RCSA Awards Finalists Announced – Hello?? Is anybody there??

This blog was meant to go out last week, but was pushed down the list by recruitment’s answer to Carmen Sandiego. With a slow news week, we’re back to writing a blog that, if I’m honest, pains me. With two recruitment awards a year in NZ, and each requiring a “prediction” blog and “winners” blog, I’m using almost 10% of my time writing about awards that fewer and fewer care about. More on this later on. To save my sanity, please let me bash through this super-quick so I can get on to some (marginally) more interesting observations. Lesh go…

Excellence in Business Innovation

Hunter Campbell

Lowie Recruitment

Naming your firm after your own League coaching nickname is the second most Kiwi thing you could do. Keeping this name after the founder declares the business bankrupt and buggers off is the most. For this, I’m picking them for the win.

Prediction: Lowie Recruitment

 

Excellence in Candidate Care

Chisholm Clarke

Dynamix Recruitment

Good Together

Good Together sounds like a dating agency. Click the “About Us” and you’ll be sure of it.

Prediction: Good Together

 

Excellence in Client Service

Dynamix Recruitment

Frog Recruitment

Lowie Recruitment

I really have no idea and by this stage I’m just going through the motions.

Prediction: Frog Recruitment

 

Excellence in Safety and Wellbeing Culture

Advanced Personnel Services

Stellar Recruitment

Can you imagine the poor bastard who has to write this submission? No one died. People seem happy. We don’t work with Advanced Personnel, so I’ll use good ol’ fashioned nepotism on this one.

Prediction: Stellar

 

Outstanding Boutique Agency

323 Recruitment

Fundraising Talent Recruitment

Good Together

Do you know what grinds my gears? The Kiwi propensity to say “Bo-teek”. It’s “Boo-teek. And while we’re here, It’s “day-byu” not “day-boo”. And if you rhyme the word “grown” with the name “Rowan” then you need a smack in the mouth from “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (God rest his soul)

Prediction: 323 Recruitment

 

Outstanding Medium Agency

Dynamix Recruitment

Frog Recruitment

Thank you recruitment agencies for not entering and reducing my options to a coin toss

Prediction: Dynamix Recruitment???

 

Outstanding Large Agency

Hunter Campbell

Stellar Recruitment

Not just both clients, both good clients. And in the world of agency recruitment, that’s worth more than the award itself. One sec…I’ll have to check Xero to pick this one.

Prediction: Stellar Recruitment

 

Rising Star

Claudia Rapp – Good Together

Isaac Bell – Alignz Recruitment

Paul Miller – Stellar Recruitment

I was going to pick Claudia for this one, but I checked her bio and she’s into baking, and that’s a worry. Stellar are already on the podium, so that leaves me with Isaac Bell who sounds like he’d be a good soul singer.

Prediction: Isaac Bell

 

Recruitment Professional

Fleur Clough – Sprout People

Nivana Johnson MRCSA – 323 Recruitment

Sally Paris – Stellar Recruitment

Almost there folks.

Prediction: Fleur Clough – Sprout People

 

Recruitment Leader

Brian Maposua – Alignz Recruitment

Kymberly Tupai – Stellar Recruitment

Lee Marshall MRCSA – Hunter Campbell

And we’re done.

Prediction: Lee Marshall MRCSA – Hunter Campbell

 

Every year I do this, and every year I wonder if it’s worth the effort. Not my effort – I’ll write about anything – but the effort of the firms who actually have to sit down and write a submission. Based on the numbers, an increasing number of them have decided it isn’t. In 2023, 94 firms entered across 13 categories. In 2024, 91 entries across the same 13 categories. This year? RCSA haven’t told us. They were happy enough to shout the entry numbers from the rooftops when the figures were good. The silence since 2025 tells its own story.

And there is another thing that an absolute recruitment loser like me has noticed. When these awards were announced, there  were 12 New Zealand categories. When the finalists were announced, there were 10 categories. Tell me; what is the only plausible reason for this?

The 2026 finalist list now features 12 unique firms across 10 categories – down from 26 unique firms across 13 categories just three years ago. That is a massive drop. Four categories couldn’t even fill three finalists this year, so it’s a guaranteed silver just for showing up. Dynamix, Frog, Stellar and Good Together between them account for half of the list. If you’d entered into either of the dropped categories, you would literally be in a one horse race. Whether this reflects a lack of faith in the awards, the brutal market conditions of the last two years, or simply that writing submissions is a luxury squeezed firms can no longer afford, I’ll leave to you. Probably all three.

^SW