5 Questions for Silvie Kaderka

How do you build a modern company culture in a dynamic agency environment? Silvie Kaderka, People & Culture Director at Marketup, has the answers. She brings a wealth of HR experience to the agency from major e-commerce players like Alza and Bonami. At Marketup, she focuses on nurturing talent, building a strong team, and ensuring that employee wellbeing isn't overlooked in the fast-paced agency world. In our quick-fire interview, she reveals her secret recruitment weapon, the trends she’s currently enjoying, and what her perfect vacation looks like."

1. What is your key "X-factor" when choosing new talent? At Marketup, do you bet more on seasoned experts, or do you prefer giving opportunities to fresh graduates?

For me, it is unequivocally a growth mindset, flexibility, and adaptability. Technical expertise can be learned, but mindset is something a person either brings with them or doesn't—and in an agency environment where priorities can shift multiple times a day, we simply cannot do without it. I look for people who aren't stopped by not knowing something, but are instead energized by the challenge. During recruitment, I try to uncover this through specific scenarios rather than what is listed on a resume—I am interested in how someone reacted when something didn't go as planned or when the rules changed on the fly.

And to answer the second part—we consciously bet on both. We hire senior professionals who bring experience from other companies and immediately enrich the team, but we also want to cultivate our own talent. We’ve run several programs focused on juniors, and it proved so successful that we intend to continue. In my view, combining experience with fresh energy is what keeps a team healthy.

2. The agency environment is notoriously fast-paced and dynamic. How do you care for employee mental well-being at Marketup?

I try to approach it from two angles. The first is preventing overload in the first place—meaning realistic capacity planning and carefully managing how much work the team takes on. In an agency, the biggest enemy of well-being is taking on more than can actually be managed. Part of this is fostering a culture where someone feels comfortable saying "it's too much for me" before anyone else notices it.

The second angle is working directly with managers. They are the first to recognize when someone is overwhelmed—often before the person admits it to themselves. We actively guide our managers to react early and redistribute workloads when needed. We also track overtime hours closely, as that is usually the first warning sign that something is out of balance. And then, of course, there is another layer—team events, sports activities, and creating spaces where people can step out of the work context and unwind. I believe team well-being doesn't come from one single big perk, but from the sum of many small everyday choices.

3. Which current HR trends do you personally find most exciting? And how are you trying to apply them at Marketup?

Like many of my colleagues, I’ve been completely hooked by vibecoding and AI—I love building things myself. I'm currently working on an app for internal learning, and it brings me immense joy because I can instantly turn an idea into something hands-on.

Before that, I built a prototype for an employee satisfaction survey app. I didn't end up launching that one into production because I hit boundaries regarding sensitive employee data compliance—which was actually the most valuable lesson I got out of it. But we might still finalize the app for one of our upcoming surveys.

4. Working with people and for people requires a lot of energy. What do you find most fulfilling about your role?

What energizes me most is seeing tangible results. HR can be a challenging discipline because many initiatives don't yield immediate impacts—you might only harvest the fruits a year down the line.

That is why I draw the most energy from people development activities, where feedback is almost immediate. You watch someone grow, see them take key takeaways to heart, and build on that foundation. The best part comes later, when that initial growth translates into concrete business outcomes.

5. What does your ideal vacation look like? The sea, mountains, or a cabin with no cell signal? 🙂

Definitely the sea! I love warm weather and can happily spend hours lying on the beach with a book—that is true relaxation for me. That said, I have a young daughter, so I didn't get to lounge around on a sunbed much this year, but we still had a fantastic time together.