Kelly Jo is lead recruitment at Zeeman, the Dutch variety retailer that operates across eight countries. She started her career with a background in social pedagogical work, but when the care sector was shrinking and starters struggled to get hired, she moved into commercial and sales roles, including hard sales for American Express and fundraising for Oxfam Novib. In 2016 she stepped into the world of recruitment at Star Apple, where she spent eight and a half years, starting as a junior IT recruiter and growing into a management role across the whole department. After becoming a mother and the company being acquired, she wanted a role that stood more in service of an organisation, made a brief move to Rotterdam scale-up JAX, and joined Zeeman for her first step into retail.
Q: Why did Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman move from the care sector into recruitment?
A: Because the care sector was shrinking when she graduated and starters struggled to get hired without three years of experience. Kelly Jo trained in social pedagogical work but always had a commercial side job, so she decided to earn money in sales and park her care ambitions for later. That step grew into a fourteen-year commercial career she never left, first in hard sales for American Express and fundraising for Oxfam Novib, and from 2016 in recruitment at Star Apple. Her people-focused background never went to waste, because recruitment is ultimately about working with people.
Q: Why did Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman choose to join Zeeman?
A: Because Zeeman needed stability and a permanent team that could think in service of the organisation rather than relying on interim workers. When Kelly Jo joined, recruitment ran on a large group of interimmers and there was little knowledge retention or employer branding, which felt like a missed opportunity for a brand that so many households feel warmly about. Zeeman was strong toward customers but had barely profiled itself as an employer. A year in, the team is taking shape, a new ATS has been chosen and the first real steps in employer branding are underway.
Q: Why does long tenure at Zeeman make change harder, according to Kelly Jo Liva?
A: Because people who have worked the same way for decades find it difficult to suddenly do things differently. Kelly Jo has spoken to colleagues who started at Zeeman at fifteen and plan to retire there, which she sees as something to be proud of, but it also means some prefer to sit out their final years and leave new technology to their successor. Her approach is not to push change too fast but to invest in training and give people the confidence and grip they need. In her experience people are rarely afraid of the technology itself, they simply lack the knowledge to feel secure with it.
Q: What recruitment challenge does operating in eight countries create for Zeeman under Kelly Jo Liva?
A: Every country has its own identity, economy and applicant volumes, so processes cannot be copied one to one. Kelly Jo learned that a role left open in Spain the way it would be in the Netherlands attracts applicants into the thousands, which forces her to set deadlines and think strategically about what is workable. The goal is to design processes that can handle those volumes and last for a few years, because constant change is unpleasant for candidates and exhausting for the team.
Q: How does Zeeman under Kelly Jo Liva compete for young and seasonal workers against retailers like Action and Albert Heijn?
A: By profiling itself far more clearly as an employer, since retail cannot match the flexibility that draws young people to competitors. Kelly Jo points out that supermarkets and larger stores can offer big, sociable teams and evening shifts, while a small Zeeman branch simply closes at five. Her plan starts with building a credible EVP that makes no promises Zeeman cannot keep, followed by more visibility and bolder campaigns. She also wants the application process itself to become faster and more accessible, because younger candidates want to apply, and ideally start, almost immediately.
Q: Why does Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman question the value of the motivation letter in retail hiring?
A: Because motivation letters have become so generic that they no longer tell her much, and she notices the same patterns in nearly every one she opens. She shares the wider view that the letter is more of a barrier than a predictor of success, made worse now that AI writes many of them. Kelly Jo still comes across the occasional letter that genuinely adds insight, but her real preference is a face-to-face or phone conversation, which tells her far more than words on paper. For retail especially she wants to lower that barrier step by step while keeping the checks that actually matter.
Q: How does Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman think about skills-based hiring in retail?
A: She sees real opportunity in it for retail, as long as it is applied in a balanced and deliberate way. A CV says a lot, but it does not show whether someone is friendly with customers or stays calm during busy peaks, and those qualities are exactly what a store needs. Kelly Jo would like to check people on the skills they genuinely need rather than the ones we assume they need, possibly with a more playful, game-based element that lowers the threshold for candidates who might otherwise never apply. She is clear that it is not a universal replacement, because some roles, from a surgeon to a finance position, still call for proven education and experience.
Q: How does Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman see the future of recruitment and the role of technology?
A: She believes technology, used smartly and in balance, should free recruiters' hands so they have more time for the personal side of the work. By simplifying administrative tasks and research, her team can spend less time behind a computer and more time in the stores and in contact with candidates. Kelly Jo's caution is that companies which lean too far into technology will fall short on the personal, and in recruitment the personal ultimately wins. For store staff in particular, technology should mean less screen time and more time on the floor, doing the people work they enjoy.
Q: How does Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman use AI in her work and personal life?
A: She uses it as an extra brain that strengthens her thinking rather than replaces it, with Claude as her preferred tool. At home, with a young family, it helps her with everything from weekly meal plans and recipes to keeping an eye on offers at her local shop, which frees up real time and mental space. At work she uses it mainly as a brainstorm partner that surfaces angles she would not have reached on her own. Throughout, she keeps a firm boundary for herself, because her goal is to stay sharp and independent, not to become dependent on the system.
Q: What does Kelly Jo Liva from Zeeman see as the biggest risk of AI for the younger generation?
A: That people stop thinking for themselves and take AI's output at face value. Kelly Jo finds it striking that younger generations embrace the technology quickly but are often less trained in critical thinking than older colleagues who grew up without it. She points to the ease with which someone can now ask a chatbot to write a motivation letter and simply hand it in. Her conclusion is the thread she keeps returning to, that we should embrace AI wholeheartedly while making sure, especially for the next generation, that we never stop thinking for ourselves.
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