Kolesa Group: how to build an HR culture that works
How to transform HR from 'the empathetic girl with events' into the architect of ecosystems where people want to stay.
Ksenia Toropova shared in the new episode of the Future HR podcast about a culture where informal slogans are replaced by meanings that matter to people. Over 11 years, from the first HR to managing partner, Ksenia Toropova (Best HRD-2022) created a system that gave the company an employee NPS of 86%, the title of 'Employer of the Year', and a spot in the top 3 employers in Kazakhstan. Why soft skills are the main criterion in Kolesa Group's recruiting, how the company works with intergenerational teams, and why they chose a benefits showcase as their flagship solution—listen to the podcast and learn about the unique culture in the IT company.
Podcast heroes
Host of the Future HR podcast
Maxim Zhurylo is an Oxford graduate, a sports enthusiast who swam across the Strait of Gibraltar. He is the founder of the company and an evangelist of the wellbeing philosophy at Stayf.
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Guest of the episode
Ksenia Toropova is the HR Director and managing partner of Kolesa Group, one of the most well-known IT companies in Central Asia. For the best case in personnel management, Ksenia received the The Best HRD award at the large-scale event X Kazakhstan HR-Forum 2022.
Company history: from newspaper to IT giant
Kolesa Group is an international IT company. Its journey is unique: from a newspaper with a staff of 200, it has grown into a thriving classified platform with a team of 1000. Ksenia has been with the company for 11 years and was essentially the first HR. Initially, it was a newspaper, and after six months, the company transitioned to IT. A year later, Ksenia began to form a team with different directions. Now she manages a full-fledged HR team: recruiting, provisioning, training, personnel management, and HRBP.
Top 3 in Kazakhstan in the Top of Mind category as an employer
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Every 3rd Kazakhstani uses Kolesa Group products
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Multiple winner of the 'Employer of the Year' nomination in Kazakhstan.
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Why formal values do not work
Corporate culture as a set of formal declarations does not work, believes Ksenia. True corporate culture must be built on a solid foundation—values that matter to people and are important for business. It does not appear out of thin air, and it can be influenced. In Kolesa Group, the foundation of corporate culture is the company's mission and values. For the HR director, building such a culture is a key task. 'The story is not about top managers needing to come up with beautiful words, hang them around the office, and wait for a miracle. An effective corporate culture is a system,' Ksenia explains. It is built on three key things.
- The behavior patterns of top management. The actions of the leadership set the tone for the entire company.
- Transparency of communications. Explaining to the team why certain decisions are made.
- Values that truly 'live' in the team, not just on posters. The HR's task is to identify, formalize, and digitize what is truly important, rather than what is imposed from above.
After identifying and formalizing values, HR can integrate them into all business processes—from recruiting and onboarding to decision-making systems—creating a sustainable HR ecosystem.
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How to convey values to employees
Ksenia outlines two key principles of Kolesa Group. The first principle from marketing is '5 touchpoints'. For an employee to remember the company's values and vision, they must encounter them at least 5 times from different sources: posters in the office, CEO speeches, explanations of management decisions, internal articles, communication from HR and leaders. Through transparent communication, every employee will know at least half of the values. When building communication, it is critically important to speak the same language as the team, rather than quoting from a textbook.
'Values should sound like your team speaks, not like in a management textbook,' she insists. 'Radical honesty in formulations works better than formalities. If we had named the value of development “Development is light”, we would not have been understood. For us, it sounds 'Evolve or die' and hangs on the walls throughout the office. The value of courage is defined on my bracelet as 'Don’t be afraid and surprise'. Provocative but sincere formulations are part of our DNA; they cannot be forgotten or ignored.'
Ksenia Toropova
HRD of Kolesa Group
How a leader influences the culture in a company
Ksenia believes that the DNA of a leader inevitably shapes the foundation of corporate culture. 'The values and style of the CEO are always deeply embedded in the cultural code of the organization, even if the team is predominantly grown from within,' she emphasizes. Thus, after a change of CEO at Kolesa Group, the company felt a transformation in corporate culture.
'The culture did not become worse or better—it naturally evolved,' explains the HR director. 'Even with the declared values intact, a new leader brings a unique vision and behavior patterns. People with the same principles can perceive the world and act differently. Therefore, a change of CEO inevitably leads to a transformation of corporate culture.'
Ksenia Toropova
HRD of Kolesa Group
Recruitment & growth: why soft skills come first
Ksenia believes that a leader's DNA inevitably shapes the foundation of corporate culture. "The values and style of the CEO are always deeply embedded in the cultural code of the organization, even if the team is predominantly grown from within," she emphasizes. Thus, after the change of CEO at Kolesa Group, the company felt a transformation in its corporate culture.
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Maxim: How do you deal with new employees when the culture has already, as you said, been squeezed and formulated? When new people come in, how do you adapt them?
Ksenia: The adaptation of new employees to the Kolesa Group culture begins even at the recruitment stage. "Corporate culture is a system, and selection is a critically important part of it," asserts Toropova. "We consciously build recruitment based on our values to initially find people with whom we will be comfortable working." Here's how it works:
- Double checklist. Each vacancy is evaluated based on two independent criteria: professional skills (hard skills) and alignment with the company's values (soft skills).
- Values-based interviews. Soft skills are assessed through competency interviews, where the competencies themselves are the values of Kolesa Group. "This allows us to find candidates who 'match' with us," explains the HR director.
However, there are no ideal candidates; you can work hard on the recruitment process and find one suitable person out of a hundred, which is why internal training and career growth are also tied to values.
"A senior developer dreaming of becoming a team lead or architect can only grow if they align with the company's values," emphasizes the HRD. "The manager will identify gaps through individual development plans (IDPs) and will purposefully 'develop' the employee in these areas. The higher the position, the stricter the requirements for personal qualities."
"This reminds me of a quote from Tolstoy, that all families are unhappy in their own way, but happy in the same way. That is, the importance of soft skills is echoed in almost every study, in every interview. When a company pays attention to soft skills, when it focuses on culture, when this is the foundation, everything else builds upon it. If this foundation is lacking, then everything else does not perform. Of course, we also make mistakes, but we learn from them. The principle 'When it seems, it is not just a feeling' is one of them."
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Maxim: How do you work with multi-generational teams? Surely you have young people coming in right after university, who are 21-22 years old, or even students on internships. And surely you have employees who have been with you for a long time. Is there a challenge for HR here?
Ksenia: The company has opted to abandon rigid frameworks. The younger the team, the more important adaptability becomes. The second point is positive psychology, for example, shifting the focus from 'fixing weaknesses' to 'enhancing natural talents.' Ksenia emphasizes that approaches are changing, and the first to adapt to these changes should be the managers.
"Some complain about the new generation, but these are people with amazing thinking; they view every situation differently than you might have thought in your own mind. This is their advantage, and the manager's task is to ensure they always see meaning in it. That is, this generation is about meaning and initiative."
If you were to ask a random employee of Kolesa Group about its values, what would the answer be?
Employees of Kolesa Group define the corporate culture as "It's about people and development." At its core is a human-centric approach without extremes — not creating greenhouse conditions, but acknowledging the simple fact: "we hire not just an expert, but a whole person — with their professional skills, social role, and personal circumstances."
This principle is implemented through:
- Digitized grading. Complete transparency of skill requirements (hard and soft) and salary ranges at all levels. "People see a clear growth path — this is the foundation of trust."
- Creating a comfortable working environment without sacrificing productivity. The company has developed a hybrid work model: the possibility of 100% remote work or flexible hours by agreement with the manager. "This improves quality of life without compromising productivity."
- Flexibility in addressing employees' personal issues and loyalty to individual needs.
"We recognize that life situations are changeable," adds Ksenia Toropova. "The company's task is to adapt to these changes in an environmentally friendly way, maintaining a balance between humanity and efficiency."
Ksenia Toropova
HRD of Kolesa Group
About successful and unsuccessful cases
The experiment with a systematic corporate catering turned out to be a failure. Despite the availability of snacks and event treats, the attempt to implement full-fledged meals led the company towards a consumerist attitude, which contradicts the philosophy of adult relationships with employees.
The flagship solution is the "benefits showcase." The company has implemented a personalized system that allows avoiding popular offers. An employee receives a personal annual budget that can be spent on 20+ options in their personal account, from private health insurance (in addition to the basic DMS) for the employee and family to airline tickets and personal requests.
"Employees choose what is relevant for them. We are open to new options at the team's request," says Ksenia.
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Burnout in the workplace: how Kolesa cares for the well-being of its people
At the core of burnout is an energy imbalance: a person gives more resources than they replenish through motivation or rest, explains Ksenia. For example, routine tasks (operations) can subtly drain energy if not compensated by development. The company addresses the issue comprehensively. "We don't have a single pill to solve all burnout; we tackle everything depending on the specific situation."
Problem:
Burnout due to lack of prospects.
Solution:
A grading system with transparent development tracks (hard/soft skills + individual development plans) eliminates burnout from stagnation.
When an employee sees how to become an architect from a senior developer, the feeling of hopelessness disappears.
Problem:
Exhaustion at work
Solution:
Non-negotiable vacations and flexible schedules work as "energy gateways".
It is impossible to 'save up' vacation time — this is policy, not a recommendation.
Problem:
Lack of control over the situation
Solution:
Proactive diagnostics, including regular 360° assessments, coaching during career track crises, and conflict discussions with managers.
The value of "Mental maturity" means: the company creates conditions, but the employee manages their own resources and is responsible for their own state; this is the antithesis of 'greenhouse conditions'.
Employee motivation
Competitive salaries in IT are not an advantage but a basic requirement, yet money does not solve the problem of burnout or motivation. The company's experience shows that key drivers become: status roles (new positions as recognition of achievements), public recognition, and the ability to influence decisions. This is not 'vanity', but a natural human need for significance. Kolesa consciously cultivates such intangible incentives.
In Kolesa Group, intangible investments are a conscious strategy, emphasizes the HRD. — It is based on three principles:
- Soft skills are more important than expertise. "No matter the level of the specialist — without alignment with values, we will refuse. HR retains the right of veto even on the top expert in the market."
- Loyalty economy: "internally grown employees are more effective and loyal. The cost of replacing a person is always higher than investing in their development."
- Priority of internal growth: "every external hire of a leader is my little failure. Our goal is to grow leaders from within."
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The future of HR: predictions for the
evolution of HR approaches
Key vectors of change, according to Kolesa Group's HRD:
Hybrid work as the new norm
Remote formats will cease to be a privilege. Companies that today say "This is not for us" will simply not survive in the job market in 3-5 years.
The value of human capital
There will be a reassessment of professionalism: specialists with brilliant hard skills but weak soft skills will lose competitiveness. The market will demand a harmonious combination of technical and human competencies.
Ecosystems instead of benefits
The acceptance of the concept of "hiring a person, not a resource" will change business models. Already, market leaders (for example, major players in the CIS) are creating schools for employees' children, helping to build life around the company, not work in isolation from life. This will become a powerful loyalty tool and an economically justified strategy — retention is always cheaper than hiring.
Advice for HR specialists
"Focus on human-centricity as a systematic approach. Your task is not to manage processes but to create environments where professionals can express their whole selves.
"Don't limit yourself to just HR disciplines. Choose an industry that genuinely interests you and immerse yourself in its business logic. Study the cases of market leaders, analyze how HR solutions impact their strategy. Remember: your role is not to 'protect the team from the business', but to create a bridge between people and the company's goals.
The main challenge today is uncertainty in one's own expertise. Overcome this through: strengthening personal confidence and digitizing the results of each project. Forget the stereotype of the 'empathetic girl with events'. Modern HR is an architect of ecosystems who shows measurable contributions to the business.
Ksenia Toropova
HRD of Kolesa Group
