Latest / Hospitality Daily Podcast / Recruit Standout People to Build a Standout Brand - Veerle Donders, Zoku

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Recruit Standout People to Build a Standout Brand - Veerle Donders, Zoku · Hospitality Daily Podcast

• 0:24
  Josiah: Zoku is a hospitality brand based in the Netherlands that has one of the most differentiated and compelling cultures I've come across recently.
• 0:31
  Josiah: In this episode, you'll learn from their director of concept V, brand, , about how they think about recruiting people into their organization.
• 0:39
  Josiah: I'd be curious to hear you talk a little bit about how you think about recruiting and attracting the right people.
• 1:08
  Josiah: How do you make them aware that Zoku could be a place for them and a career opportunity for them?
• 1:13
  Veerle: I think it's always been interesting thing and I have to say we're still learning on that.
• 1:17
  Veerle: But one of the biggest things for us is that we are a brand with a big personality and I think people get either attracted to that or not attracted to it.
• 1:26
  Veerle: So when you're going to apply it, zoku, it's going to be a different type of concept than any traditional hotel, so you need to like that.
• 1:33
  Veerle: So we do get a lot of like younger talent in that likes to try new things or wants to be part of this exciting, growing brand.
• 1:39
  Veerle: Another thing that people really get attracted to it, Zoku, is the fact that we are B Corp, so it's for us.
• 1:45
  Veerle: We're not only in it to make profit but we also want to make the world a better place and especially with, I think, the younger generation, this really resonates.
• 1:53
  Veerle: So their reasons for at least applying and talking to us about career opportunities really is because they believe in our purpose and they believe in community building.
• 2:02
  Veerle: And then they, you know, they like the concept, they like the purpose.
• 2:05
  Veerle: And then when it comes to selecting, it's really through the conversations that we have we kind of look for a certain mix of personalities, because you can't only have extroverts and only have introverts, and you know they're all.
• 2:17
  Veerle: You know it needs to be the right balance.
• 2:18
  Veerle: So we always look at that.
• 2:20
  Veerle: But the one most important thing that we look for it's not if you can make a good cappuccino, because we can teach you that, but it's if you just love taking care of people.
• 2:28
  Veerle: So everybody that works at Zoku is just crazy about people.
• 2:32
  Veerle: I can talk about it for hours, but I just love making people happy.
• 2:34
  Veerle: It's those kind of people that like to work for Zoku.
• 2:37
  Veerle: So they just, you know, they say I'll just run a mile for someone because I just love it when they're happy.
• 2:42
  Veerle: And I can go completely crazy when it's someone's birthday.
• 2:45
  Veerle: I just love the balloons and the cards.
• 2:46
  Veerle: And we love those people because we never have to tell them anything about trying to make someone else happy, because that's just in their DNA.
• 2:54
  Veerle: And then we can teach them about cappuccinos and we can teach them about how to do service.
• 2:58
  Veerle: That's something that can come through time, but this is like the main thing that we look for and we have a couple of characteristics that we look for, but this is the most important one.