Koç University has established an organizational culture that values and welcomes all employees. KU complies with national laws regarding labor regulations, offers paternity leave, provides resources for virtual training and development activities, offers an Employee Assistance Program, and has ample lactation rooms and an affordable kindergarten. Flexible work options and extensive learning and development opportunities are also available. While social practices are inclusive, there is no institutional mechanism to support staff after career breaks, and the general understanding of care responsibilities is too narrow. Women academics struggle more with work-life balance, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

To address these issues, Koç University aims to promote work-life balance and a family-friendly workplace. The university plans to raise awareness about the need for organizational culture change, extend parental benefits to all employees, establish a funding scheme to support research after family-related breaks, redefine care responsibilities in policies and regulations, and develop work-life balance learning and development programs for academic staff.

Additionally, the university aims to reduce gender inequalities in academic care labor and promote the equal distribution of administrative tasks. To achieve this, KU will establish a Care and Equality Task Force, gather data on gendered practices of academic care labor and unequal distribution of administrative tasks, raise awareness about gendered academic care work, and include academic care labor and administrative work in performance evaluations.

Finally, KU plans to future-proof the well-being of its employees and prepare for future shocks like Covid-19 by developing an institutional framework to increase adaptive capacity and institutional resilience. Targeted efforts will protect employees against gendered effects on work-life balance and productivity.