NORA Academy

The NORAs have now been in existence for 25 years. In that time, we have shortlisted over 560 separate recruitment websites as Finalists for our annual awards. These websites, as nominated by the public, and shortlisted by us, represent the very best in our industry each year, in each of our award categories.  As a body of websites and organisations, our Finalists and Winners have demonstrated that they are in-tune with the needs of the jobseeking public, and have delivered services which excel in this regard.

Equally, throughout the past 25 years the NORAs has benefited hugely from the expertise, credibility and knowledge of our judging panels. Our judges have been crucial to the success and longevity of the NORAs.

We now recognise this more formally by having established an Academy, whose membership is drawn from past Finalists, Winners, and judges.  This is NOT any kind of industry body, institute or association. This is simply a group of like-minded and similarly motivated people and websites involved in the NORAs.

“Academy – a body or organisation which promotes excellence and gives annual awards for achievements”

The key details of the National Online Recruitment Academy are as follows:

1. Membership granted to each website or company which has been a Finalist in The NORAs. Each website would nominate a single representative – ideally the website owner or principal. Each such website must also have been in continual existence since being a NORA Finalist or Winner.
2. Membership granted to all individuals who have served as NORA judges.
3. Members will have use of the NORA Academy Membership logo
4. A NORA Academy board, comprised of the 2025 group of NORA judges.
5. Ongoing recognition of each website’s achievement in being a Finalist or winner, no-matter which years they featured.
6. The NORA board has the discretion to invite prominent individuals to become members.
7. Sharing of industry statistics and reports, and new tech insights.
8. Members will be consulted and notified on any proposed changes to the NORAs.

The NORA Academy Award

As they were originally conceived, the NORAs are all about reflecting the views on the online recruitment sector from the perspective of jobseekers.  In 2014, for the first time, we introduced a new award, where members of our new academy voted for the recruitment website which they believed best represented the industry in that year. Only websites which had already been nominated by the public each year and shortlisted as Finalists can be contenders for this award, but it will ultimately be voted for by their peers in the NORA Academy.

The main benefits for members will be as follows:

1. Unique ability to vote for an industry peer award at The NORAs.
2. All members can vote once for their top three Finalists from this year’s NORAs, regardless of their industry prominence or number of times they have succeeded at the NORAs.
3. Each website member will nominate their representative (ideally at director level) – who will cast their vote. This individual website representative could be changed by the website or company.
4. Members cannot vote for their own website
5. All votes will be secret, but subject to review by the NORA Academy Board.  Our intention is to enable the fairest possible means of identifying a deserving winner.
6. Once inducted as an Academy Award Winner, organisations will become members of a very select group. This Fellowship of the Academy now includes CV-Library, Jobsite, The National Trust, McLaren Technology, Vodafone, s1jobs, Women In Tech, McCarthy Recruitment, and Morson.

We would like to restate that the NORA Academy is NOT be any kind of trade body, collective bargaining body, or training institute. Whilst the NORAs may promote higher standards in online recruitment, the NORA Academy is not a lobbying body.