Mitch Gielen is founder of Nutzy, a platform that helps Gen Z discover where they fit in the labour market through snackable video content. He started his entrepreneurial journey with Experience Republic, a company that built mobile escape rooms for companies including Rabobank, ING, Thales and PSV. After covid the company transformed towards a focus on onboarding. Nutzy is the recruitment side of that ecosystem. The platform works with two hundred creators and serves companies ranging from SMEs to corporates, with a deliberately chosen focus on Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Q: Why does Mitch Gielen from Nutzy focus specifically on Gen Z as a target group for recruitment?
Because Gen Z has limited confidence in the labour market and often does not know what is out there. Mitch observed that this generation experienced covid largely from home and therefore has less insight into what working actually looks like in practice. Nutzy responds by showing candidates in the awareness phase what an organisation looks like from the inside: the colleagues, the work atmosphere, what you do day to day. That helps candidates make a conscious yes or no decision.
Q: How does Mitch Gielen from Nutzy use video content to better prepare candidates for a job application?
By bringing everything you would normally only learn in your first hundred working days forward to the awareness phase. Nutzy works with two hundred creators who visit an organisation as outsiders and show in an observational way what it is really like. No acting or dancing, but authentic content about the people, the work atmosphere and the daily work. The process runs in three phases: touch, tell and sell, zooming in progressively on the specific vacancy and the candidate's uncertainties.
Q: What results does Mitch Gielen from Nutzy achieve compared to traditional recruitment channels?
A doubling of the percentage of qualified candidates. Mitch explains that the candidate-to-qualified ratio on traditional channels for their clients sits around seventeen percent. The candidates delivered through Nutzy come in at thirty-five percent. His explanation: candidates know better in advance what they are saying yes to, a lot of trust has already been built through the video content and people recognise before applying whether there is a fit with the organisation.
Q: How does Mitch Gielen from Nutzy view the use of AI in recruitment for Gen Z?
As an opportunity to combine technology with human visibility. Mitch sees that Gen Z is perfectly willing to share data, but prefers to do so with someone they trust rather than an anonymous system. His vision: use AI for the technical handling in the background, but put a recognisable person at the front. A recruiter who briefly introduces themselves on video and invites candidates to leave their details combines the best of technology and human contact.
Q: Why does Mitch Gielen from Nutzy choose to say no to growth outside Gen Z?
Because focus is the only way to truly excel at something. Mitch has made a commitment to his advisor Arjan Elbers that Nutzy stays focused on Gen Z, Gen Alpha and everything that comes after. There is regular temptation to serve millennials or other target groups, but that choice would come at the expense of the depth Nutzy has built. His reasoning: if there is no good fit, saying no is better for everyone, even if you see short-term potential in it.
