Businesses with turnover below £20m per annum are eligible to enter this category. The mantra running throughout your application in this category will be customer service, candidate experience and community. Excellence in any or indeed all of these areas will be given as much weight by judges as your quantifiable billing success. Your business will have moved with the times, by showing resilience and innovation whatever your sector. Your website will be user-friendly while perhaps harnessing social media techniques to attract candidates. A thorough understanding of the needs of the candidate and the client will need to be demonstrable, and going above and beyond just the basic requirements is a must for any small recruiter. You will also show how you value and nurture your own in-house talent, how they are involved

Open to businesses with a turnover of between £20m and £100m per annum. We will be looking for a recruitment business which knows its objectives, has a strong team ethos, looks after its staff through opportunities and training and understands the requirements of its clients and candidates by showing exceptional sector knowledge. The social responsibility aspects of the business will also be highly regarded. Staff will be rewarded for their success and developed if expectations are not met, and all teams will be involved in some form of decision making which affects company policy - an open door to the senior management will be available if required from trainees upwards. How does your business improve the reputation of the industry while still maintaining profitability? How do you connect with candidates - are you harnessing the latest recruitment technologies - social networking, Bluetooth, messaging - or are you attracting through an exceptional website? And of course, tell us about customer satisfaction, reflected in your margins.

This is open to businesses with a turnover of £100m and upwards. Despite scale your business will still be synonymous with unsurpassable customer service, a testified strong candidate experience and in-depth knowledge of your sectors. While remaining large and profitable, good staff retention and a strong recognisable brand is essential. Your support for candidates will reflect the quality of your consultants - this of course will be supported by clients of all sizes, who feel the detail your business goes to in matching perfect candidates to their perfect role sets you aside from the everyday. How does your company improve the reputation of recruitment in general? Is your corporate responsibility matched by your social responsibility? Websites will be full to brimming with expert advice and assistance for both the candidates and the end user and you will also be open to all of the technological advances of the staffing sector, or maybe you have decided to be a more traditional provider of labour solutions. Whatever your strategy, shout about it.

What sets your job board apart from the crowd?

What can you offer the jobseeker or candidate that nobody else does better?

Whether you are a niche board, for graduate jobseekers, new or firmly established, you will be considered for this most sought after accolade. Judges will want to see a fuss-free process of finding the most suitable jobs for the jobseeker. Is there anything extra for the jobseeker such as CV and interview advice? Is your website a portal into helping release the extraordinary possibilities of the UK jobseeker? And of course, how else do you connect with your jobseekers; through established social networking innovations or your own creation? You are more than just a website address, so tell us about it. We will of course accept entries from any recruitment business with a job board, as well as the standalones.

Enter this category if you provide unparalleled training and development for your consultants through your own programmes or from outsourced experts. We want to hear from you if the training provision helps your employees move forward with their career and to make money! Training is of course a cost to you, but we are not necessarily looking for the big spenders; those recruiters who know that its workforce, however small, will benefit both in the short and long term from the guidance you have offered are eligible to enter this category. It is not an easy job, so how do you help your consultants, team leaders or even management survive?

Recruiters of any size based in the UK but trading overseas may enter this category. How well do you know your market overseas and what benefits have you brought to your brand by expanding into foreign markets? Whatever global region you have tapped into, for end users or candidates, you must have taken a risk - so claim your reward. We want to see evidence of social responsibility in the areas you have chosen. How does your branding stand up overseas and are you making the right choices with your staff and how are you supporting them within their roles? Is the reputation of UK PLC benefiting from your business? Tell us and tell the world!

Helping businesses fulfil their worker needs requires a lot more than simply looking through a database. A good one needs to fully understand their end user’s requirements. Being fastidious with time lines and being reliable goes without saying, making your business money too is of course essential, but we are looking for that extra ‘something’. How was the AWR dealt with and what lengths did your nominee go to in client/candidate understanding of the regulations? A dazzling testimonial will also help you walk off with an important industry accolade. Has your nominee really gone that extra mile when it comes to researching their sector and their customers’ requirements? And what have they achieved in order to be an ambassador for this increasingly professional industry?

Whether you have developed a system to improve front or back office functions for your own business or for another recruiter, or if you have created a software or solutions package to assist the staffing sector in the day-to-day running of their businesses, one thing is certain with this category - you have made the whole process simpler in some way or other. Ease of use is essential and however minor that change in the bigger picture of the recruitment process, any time or cost saving is a step forward which is of course in the right direction. This is open to all, recruiters and the support services, and we want to get under the skin of your innovation so give us the practical applications and benefits and you could well walk away with this prestigious title.

You don’t just know about your sector, you are truly part of it. As a specialist or niche recruiter your knowledge of the vertical you service goes beyond the superficial. Your consultants will be able to hold their own when dealing with both candidates and clients regardless of how esoteric the requirements. Your brand will reflect your dedication to the sector as will your website, targeting your audience perfectly while offering candidates and end users added value. Do you get involved within the wider industry? Your resilience during a tough few years will earn extra brownie points, with firm examples of how this was achieved. A specialist recruiter and a recruitment specialist is not an easy line to walk – tell us how you did it?

Many jobseekers' first port of call when looking for a new role is the specialist job board, which should be brimming with advice for the graduate and buckets of jobs for the more experienced professional. Not only will your site be an enjoyable and easy experience but should reflect your sector and your audience's aspirations effortlessly. You have harnessed the latest technology to simplify the process as well as exploiting social media - you should of course be experts in all the online techniques for connecting clients and candidates. A strong brand is a must and your work in the wider sector community will reflect your dedication to the niche.

Entry opening day - January 4th 2012