For a snack and 5 questions with... Nora Seetge from Kitchen Stories

How do you make it into the top 5 best startup employers? And what is there to eat in the most magical place in the world? The answers to these questions (and many more) are available once a month in the Stories+ Snack, the Kitchen Stories business questionnaire.

• This time, Nora Seetge from Kitchen Stories answers.
• As Head of People & Organization, she and her team are responsible for the right team set-up and organizational structure.
• Their focus: Creating a corporate culture that serves both to achieve goals and at the same time promotes a diverse environment in which innovative, talented and passionate individuals can work together and be the best version of themselves.
• By the way, Nora's favorite snack is Cheese snack.

“A company is only as good as its employees and their passion for creating something” (Elon Musk)

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Everything that we share from Kitchen Stories to our users, our community, our cooperation partners, is the result of a team that approaches its work with passion. What are the values that underlie our daily work?

• Stay curious and hungry: At KS, we want to constantly develop ourselves, try out new things, tastes, technologies and learn constantly. With this value, we therefore encourage the team to question the status quo, boldly approach challenges and pursue ambitious goals. This includes errors as a matter of course, in line with the FAIL = first attempt in learning principle.

• Teach a (wo) man to fish: We encourage people to learn from each other and to find sustainable solutions — with the aim that everyone can take ownership of their own issues, regardless of their role.

• Serve it up family style: As in a large family, not everything is always uncomplicated and harmonious in a large team. Nevertheless, we firmly believe that we are strongest together and clearly emphasize the team spirit of support, active cooperation and respectful cooperation.

According to Business Punk and Statista, Kitchen Stories made it into the top 5 of the best startup employers in Germany last year. Is there a secret ingredient in our people or culture strategy?

In addition to our value-oriented culture, there are a handful of other things that make KS special as an employer, such as our basic hiring strategy: We're not looking for the best talent, we're looking for the right talent.

This may sound like a mere formality, but it makes a big difference: Instead of focusing on candidates from the best universities, with great grades, etc., we are looking for people who are just right for us; with very diverse backgrounds and CVs, but always with the right motivation and the right team fit. In this way, we deliberately include many smart, talented and highly motivated candidates in our search who would fall through the cracks at other companies.

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4-day week, purpose, expert path, hybrid working world, new work. The list of HR buzzwords is long these days. Which topics do you think are rightly on the agenda? And where do you see the greatest potential?

They're all right there, but unfortunately all too often just that: buzzwords that sound great. For us at KS, the purpose and our mission “To encourage everyday cooking” are super important. They are what unites the (affectionately meant) motley bunch of very different people in the KS Team. We're all here because of our passion for food and technology; our product and purpose are what drive us.

In addition, as an employer, you should always be open to new trends, but consider carefully what can be implemented in your own context. Last year, for example, we had a very flexible hybrid work policy, as well as transparency with regard to salaries.

When does your work make you happy?

Fortunately very often! It is particularly nice and motivating to be able to see how employees that I have hired develop. I am happy to see that, looking back, it was the right decision for them to join KS, that they become an integral part of our team and surpass themselves.

What is the most magical place in the world for you — and what is there to eat there?

Quite spontaneously: the small fishing hut near Porto, from which I was able to work last year thanks to our remote work policy. There is grilled fish, which was caught by local fishermen in the morning, in a simple restaurant right on the beach - like dinner with your feet in the sand.

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Thank you so much for the interview.