How to turn a corporate restructure into your dream, people-first business.

A Contented conversation with Kat Evans of CRE8 Collective.

We sat down with Kat Evans, Founder & Co-Director of CRE8 Collective, to talk about Kat’s journey from corporate recruitment to building something entirely her own. Contented APAC Business Lead Anna Darragh recorded the conversation with Contented, and produced this article using the LinkedIn article template under Marketing insights.

When Kat Evans' previous role disappeared in a restructure, she had a choice. Go find another corporate job, or finally hit play on the idea she'd been sitting on since her pregnancy. She had a 2-and-a-half-year-old, a three-hour daily commute, and a business entity already set up, but she hadn't pushed the button because she was “too scared”.

"Getting made redundant was the push I needed…I just thought, I’m going to do this myself."

And so she did.

What started as a solo recruitment consultancy has grown into something New Zealand hasn't seen before: a full-service people collective called CRE8, which brings together recruitment, HR, mentoring, leadership advisory, dispute resolution, mediation, and legal support under one roof.

The gap nobody had filled.

CRE8 was built for small and medium businesses who need people support, but can't afford a full internal HR team or the recruitment fees that come with outsourcing piecemeal.

"Clients were already spending $60,000 or $70,000 on recruitment fees and outsourcing HR, mediation and advisory services - we can do that all for them on one Terms of business."

CRE8 is a full-service entity for people and hiring processes, covering recruitment, HR, mentoring, leadership advisory, and conflict resolution. No-one else is doing this in New Zealand, as far as we know.

A place for people like Kat.

Kat’s long-term objective was always to provide a platform for people like her. Parents, professionals, people who are good at what they do but don't want to be pulled into the 9-to-5 hierarchy with KPIs and all of that.

"At CRE8, what you put in is what you get out, and you've got a platform that supports you to do that."

Nobody invested capital to get started. The company was built collaboratively, from the ground up. Co-founder Kate Ross - Kat's former mentor - joined after discussing the business plan and essentially saying, 'let's just do it together'.

The Resolve arm of the business, which handles dispute resolution, mediation, and legal support, is led by Kat's mum, Denise Evans, who is a successful lawyer, mediator and highly regarded in the industry. Bringing her into the collective wasn’t just a business decision.

"I just thought, how the hell can I get Mum to not slow down, but provide an entity she can drive forward with passion and, have a life that’s not 80-hour working weeks running all over the countryside?" Kat says.

Recruitment that feels human.

Eighteen years in recruitment will teach you a lot, including what not to do. Kat has little patience for the scripted interview approach that still dominates parts of the industry.

One of the things she's noticed is how drilled people are when they walk in. Ask them to tell you a bit about themselves and they immediately go back 15 years to their first job, rattling off a career timeline like they rehearsed it in the car park. That's what they've been told to do, but in Kat’s view it doesn't tell you much about who's sitting in front of you.

Her approach is different. She wants to know who they are outside of the CV. Do they have kids? Family? What does their life actually look like? The best hires aren't just technically capable; they're the right fit for the team, the culture, and the pace of the place. You can't figure that out by asking someone where they see themselves in five years.

'Shattered' in a good way.

The team is now 11 people, spread across New Zealand, and growing.

Right now, Kat is heads-down on the foundations, leading the recruitment arm, building out a custom CRE8 hub to service all the business units, and bringing the right people into the collective.

She worked until 1am the night before we spoke. Shattered, she said, but in a good way.

"I'm really excited to see where it's going."

We are too.