Talent New Zealand is celebrating two wins following the SEEK SARA awards.

Awarded Large Recruitment Agency of the Year, Talent demonstrated to the judge’s dedication and pursuit of excellence across culture, innovation, growth, candidate engagement and contribution to the success of the recruitment industry.

Talent also took out the win for Outstanding Progress in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The award submission was centred on the success of Talent RISE (Talent’s charitable foundation which helps young rangatahi with barriers to employment find meaningful work), within the New Zealand market. The category is marked on businesses demonstrating their commitment through meaningful initiatives and strategies that benefit diverse talent pools and the business.

On top of the two award wins, Country Manager New Zealand, Kara Smith, was runner-up for the Recruitment Leader of the Year award. Finalists were judged on their inspiration and motivation for their team, how they perform to business objectives, how they make a positive impact within their agency and the overall recruitment industry.

“It is such an honour to receive these two awards and wonderful recognition for Kara. It’s no secret it’s been a very challenging market for New Zealand. In challenging periods, Talent prides itself on investing in our people and where we want our business to go moving forward. People talk a lot about culture and it’s easy for that word to become quite meaningless but for us, people genuinely care about their jobs and each other, making work fun.

The DEI award represents our commitment to empowering people to build a better world of work. With the backing of Talent, RISE has assisted 111 rangatahi into meaningful employment, with 93% transitioning into sustainable roles. I’m so proud of everything that our team has achieved.” – Mark Nielsen, Global CEO, Talent