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Now in its second decade, the National Online Recruitment Awards tonight demonstrated how the calibre of the sector has progressed in the past 12 months.

At the 11^th annual NORAs, held in Covent Garden London, 300 members of the online recruitment community celebrated the Finalists and Winners, as nominated by jobseekers, and judged by industry experts, including Neil Morrison, Group HR Director of Random House Publishing, and Emma Mirrington, Talent Manager at Mars.

The awards ceremony for the 11th annual National Online Recruitment Awards, on Wednesday 2nd November, will take place at the exclusive West End venue, Sway London, in Covent Garden, near Holborn. This spectacularly refurbished, venue has hosted the NORAs for the past 2 years, and is perfect for our type of event.  The fantastic turnout of over 350 attendees in 2010 ensured that it was the online recruitment event of the year!

As you will know, nominations closed on Friday 9th September.  This year we recieved 17,717 nominations for 526 separate websites.  The NORAs Judging Panel are now in conclave, working on reducing these nominations to our shortlist of Finalists for each of our twelve awards.

This year, we will also be considering the wider range of channels utilised by job boards, recruitment agencies, employers and publications in order to deliver a wider range of recruiting services more effectively to candidates.  

As we begin the second decade of the NORA’s, it’s worth reflecting on just how much the UK online recruitment sector has changed, grown and matured since our very first awards were presented.  Back in 2001, we were seeing the initial bloom fall from the cheeks of many online businesses.  The Dotcom Bubble, as it was called had inflated so quickly, that new online ventures were being formed every day, and often gaining investment on the basis of a “fag-packet” business plan.  By 2001, no-one was investing, and many companies, like BOO.com, had folded after burning through immense amounts of investment.  

Looking forward to being a judge for The National Online Recruitment Awards – Guest blog by Katharine Robinson

Earlier this year, I was honoured to be asked to join the judging panel for this year’s NORAs (National Online Recruitment Awards). The judging panelconsists of a selection of independent judges from across the recruitment industry, all experts in their respective fields but none having an affiliation with a particular online recruitment site – so it is a massive honour to join such an illustrious group.

As is usual, at this time of year, we have been inundated with requests for information about his year’s awards.  I can confirm that preparations are indeed underway for the 11th annual NORAs, and that the schedule will be as follows.

20th June – Nominations open

9th September – Nominations close

27th September – Our shortlist of Finalists will be revealed

Wednesday 2nd November – This year’s Winners will be announced at our awards event in London

After months of nominations, shortlisting, and judging, the winners of this year’s 10th annual National Online Recruitment Awards have been announced.  The new venue was Sway London, in Covent Garden, and on Thurday 4th November, there wasn’t anywhere else any self-respecting online recruiter would have wanted to be.

Everyone who is anyone was part of the over 300-strong audience, including those from 66 Finalists for the 13 awards.  The 13th award was a particular high point, as it recognised the recruitment website that had made the greatest contribution to online recruitment since the NORAs began.

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 are extremely proud to announce the Finalists for this year’s tenth National Online Recruitment Awards.  Now covering a full decade, the NORAs have become established as the standard by which all recruitment websites are measured.  Uniquely, the awards are initially nominated by job seekers themselves, in order that the perspective of those who utilise each site remains paramount.  This year we received almost 28,000 nominations for 592 separate websites.  http://www.norauk.com/finalists-2010