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.

Recruiting award winners will be announced live at the 2011 LinkedIn Talent Connect Conference in Las Vegas, NV.  The top prize for each of the award categories include:

1. An iPad 2 (for both the Talent Hunter and Recruiting Innovation awards).  For the Recruiting Organization award, the winning team will receive a $750 Visa Gift Card for a team celebration.
2. Charitable contribution.  Recruiting Awards will make a $750 charitable contribution to a charity of the winners choice, for each of the 3 award winners.
3. A crystal recruiting awards trophy.
4. Industry and peer recognition, both at the event and online.

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.