About The NORAs

The National Online Recruitment Awards were created to acknowledge and reward excellence in online recruitment practice. Established in 2001, we are now in the 26th year of the annual NORAs. The list of past finalists and winners accurately illustrates the evolution of the UK online recruitment sector, which is now recognised as the most advanced and competitive in the world. It is this competition to satisfy increasingly “Internet savvy” candidates which has fuelled one of the fastest growing industries in the UK. Through the NORAs, we seek to recognise this, on behalf of the candidates themselves.

The NORAs are established as a standard by which recruitment websites are measured, and are a focused opportunity for recognition within the UK Recruitment Industry. The awards cover the wide range of online players in the sector, including Job Boards, Recruitment Agencies, Employers, Career Advice websites, Trade and National Publications. In addition we have an award for Best Newcomer and Innovation in this continually developing sector, as well as our prize voted for by the NORA Academy. Our Final Award is actually voted for by our previous finalists and winners over the past 26 years, and is the NORA Academy Award. In response to demand, we also now have Recruitment Technology Awards, which recognise those discreet solutions which greatly improve the candidate experience, even though jobseekers may be unaware of them.

The National Online Recruitment Awards are hosted by the National Online Recruitment Academy, whose membership is comprised of all organisations which have been Finalists and Winners in The NORAs since 2001. All current and former judges are also recognised as individual members.

Our Finalists and Winners are entitled to display these logos on their site and literature.

The National Online Recruitment Awards were devised to recognise the very best in UK online recruitment, from the perspective of jobseekers themselves. Now one of the most mature online industry sectors, recruitment websites have been at the forefront of developing ever more sophisticated ways of bringing together candidates, vacancies and employers. The NORAs are primarily concerned with the value, service and protection afforded to the general public, in catering for their needs in an ethical, professional, secure and effective manner.

Nominations will produce a shortlist of 6 finalists for each of these categories. All nominations will come from the public, where anyone can nominate any website for each award. The NORA Academy Award Finalists will be selected by the NORA Academy members – from which the winner will be chosen on the night of the NORAs event (this will be in the form of live voting by all attendees).

Companies may also register themselves for consideration by our judges, and encourage their jobseekers to nominate them too. We actively encourage companies to register themselves for consideration, especially for awards No. 12, 13, 14, and 15, where jobseekers are unlikely to be aware of their brand.

Nominations will be open from the 10 Aug to the 12 September 2026.  Finalists will be announced on 2nd Octrober.

The Winners will then be revealed at our in-person awards ceremony on 18th November 2026.

You can view the full definitions and criteria for each award here.