Creative campaigns designed to specifically attract emerging talent in school leaver, apprentice, intern, placement and non-graduate recruitment.

Judges are looking for entries that clearly define their target audience and how they have been engaged. They will want to understand the organisation’s long-term plans for this audience, platforms and channels used and evidence that it has engaged with relevant stakeholders, such as pupils, teachers or parents.

This award recognises the efforts of employers to offer an outstanding, valuable and distinctive experience for every candidate prior to application, throughout the attraction and hiring process. We are looking for evidence of a well-planned, well-executed experience that is consistent across one or multiple stages of the candidate journey. We’d also like to see candidate feedback and testimonials about their experience, and to understand how improvements were made. Entrants should also demonstrate how the experience enhances and amplifies the Employer Brand.

Judges will also be looking for a sense of the impact the experience is having on candidates, and evidence of effectiveness. Were results linked to an initial brief?

Whether it’s for a big campaign idea or a one-off execution, this category recognises brilliant conceptual thinking. Effectiveness is not key here. Instead we’re celebrating the creative ideas that go beyond the expected and demonstrate how we can convey messages and experiences in bolder, braver and more compelling ways.

Judges are looking for a clear outline of the problem that needed solving, a smart creative solution, and evidence that the idea was in fact used.

Employee engagement is critical and this category seeks to recognise excellence in the field. We want to see examples of how organisations keep people motivated, confident and connected to the business both functionally and emotionally. Any work produced for employers wishing to communicate with employees can be entered, in any media.

This category is also open to internal comms work that promotes in-house initiatives, for example employee referral schemes.

Judges are looking for a clear outline of the project, the objectives, audience and methodology. Entries need to be clear around how the project reflects the employer brand and workplace culture of the organisation and provide evidence of effectiveness.

This category celebrates excellence in employer brand development at an international level. We’re looking for employers that demonstrate how their brand has delivered real business benefit through insight, testing and execution. Entries can focus on the launch of a new employer brand or the evolution an existing one.

Judges are looking for clear methodology which involved consultation with the appropriate stakeholders, examples of how creative executions reflect the EVP and examples of effective local tuning.

Entries should include consistent creative messaging and delivery with a clear creative strategy to engage audiences both internally and externally.

This category celebrates excellence in employer brand development at a national level. We’re looking for employers that demonstrate how their brand has delivered real business benefit through insight, testing and execution. Entries can focus on the launch of a new employer brand or the evolution an existing one.

Judges are looking for clear methodology which involved consultation with the appropriate stakeholders and examples of how creative executions reflect the brand. Entries should include consistent creative messaging and delivery with a clear creative strategy to engage audiences both internally and externally.

Employer branding has matured from its roots in transactional advertising into something much more holistic and akin to brand marketing. This category recognises the increasingly important roles that audience research, insight and brand strategy play in shaping and executing a successful employer brand.

Judges are looking for innovation and creativity, clear strategic thinking, rigour, and effectiveness. Entries should provide a summary of the process of creating stakeholder engagement, if applicable, and evidence of how you have used research and analysis to inform and shape your employer branding strategy and implementation (new or evolved).

This category is for employer websites dedicated to recruiting experienced hires and early talent.

Judges are looking for sites that provide jobseekers with a brand-based candidate experience that conveys the workplace culture in the design and copy. They will want to learn how jobseekers are engaged, how they are directed to relevant pages and whether personalisation has been considered.

The site’s technical quality will be considered, including responsive design and user experience, as will the quality of relevant content for all audience segments and evidence of effectiveness.

Please include the website URL in your entry and indicate the area you wish to be judged.

Entries into this category will demonstrate a commitment to supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce in terms of attraction and/or engagement. They may be either communication campaigns or initiatives.

Judges are looking for evidence of an effective and clear response to a specific challenge by the organisation, to understand the target audience and the rationale for the channels used. Creativity and innovation is also sought.

This category covers all recruitment marketing events or experiences, whether face-to-face or virtual. We are looking for work that uses creativity and context to capture the essence of the employer brand, enhancing the target audiences’ perception. Entries may be standalone or part of an integrated campaign.

Judges are looking to understand why the method to engage the target audience was chosen, how the event or experience fits into the broader recruitment marketing strategy, and to gain insights into how the experience made an impact on the brand. Creativity and evidence of effectiveness are important.

Open to all campaigns targeting graduate and postgraduate hires. Any coordinated marketing campaigns utilising different media, designed to solve an organisation’s graduate recruitment objectives.

Judges are looking for a clear outline of the brief, and any challenges for specific skills that may have required a special focus, e.g. female engineers. Effective and relevant creative strategy and executions, that promote the employer brand in an effective manner for the audience(s) and how well the campaign performed will be considered.

This category rewards in-house teams responsible for shaping the organisation's image as an employer of choice, attracting the best talent, and fostering a positive work environment. We recognise employer brands evolve and that measurable impact may only become apparent over time. Entries can focus on the launch of a new employer brand or a significant development to an existing one. This category is open to any organisation of any size.

Judges are looking for a clear strategy explaining how the employer brand and EVP has been developed and communicated, and examples of how the brand has been positioned internally to ensure employees engaged with the project. Summarise how the creative project has impacted external reputation and ability to attract talent, and provide evidence of effectiveness.

This category rewards innovative solutions, ideas that are out of the ordinary, unexpected and different. Entries can be digital, physical, creative or a methodological approach that changes perceptions.

Judges are looking for innovation that offers something unique in relation to the brief, with a clearly established, well-articulated link between the challenge faced and the solution developed. They want to understand the relevance of the idea to the wider brand and principles, and evidence of the work’s impact.

This category focuses on the synergy created through combinations of media channels: print, digital, social, audio, outdoor and experiential. At least two different media channels must have been utilised (social counts as one).

Judges are looking for a specific recruitment challenge that has been identified with the audience(s) defined and an explanation why the channels were selected. Consistency of messaging and branding is important, as are originality and creativity, and evidence of effectiveness.

Open to standalone motion work including film, video film, video, television, animation, vlogs, virtual reality and augmented reality Collections of work should be entered into the Video Campaign category.

Edited versions of a single execution should be entered into this category and not into Video Campaign.

Judges are looking for a powerful use of video that makes significant impact and reflects the brief, an understanding of why the format was selected, and who the work is aimed at, and for evidence of effectiveness.

This category recognises initiatives or campaigns specifically designed to attract, engage or recruit candidates through social. We are particularly looking for the rationale behind channel selection, innovative use of the latest platform features, creative that speaks to the right talent personae, platform-specific content formats, and evidence of community growth, engagement, and reach.

Judges are looking for an explanation of the challenge, and why social platforms were selected, as well as how and why the content was created to engage with specific personae. If appropriate, explain how employees were selected to feature on the channels and whether content was amplified by employees to increase further reach.

How did social fit into the broader employer branding strategy and what were the key measures of success?

Here we are looking for the innovative application and execution of technology. The solution should address a specific challenge an organisation is facing and deliver demonstrable impact on talent attraction and/or retention.

Judges are looking for evidence that the entry was aligned to the brief, the reason behind and the relevance of the technological solution developed. Strong alignment and integration of the technology to deliver an excellent branded experience and evidence of effectiveness are also sought.

This category focuses on video, whether short-form or long-form, that engages candidates or employees.

It is open to all collections of visual work including film, video, television, animation, vlogs, virtual reality and augmented reality. Entries should comprise two or more executions featuring unique content in one or more video formats.

Judges are looking for an outline of the recruitment challenge identified, and the relevant audiences targeted, content that makes significant impact and a structure that engages viewers. Explain why the video formats were selected, demonstrate consistency in branding/messaging, and if not, an explanation of why not, and provide evidence of effectiveness.

This new category recognises innovation and care in crafting visual design. While entries can be in any medium or media, what is important is the attention and effort that has gone into creating visual impact in recruitment communications. Entries could be beautifully produced print, unique art direction of photographic or video shoots or innovative approaches to imagery.

In a world where AI and programmatic are flooding every channel, the key element the judges are looking for in this category is an ambition and dedication to producing work with real visual difference – where the desire to be visually unique is backed up with meticulous craft.

Judges are looking for visual work that feels unique and impactful, the rationale for the visual approach and to understand the demonstrable effort and care undertaken to craft the work, for example, the complexity of visuals, time-consuming approaches, and an ambition to push visual outputs.