge also needs marketing knowledge. Therefore, theready-wear enterprises need vocational training education institutions which give bothmarketing and profession training to meet the labor force requirements of sales representativesand sales consultants. Because, in all the researches and studies carried out, it is emphasizedthat the contribution of education is important and the quality of labor force should be improvedthrough education.