December K-traditions.

Privyet folks!

December is usually a pretty busy month for us. There’s the year-end budget-closing and reporting, an evening with our key clients and partners (x 2: (i) for our traditional/new products, and (ii) for our Operating System), New Year department parties, and my annual Santa Claus & Co. tour of all three HQ buildings (festive speeches, poetry and team photos on all 15 floors – and a sherry on each some:). And there’s another fun year-end event, which just so happens to be getting crazily big!…

I’m talking about our 10 and 25-years-working-at-K anniversary awards!

This year, a full 144 people reached the 10-year milestone working with the company!

Out of those, 106 are from our Russian offices, while the other 38 are from other regions: most from the UAE (eight), and Germany (seven).

Two employees (both from Moscow) have actually managed to clock a second decade. By that I mean they worked 10 years, got their award; left, came back, and did it all over again!

But then there’s the real hardcore, top-tier level: the Twenty-Fivers (yes – a full quarter-century with the company!). And this year there are nine of them! Wow. Talk about dedication?!

They truly deserve their gold badges, commemorative statuettes, and tidy bonuses!

Now, for a few numbers:

– As of today, 18% of our employees have worked for us for more than 10 years; that’s over a thousand K-folks.
– 25 (including these new ones) have now reached 25 (!) years with the company – not counting myself :)
– Almost 3kg of precious metals have gone into making the badges for our anniversary honorees over the years.
– Our annual global employee satisfaction survey showed the highest eNPS in company history – 65 this year! (2023 – 57; 2024 – 57.)
– We’re seeing staff turnover dropping to 9% (2024 – 15%).
– For the past five years the company has consistently ranked among the top employers in Russia – holding strong positions in key rankings (RBC – four years straight in the first group; Forbes – platinum every year; HeadHunter – three top-five appearances, including first place in 2024).
– Oh, and how could I forget?… This year among the 10-years crew there’s even… a green bear! Actually, Midori Kuma started with the company in 2012 – but he’s such a busy bear that it was only this year he could fit the awards ceremony in. Busy as a bee bear, eh?!

Here he is, btw, when first hired (in Japan) – looking rather different to how he looks today ->

By the way, about 13% of employees in the Russian office grew up in the company starting out as interns – including two top managers (the CTO and the CCO). Here’s another interesting fact: 38 people have spent more than half their lives with the company!

The average age of our employees (which is already 6000+, counting interns) is 35. By the way, in Russia, we have 5000+ folks working, and the rest are in our overseas offices. For what it’s like for them working at K – check this. Spoiler: some of them really suffer, gazing out at the sea from their windows :)

But seriously, every December reminds me that K isn’t about buildings, processes, and presentations. It’s about people – the ones who stay, grow, argue, come back, joke around, sometimes go grey, but always keep pushing things forward to build a safer digital world!

And if someone’s lasted with us for 10 or even 25 years – we’ve got to be doing something right. Or, at the very least – we know how to have some fun along the way )

And so, till the next festive get-togethers!…

And now – back to work!