The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the implementation of new forms of flexible working, for which digital transformation has been key. Thousands of workers have had to convert their homes into places of work, almost overnight. This fact has affected the work life balance, and it became of utmost importance in an ecosystem where work and life were sharing space, to facilitate that balance.

Garanti BBVA, Ekonomist magazine and the Turkish Association of WomenEntrepreneurs (KAGIDER) completed the 14th edition of their Women Entrepreneurs of  Turkey Contest. The winners in the four categories were announced during the awards ceremony, which took place online on March 5th.

The initiative Garanti BBVA Partners continues making a difference with its contribution to Turkey’s ecosystem of entrepreneurs. The program supports the efforts of entrepreneurs in the field of sustainable development and new strategies, also in the year 2021.

The Garanti BBVA Partners Acceleration Program is looking for new candidates. This project aims to promote the development of entrepreneurial initiatives and ensure their sustainable growth.

Garanti BBVA offers its clients an advanced long-term currency transaction service through its Forward product, available on its website's business section.

At BBVA's talent fair held in November to showcase the latest trends in business talent, Ophélie Richard, global head of Talent Acquisition at BBVA, and Nacho Villoch, from the Open Innovation area, shared their thoughts on future job opportunities and career challenges.

The world of work and professional environments are in the midst of a full blown transformation process, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. According to Ophelie Richard, BBVA global head of Talent Acquisition, "the value of assigning workstations to specific individuals based on their hierarchy within the organization has been completely redefined." And this, in her opinion, "opens up great opportunities, from hiring employees regardless of their geographic location to workstation virtualization.”

In June, BBVA’s Group executive chairman held a round of meetings with the bank’s teams in Spain, Mexico, the U.S. and Turkey. At the meetings he went over the situation in each country and shared future challenges. “The pandemic will serve to accelerate our strategic priorities - digitization, data and sustainability - as well as the search for new ways of working,” he explained.

The arrival of COVID has forced many companies to figure out new ways of working, and to accepting the idea of allowing, where feasible, employees to work from home. These new alternative work arrangements may yield substantial sustainability, cost saving and productivity benefits, but also expose of corporate confidential information to new threats. In this context, adopting increased security habits becomes more important than ever.

Rob Brown, BBVA’s Chief Marketing Officer and head of Design and Responsible Business, shares his experience on working remotely during the redesign of BBVA's brand last year. He explains how telework can help enable a global mindset, and how the most important element is to always stay connected as a team.

‘No one left behind’ in the fourth industrial revolution: this is the commitment made by various international organizations including the United Nations and the International Labour Organization. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits to the principles of universality and equality, two fundamental ideas that should be redefined in the context of the digital revolution. How can these principles be ensured in the midst of the profound change produced by technological progress?

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and BBVA are joining forces to provide financing on favourable terms for Spanish SMEs. EU bank Vice-President Emma Navarro and BBVA CEO Onur Genç signed an agreement today in Madrid enabling the Spanish bank to provide EUR 600m to support the investments of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With this agreement, BBVA will be able to offer them favourable financing in terms of both maturity and interest rates.

The 13th annual Turkish Women Entrepreneur Competition, organized by Garanti BBVA in collaboration with Ekonomist Magazine and the Women Entrepreneurs' Association of Turkey (KAGIDER),  recognized the best and brightest women entrepreneurs in 2019.

'Work better. Enjoy Life.' This is the slogan BBVA used to present employees in Spain the new measures for productivity and work-life balance with which the bank aims to foster change in the way work is done. The initiatives are set to promote a more flexible and balanced work environment, that guarantee equal opportunities and the professional development of all employees based on goals and not presenteeism.

Garanti Bank once again hosted women entrepreneurs from a range of different sectors for a meeting in Samsun. Organized in collaboration with the Women’s Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGİDER), the purpose of the 2019 Women Entrepreneurs Meeting is to help open new markets and provide women entrepreneurs the knowledge they need to further develop their businesses. The meeting in Samsun was the first of a series of similar events planned for cities around the country.

Diversity and inclusion have become the keystones around which BBVA structures its response towards the equality and wellbeing of its employees. One of the focal points of Talent and Culture’s policies is tearing down the barriers preventing greater diversity in positions of responsibility. That is why work-life balance emerges as a priority issue to attract and retain talent within the organization.

The digital revolution has transformed the business of many industries and the way in which they offer services to their customers. Carlos Casas and Ophélie Richard, or BBVA’s Talent & Culture area, addressed during Talent Day 2018 how these changes also require companies to radically transform the way in which they work and manage in-house talent.

Big technological companies and some banks such as BBVA are already using artificial intelligence (AI) in their products and services. However, the revolution that comes with this new technology has only just begun. At a conference organized by the IESE Business School, Ricardo Forcano, Global Head of Talent and Culture at BBVA, set forth six key issues that companies should bear in mind when adapting to this new environment.

Natalia Romero of BBVA Francés knows that behind every loan application is a family’s dreams and the opportunity to make them come true.

BBVA Open Talent, the world’s biggest fintech competition, will this year mark its tenth anniversary by working with more start-ups than ever before.

Find out more and register for Open Talent 2018 here.

Fair-trade coffee, quality guarantee, ecological tomatoes… consumers read the labels on the things they eat. But is there any way of checking that what they say is correct? In order to do so, you would need a register of the processes to which the product has been submitted, something blockchain can do.

Following up on her recognition of being named among the Most Powerful Women in Business by Black Enterprise, BBVA Compass Chief Talent & Culture Executive Rosilyn Houston has recently earned an appearance on the publication’s top executives list, 300 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America. Houston’s recognition underscores her contribution to positioning BBVA Compass as an inclusive, innovative and employee-centric organization.

LinkedIn is the most used professional network in the world. It currently has more than 500 users, of which 106 million are active monthly users. It can therefore be difficult to stand out from the large number of professionals out there. Like any social network there are some things you should know to get the best out of it.

Your ability to build strong relationships with colleagues is critical to the success of your career. It opens doors to key projects, personal development, mentoring opportunities and promotion.

Sustainable Development is essential to achieving more peaceful and just societies and the United Nations counts on the private sector to help in this effort. The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) has contributed its experience in the finance sector to the report entitled “Business and SDG 16: contributing to peaceful, just and inclusive societies,” drawn up by the Sustainable Development Goals Fund and the University of Pennsylvania.

The new technologies, and their presence in everyday life, are radically changing the way we look at entertainment, social relationships and work. They have also created new professions that do not yet have a set educational pathway, such as videogame developer.