RUSH Wins Best Places to Work SME
The Best Places to Work Aotearoa awards started with a fire alarm.
Ten minutes in, hundreds of finalists and guests spilled onto the street for over an hour. When we finally returned, the energy hadn't dimmed but felt even higher. That refusal to let disruption kill momentum, turned out to be the perfect opening act for a night celebrating workplaces that actually give a damn about their people.
RUSH took home two awards:
- 🏆 Best Places to Work Aotearoa (Small/Medium Business)
- 🌿 Spotlight Award: Wellness
These awards aren't about perks or ping pong tables but about the people who show up every day and choose to invest their talent, energy, and care into what we build together.
As I said in my acceptance speech "at RUSH, our competitive advantage isn't our code or our platforms. It's our people, the great humans who imagine, design, and deliver everything we do."
Culture isn't declared from above. It's lived. Our Culture Cadets, Belonging Group, and Values Winners don't wait for permission to make things better. They create spaces for connection, champion inclusion, and hold us accountable to the standards we claim to uphold.
The Wellness Spotlight category mattered to us.
Wellness isn't a perk at RUSH. It's structural. People can only do their best work when they feel valued, safe, and supported. But wellness also includes loving what you do, finding satisfaction in solving hard problems and delivering work that matters.
The past few years have been brutal for businesses across Aotearoa. Recognition like this doesn't exist in a vacuum. It celebrates teams who prioritised people even when the pressure was to cut corners or compromise.
When you put people first, everything else follows. Better engagement, better creativity, better performance and better business results. It's not soft. It's strategic.
We're in an era where people expect more from work than a paycheck and a desk. Across Aotearoa, companies are reimagining what work can be, places where Monday morning feels like possibility rather than obligation.
We didn't take home the overall title, but the real win is knowing our people can say with pride: "I work at one of the best places to work in New Zealand."
Culture is never finished. It evolves, stretches, sometimes struggles. But we'll keep listening, learning, and leading with people at the centre.
This recognition strengthens our commitment to keep earning it.
Ngā mihi nui to everyone who makes RUSH a place where people can thrive.
