No Barriers – Just The Best

HOW THE NORAS INCLUDES EVERY CONTENDER

Most awards events restrict their pool of potential winners by only considering those who enter. If this was done in recruitment, any hiring manager would be right to ask the question, “Are these really the best there are out there?”

Excluding potentially great contenders at the top of the funnel inevitably means that the eventual finalists and winners in those awards cannot be really sure of their achievement, when they were only compared with a small handful of companies who took the time to enter, go through the application process, and often pay an entry fee too!

If an award is titled “Best Specialist Job Board” – to use one from the National Online Recruitment Awards as an example – then the audience would expect that every potential contender would be considered, from ALL of the specialist job boards that exist in the UK. If this award was limited to only say 5 companies who had entered, then it really wouldn’t be much of an achievement. Moreover, it would be easy to identify many others who should have been considered, and were potentially much more deserving.

But let’s not dwell on other awards, and their processes. The National Online Recruitment Awards has always been truly open to everyone, with no barrier to entry. We ask the public to nominate their favourites for any award category, and ask for their reasons. We also encourage companies to register themselves for consideration, in case they don’t get nominated by the public. Finally, our judges are asked to suggest any great recruitment websites which haven’t already been included. Inclusion is what the NORAs has always been about, not exclusion.

This does however give our judging panels so much more work to do. This year for example (2025), we had 450 contenders altogether. Of which 351 were put before our 10 shortlisting judges to assess from a candidate’s perspective, and determine the 4-6 finalists in each award category. Even then, our 2^nd panel of 10 judges then have to assess and score 92 contenders in our 15 award categories. We do not ask entrants to provide documentation, but rather judge all finalists on their websites, and what candidates experience, as well as the service provided to their intended audience.

As with any awards, we are in the business of recognising and celebrating excellence. Our aim is to throw a bright spotlight on the very best examples of online recruitment practise, so that we can all have a clearer picture of what good looks like. We never claim to be the definitive arbiter of greatness, but do everything possible to aim for that goal.

Now we have announced our finalists for the 25^th annual NORAs, and when we reveal our winners, we want every company named to feel absolutely confident in their achievement. That from all of their competitors in their sector, on this day, and for this award, they have been judged to be the best!

You can see the full history of NORA winners here.