Our website www.nijobfinder.co.uk has been named best regional job site for the second year in a row at this week’s National Online Recruitment Awards (Nora).
The awards, held in London, acknowledge and reward excellence in online recruitment practice from the perspective of jobseekers themselves.
The Noras were established as a standard by which recruitment websites are measured and are a focused opportunity for recognition within the UK recruitment industry.
Stephen O’Donnell, chairman and founder of the awards, said: “For the best regional job site the key criteria is that it is candidate-friendly.
The five finalists are each assessed from a candidate’s point of view, therefore they must be userfriendly and designed with the candidate in mind.
“The site must have all the expected features of a job board but it should also address its region and address it well.
Yes, it was key that the site advertised local vacancies but also that it backed them up with information on the jobs and offered practical advice.
“Nijobfinder won this award for the second year in a row, beating off stiff competition from the likes of S1Jobs who in the 13-year history of the awards have have collected the best regional job site title some seven times.
More than 720 websites were nominated across all categories with more than 35,000 nominations from jobseekers in total.
The nijobfinder website was also a finalist in the ‘Best Employment Advice’ category.
Commenting on this nomination, Stephen said: “This service to clients is very much appreciated and one that is often overlooked by other job boards.”
Picking up the accolade for the nijobfinder website was Independent News and Media’s classified advertising manager, Mark Reilly.
Mark said: “We are absolutely delighted to win this award for the second consecutive year and it is further testament to how user-friendly our site is.
“This award highlights our commitment to helping jobseekers find the right job.
Our tag line for the site is ‘works for you’ and this award brings that motto to reality.
“We would also like to thank all the users of our site for voting for us and helping us to achieve and retain our award.”
Meanwhile, 100 trainees have completed catering and skills courses to graduate in the Now Annual Graduation Celebration at Belfast City Hall.
Now is a not-forprofit organisation which provides training and employment services for people with learning disabilities.
Minister for Employment and Learning Stephen Farry spoke at this year’s graduation event, which had the theme of ‘employment and empowerment’.
Mr Farry said: “This project shows how the voluntary sector and government can work together to deliver innovative interventions that improve the employability of people with a disability who are furthest removed from the labour market.”