Who exactly runs the NORAs?

You would be amazed at how many people are involved in the National Online Recruitment Awards.  As the most commonly identified person, I am always at pains to point out that there is an army of people who all make their own essential contribution to the NORAs.

To begin with, the jobseekers, on whose behalf we launched the awards, and who this year made almost 28,000 nominations for the recruitment websites they liked best (and told us why).  We then have a Shortlist Judging Panel of 9 industry experts, who visit every nominated site, and asses them from a candidate’s perspective.  Only then do our separate Judging Panel again go through the process of visiting and scoring every one of our 74 Finalists, from the point of view of a job seeker.

Of course an annual event like this needs quite some organising, and we have Louise Triance of UKRecruiter and the team at 1Job.co.uk to thank for that.  Some awards events in other industries are run as profit making exercises in their own right, and usually involve entrance fees, black-tie dinners, and whopping prices to buy a table for your company.  In the case of the NORAs, we always want to make them as accessible as possible, and not the least exclusive.  That’s why, with the help of our sponsors, we are able to keep the ticket price down to a nominal £20, which mostly goes towards the venue and bar bill.

Throughout all of this, however, we try to never lose site of the most important thing; candidates themselves, and how the myriad of recruitment websites are continually evolving to help them find what they are truly searching for.

I hope to see you at the NORAs on Thursday, and wish all of our Finalists the very best of luck.  http://www.eventelephant.com/recnet4nov

Stephen O’Donnell, Chairman