Case Study: Inside a Fortune 500’s PX Transformation

Turning Crisis into Capability

When the pandemic hit, many organizations paused transformation plans. Koç Holding, Turkey’s largest conglomerate and a Global Fortune 500 company, did the opposite.

They treated the crisis as a proving ground for their new Employee Experience (EX) capabilities. Within weeks, they launched an employee listening and co-creation program that reached tens of thousands of people across 46 countries and generated over 1,000 actionable solutions.

The result was not only an immediate improvement in employee wellbeing but also a powerful example of how Design Thinking and Agile methods can make human-centered transformation real at scale.

Building the Foundation Before the Storm

Just months before COVID-19 began, Koç Holding’s CHRO, Özgür Burak Akkol, launched an Employee Experience (EX) Transformation Team led by Görkem Balcı, Sena Aydın, and Mete Berk Çetiner.

Together, they trained 30 “EX Product Owners” from across their subsidiaries, representing functions like HR, Marketing, Customer Experience, IT, and R&D. The goal was to embed Design Thinking and Agile as core working methods.

Each Product Owner learned to conduct interviews, build Personas, map employee Journeys, identify “Moments that Matter,” and prototype new solutions. Their final bootcamp in February 2020 completed just weeks before lockdowns began.

That timing changed everything.

Listening Deeply During Lockdown

When the world moved to remote work in March 2020, Koç Holding immediately put its HX training to use. The EX team launched pulse surveys, interviews, and story-based research to understand how people were coping.

Instead of relying on numeric scores, they asked two open-ended questions:

• “How are you experiencing the transition to remote working?”

• “How might we best help you?”

Within five hours, they received more than 25,000 responses and 35,000 text comments.

The findings revealed that 60% of employees felt anxious about the future, with top needs in guidance, social connection, online learning, and access to essentials like groceries, medicine, and protective equipment.

Using this insight, the team created employee Personas to represent different life and work situations (parents, caregivers, single employees, on-site workers, and more) to guide targeted actions.

Co-creating 1,000 Solutions

Across 30 subsidiaries, cross-functional teams ran design sprints to prototype solutions. In just six weeks, they co-created 1,000 actions across key themes:

Communication

• Frequent virtual town halls with CEOs and HR leaders

• A WhatsApp chatbot to answer employee and family health questions

• More than 85,000 feedback messages exchanged through the chatbot

Health and Wellbeing

• Online doctor consultations offered to employees and families

• Webinars with psychologists and mental health experts

• Expanded health coverage for family members

Learning and Development

• Koç Academy opened its digital learning platform to all employees and citizens

• Over 12,000 educational videos shared, with 1.3 million participants

• Daily expert-led health and development sessions

Social Connection

• The “Koç Group Neighbors” initiative connected employees in 983 local communities to support one another

• Online sports, e-sports tournaments, and children’s festivals engaged thousands of families

Financial Support

• Interest-free loans and extended repayment options

• Expanded insurance coverage to include parents and siblings

Through these collective efforts, employee anxiety dropped from 60% to 12% and 90% of employees reported feeling proud of how their company responded.

Designing the Recovery

As restrictions lifted, Koç Holding turned its focus to recovery and safe return-to-work strategies. They used continued listening to design policies around health, workspace safety, and flexibility.

Leaders worked to balance health measures with experience, recognizing that different businesses recovered at different speeds. Employees received personal protective kits, adjusted office setups, and new hybrid work options — all informed by direct input from employees.

The Lasting Impact

Koç Holding’s story shows what happens when Continuous Listening, Product Mindset, Human-centered Design, and Agile Delivery are more than buzzwords.

Because they invested in experience capability early, they were able to act quickly, listen deeply, and respond empathetically. The result was both a stronger organization and a more resilient workforce.

The company now plans to make Employee Experience roles permanent and to continue learning from UX and CX disciplines to refine its approach.

Human-centered leadership proved its value in a crisis. It is now shaping how the company grows beyond it.