Minutes ago at the Recruiting Trends Conference the 2012 Recruiting Award winners were announced live.

This marks the 2nd year for RecruitingAwards.com.  These awards remain unique based on the crowd-sourcing element compared to other awards in the industry.  Thousands of votes were submitted online from recruiting practitioners, Recruiting Trends conference attendees, and the panel of judges.  Rule-based scoring was used in the calculation, ensuring this didn’t turn into a popularity contest.  The competition was fierce in all 3 categories, and as example, in one of the award categories  there was only .38% score differential between 1st and 2nd place.

Congratulations to the 2012 Recruiting Award winners:

Talent Hunter
The nominees were all extreme hunters – and relentless sourcers. They are investigative in nature, and diligent in their approach. Finding a needle in the haystack is second nature to these recruiting pros. This years’ award winner is also a master at successful networking and building relationships with hiring managers, including board level executives. He advises, coaches and plays devil’s advocate to ensure the right candidate for the right job. He is highly regarded and trusted by his clients, peers and candidates. His work and dedication speaks volumes for the relationships he has established and continues to build. Agencies at this company are nearly non-existent given this individual’s work and results. Congratulations to Jason Wickremaratne from Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Inc., the winner of the 2012 Recruiter of the Year (Talent Hunter) award.

Recruiting Team of the Year
The competition for the recruiting organization of the year was extremely close! The winning team has built credibility for recruiting within their organization at a level hardly seen.  They completely re-engineered and restructured their approach to recruitment strategy, candidate management, and support to internal recruitment partners. Specifically, the newly created team rolled out a model that focuses on 4 recurring elements that are integral to an ongoing successful recruitment process: Innovation, Optimization, Collaboration, and Communication. The focus of the team has been on data-driven decisions and recommendations. As a result of success, the team leader has been invited to speak at several national conferences on best practices. Congratulations to Kara Yarnot and the SAIC recruiting team for being selected as the 2012 Recruiting Team of the Year.

Recruiting Innovation
The nominees for the innovation award have focused on setting new boundaries and standards in recruiting. The winner has delivered some exciting results for their company – while creating an engaging approach for candidates. With 20+ years of industry experience, this years award winner works with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world to develop and implement world-class talent acquisition solutions.  Specifically, he utilized LEAN methods as an innovative approach to recruiting. Congratulations to the 2012 Recruiting Innovation Award winner, Zachary Misko from KellyOCG.

A special thanks to Recruiting Trends for hosting the 2012 Recruiting Awards, and to the RecruitingAwards.com sponsors Checkster, SuccessFactors, LinkedIn, HR.com, and TalentHQ.

It’s time to vote!

The nominations are in for our 3 award Categories: (Talent Hunter, Recruiting Innovation, and Recruiting Organization of the Year).

Our panel of judges and conference attendees with be casting their votes soon. Voting closes Wednesday October 3rd, 2012 at 11:59PM EDT, and there’s some cash and awards at stake!

Winners will be announced live at the upcoming Recruiting Trends Conference in Las Vegas next month.

• Vote for the “Recruiter of the Year” – Talent Hunter award
• Vote for the “Recruiting Innovation” award
• Vote for “Recruiting Organization of the Year” award

Stay updated online at RecruitingAwards.com or follow us on twitter @RecruitingAward.

NOMINATIONS ARE CLOSING TODAY

We’ll be starting the voting next week to select the winners of the 2012 recruiting awards, live at the Recruiting Trends Conference in Las Vegas. The awards are for all recruiting professionals regardless of the industry, company, or geography they recruit for, and are open to corporate and agency recruiters.

The nomination deadline has been extended through this weekend, and nominations for all 3 categories are due by 5:oo EST, on Monday Sept. 24, 2012.

The nomination deadline extension will not impact the overall timeline for voting, which will launch online next week on Wednesday, Sept. 26. 2012.

The 3 categories to nominate the best of the best in recruiting, include:

1. The “Talent Hunter” (Recruiter of the Year) Recruiting Award:
2. The “Recruiting Innovation” Award
3. The Recruiting “Organization” (Recruiting Team of the Year) Award

A special thanks to all of the sponsors of the 2nd annual Recruiting Awards, online at RecruitingAwards.com, including Checkster, LinkedIn, SuccessFactors, HR.com, Recruiting Trends and Talent HQ.

You can stay connected with Recruiting Awards and TalentHQ channels for more updates on twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn.

The awards are for recruiting professionals regardless of the industry or company they recruit for, and are open to corporate and agency recruiters.

With multiple award programs in the industry, RecruitingAwards.com differentiates these awards from others programs by:

• The voting. Winners will be selected via 3 phases of judging.  First, there is a crowdsourced vote. This isn’t a popularity contest, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Second, there is a panel of judges who are recruiting practitioners. Lastly, we’ll email the 2012 Recruiting Trends Conference attendees (all recruiting practitioners) so they have a chance to cast their vote.
• The prizes. Winners will receive a little more than just recognition and will be announced at the Recruiting Trends Conference in Las Vegas on October 15, 2012.

While there are many facets of recruiting that deserve recognition and credit for building the future workforces of the companies we recruit for, the 2nd annual awards delivered at this event will include the following 3 categories for recruiting professionals:

1. The “Talent Hunter” (Recruiter of the Year) Recruiting Award:
2. The “Recruiting Innovation” Award
3. The Recruiting “Organization” (Recruiting Team of the Year) Award

A big thanks to all of the sponsors of the 2nd annual Recruiting Awards, online at RecruitingAwards.com, including Checkster, LinkedIn, The Recruiting Conference and Talent HQ.

You can stay connected with Recruiting Awards and TalentHQ channels for more updates on twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn.

Nominate Now

Yesterday, at the LinkedIn TalentConnect Conference the 2011 inaugural Recruiting Award winners were announced live – in front of the nearly 2,000 conference attendees and USTREAM viewers.  The winners were awarded with $5,000 in cash and prizes, in addition to a contribution to a charity of their choice from Talent HQ.

When the awards were announced earlier this year, a unique crowd-sourcing element was the unique element compared to other awards in the industry.  Thousands of votes were submitted online from recruiting practitioners, TalentConnet conference attendees, and the panel of judges.  Rule-based scoring was used in the calculation, ensuring this didn’t turn into a popularity contest.  As an example, in one of the award categories  there was only .20% score differential between 1st and 2nd place.

Congratulations to the 2011 Recruiting Award winners:

Talent Hunter
The nominees were all extreme hunters – and relentless sourcers. They are investigative in nature, and diligent in their approach. Finding a needle in the haystack is second nature to these recruiting pros. This years’ award winner has transformed the sourcing and talent identification process at their company, which has faced an employment brand awareness challenge. This individual’s ability to source talent is a key driver for the companies’ ability to meet aggressive expansion plans.  Congratulations to Angie White from hhgregg, the winner of the 2011 Talent Hunter award.

Recruiting Organization
The competition for the recruiting organization of the year was very close. The award winner has elevated recruiting within their company to a level hardly seen. They have ranked #1 in the past 5 years within their industry – and have positioned recruiting as a competitive advantage. They consistently exceed the aggressive recruiting goals set by their company, and their recruiters are empowered to make decisions. Leaders from this company quote their recruiters ability to aggressively source talent – as a key competitive strength. Congratulations to Kari Cohen and the Renaissance Financial recruiting team for being selected as the 2011 Recruiting Organization of the Year.

Recruiting Innovation
The nominees for the innovation award have focused on setting new boundaries and standards in recruiting. The winner has delivered some exciting results for their company – while creating an engaging approach for candidates. Quotes from job seekers for this company include “I’ve worked for several companies throughout my career and every hiring process is a little different, however, this sets the gold standard.” “What an amazing group of professionals, with great communication and follow-up”. “This is the best recruiting process I’ve ever experienced.” Congratulations to the 2011 Recruiting Innovation Award winner, Stacy Van Meter from Deluxe Corporation.

A special thanks to LinkedIn for hosting the 2011 Recruiting Awards at TalentConnect, and the RecruitingAwards.com sponsors Montage Talent, Checkster, Jobs2Web, Hirenomics, and TalentHQ.

Whether defined as a full time sourcing role or a full life cycle recruiter, the “talent hunter” recruiting award will recognize recruiting professionals with a competitive approach.

A talent hunter doesn’t give up, and second place isn’t as an option when it comes to sourcing great talent for their organization.  The talent hunter is diligent, competitive, and is always pursuing talent.  Finding a “needle in the haystack” is second nature with these recruiting pros. Their investigative approach is just the beginning.  They are relentless at recruiting and they leverage an endless number of tools and resources to get the job done.  When it comes to finding great talent, these sourcing and recruiting professionals outthink, outhunt, and outperform their peers.

The Talent Hunter recruiting award is an individual award, and will be announced live at the October 2011 LinkedIn Talent Connect conference.

Recruiting Innovation Award 

A status quo approach to recruiting? Not here, think again.  These innovators in recruiting would have made Einstein proud.

Whether it is re-defining the candidate experience and end-to-end recruiting processes – to developing leading-edge approaches and consistently looking for new ideas and ways to better recruit talent, the recruiting innovation award will recognize the leaders of the pack when it comes to creating and deploying new strategies to recruit talent.  They won’t accept no for an answer, and filtering out all of the “noise” is second nature. They understand what it takes to attract great talent to an organization, and they deliver.

The “Recruiting Innovation” award is an individual award, and will be announced live at the October 2011 LinkedIn Talent Connect conference.

Recruiting Organization Award

These recruiting teams approach the challenges in acquiring great talent commercially.  The recruiting services they offer to their leaders are top notch, and they are focused on building the future workforce for their company – as a competitive advantage.

It starts with great leadership – which you’ll find at all levels in these recruiting organizations.  The members of the team take full responsibility for recruiting.  The team is focused, aligned, engaged, and they are all working together towards a purpose, a shared vision, and goal achievement.  They deploy a rapid response approach to solving problems.  They aren’t afraid to try new approaches – and they learn from each other.  They are considered leading-edge in many ways.

These recruiting teams understand both the strategic value and financial gain of recruiting great talent, and they deliver.

The “Recruiting Organization” award is a team award, and will be announced live at the October 2011 LinkedIn Talent Connect conference.

In about a month, RecruitingAwards.com will fully launch and re-define being selected as a leader in the recruiting space. How?

• Crowdsource style voting approach – led by practitioners, not self-proclaimed experts.
• Winners will receive a little more recognition than a trophy and their name online (stay tuned).
• The venue. Awards will be presented live with thousands of Recruiters at the upcoming 2011 LinkedIn Talent Connect Conference in Las Vegas.

Follow @RecruitingAward on twitter, check out RecruitingAwards.com, and sign up to receive updates and notification of the official launch – and all the details.