SARA Australia

The Awards

SEEK is thrilled to announce the return of the SEEK Annual Recruitment Awards in 2021.

The SARAs celebrate the people and recruitment businesses striving for excellence in the industry. This year, such excellence holds special significance as the industry continues to take strides forward from the challenges of 2020.

The awards – now in their 18th year – recognise the dedication and innovation of recruitment professionals from across the country, as chosen by a panel of expert judges.

Enter the SARAs for your opportunity to be recognised as a leader in the industry, showcase your skills and brand to clients and candidates, network with your peers and have your hard work rewarded.

The awards are SEEK’s way of showing appreciation for recruiters who take pride in delivering professional service and exceptional client and candidate support, and who inspire others to make a positive impact on peoples’ lives.

SARAs finalists will be invited to join us in celebration at a black-tie event on November 11.

Nominate yourself, your agency or a colleague.

Award
Categories

Recruitment Agency of the Year

This category is open to all recruitment agencies and there are three Awards given, based on agency size:

Small Recruitment Agency of the Year (1-10 full-time consultants)
Medium Recruitment Agency of the Year (11-80 full-time consultants)
Large Recruitment Agency of the Year (81+ full-time consultants)

Judges are looking for commitment to workplace culture, innovation, candidate engagement, commercial growth/achievement and the agency’s contribution to the success of the recruitment industry as a whole.

Most Innovative Agency of the Year

We want to hear from progressive recruitment agencies that are harnessing data and analytics to provide insight, solve clients’ challenges and fuel innovation.

This may be as insights delivered to clients to influence recruitment strategies, or as analytics that enhance business practices, relationships and processes.

Excellence in Candidate Engagement

The hiring process influences a candidate’s acceptance of a job offer, as well as their perception of the recruiter, the organisation and the sector as a whole.

Submissions should demonstrate how the agency goes above and beyond to provide an exceptional candidate experience which helps promote the professionalism of the industry.

Judges will be looking for recruitment agencies demonstrating best practice in candidate engagement with special emphasis on ethically building and retaining candidate pools.

Recruitment Leader of the Year

This category is open to all recruitment professionals at management level, or in a leadership role.

Submissions will demonstrate the ability to foster relationships, solve problems, communicate effectively, and adapt to change.

Judges are seeking someone who inspires and motivates others, performs to business objectives, and is making an impact within the agency and recruitment sector as a whole.

Recruitment Consultant of the Year

This Award is open to all recruitment consultants currently employed by an Australian Recruitment Agency.

Recruitment consultants can be either self-nominated or nominated by a peer within their agency.

Judges will be seeking a recruitment consultant who excels in client and candidate engagement, and has contributed to the recruitment industry as a whole.

Best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative

This award is open to all recruitment agencies and RPOs.

The winner of this award will treat diversity, equity and inclusion as integral to their organisation and/or within their clients’ workplace. They will demonstrate their commitment through meaningful initiatives and/or strategies that benefit diverse talent pools and the business.

Judges will be looking for initiatives or a recruitment approach which maximises the potential of, and offers equitable opportunity to, a diverse group of people. Finalists of this award will consider and incorporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in aspects of the candidate experience.

RPO of the Year

This award is open to all RPOs.

Judges are looking for a RPO who supports and promotes their customer's brand in-market, applies innovation and efficiency to solutions, executes an effective business partnership and drives candidate engagement.

The
Judges

Experts in their field, our exceptional judges have been hand-picked to select the winners of the 2021 SEEK Annual Recruitment Awards.

Lesley Horsburgh

Managing Director, APSCo Australia

Lesley has had a long relationship with the global recruitment sector dating back to her capacity as owner of Recruitment Extra magazine which was founded more than 20 years ago.

She is well respected as having an incredible knowledge of the recruitment sector, maintaining a reputation for being at the forefront of current issues through her management of multiple publications relating to the sector and as founder of the Recruitment Excellence Awards (REA’s) in 2008.

Lesley became Managing Director of APSCo Australia in 2019.

Charles Cameron

CEO, RCSA

Charles is the CEO of RCSA, the peak industry body for recruitment and staffing in Australia and New Zealand. Charles has twenty years of experience consulting within and leading an industry which inspires him every day. Charles is on the Board of the World Employment Confederation and leads more than 50 recruitment and staffing associations from across the globe as Chair of the National Federations Committee.

Meahan Callaghan

Chief People Officer, Afterpay

Meahan has been in the HR industry for 25 years and has worked across hospitality, media, retail, technology and, financial services. Her most significant roles include SEEK, where she was Global HR Director for 10 years and now Afterpay as Chief People Officer.

Meahan has a passion for bringing authenticity and simplicity to the HR function and using these skills to scale businesses quickly. She has thoroughly enjoyed her part in the success of several fast-growing, technology-based businesses such as SEEK and FOXTEL and, now Afterpay.

Andrew Retschko

Senior Executive, Talent Acquisition & Engagement, Medibank

Andrew is the Senior Executive of Talent Acquisition and Engagement at Medibank, an integrated healthcare company providing private health insurance and health solutions to 3.7 million Australians. He has spent the last six years in the recruitment industry, starting in a boutique agency before moving into executive search and finally transitioning to an internal role.

Currently, Andrew leads a team that delivers more than 1500 hires across a very diverse range of roles, ranging from bulk intakes of frontline employees through to health professionals in regional and remote locations. Having worked across a broad range of recruitment environments, Andrew has maintained his passion for developing high performing teams, diversity and inclusion and providing exceptional candidate experiences.

Nina Pollard

National Recruitment Manager, Coles

Nina is a HR professional with more than 20 years’ cross-industry experience. She currently leads the Talent Acquisition function at Coles and has held senior HR leadership roles at NAB and BP, commencing her HR career at Telstra as a graduate.

Nina also sits on the board of Her Place Women’s museum bringing together her passion for promoting the achievements of Australian women with her commercial and executive experience.

Bevan White

Head of Talent Acquisition, Rio Tinto

Bevan is head of recruitment at leading global mining group Rio Tinto. He has spent the past 20 years working in, leading and developing highly successful in-house talent acquisition teams across the globe in Africa, UK, US and the Asia Pacific region. Bevan is passionate about ensuring that talent acquisition remains relevant and highly valued by the business in an ever-changing world.

Margaret Mitchell

Group Manger – Talent, Linfox

Margaret leads the Talent function at Linfox, Asia Pacific’s largest privately owned logistics company. With more than 20 years’ recruitment experience, she has held senior positions across in-house, RPO and agency environments, across multiple sectors including technology, mining and telecommunications.

Margaret has developed successful, in-house recruitment teams in Asia Pacific and India. Earlier in her career she worked in finance at BHP and completed post graduate CPA studies, which provides her a commercial lens to recruitment strategy.

She is passionate about talent acquisition creating value for an organisation, developing internal talent and ensuring scalable functionality.

James Elliot

Head of Talent Acquisition, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

James has built and led the Talent Acquisition function for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Group since 2012. His team of talent professionals manage all hiring and employee mobility across the Group, from trainees and entry level roles to in-house sourcing and executive search.

James’ team support an integrated approach to talent management, including succession and demand planning, redeployment and external strategic sourcing.

Prior to joining Commbank, James was Director of Recruitment and Mobility at Deloitte Australia and held various leadership roles in the recruiting industry since arriving in Sydney from the UK in 2000.

Melanie Forbes

Director, APSCo Outsource

Melanie is the Managing Director of APSCo OutSource, a new trade body for outsourcing providers. APSCo OutSource has been created to represent the interests of MSP, RPO and recruitment outsource organisations.

Melanie has been involved in the outsource market for more than two decades, most recently as Group MD of Rullion; MD of Contingent Workforce Solutions at AMS and CEO of Guidant Global. Having been involved in the recruitment industry for 30 years, she has been listed in the SIA Global Power 150 Women in Staffing every year between 2015 and 2019 and was also listed in the SIA European Staffing Top 100 in 2016, 2019 and 2020. Melanie also sits on the board of Directors for the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI).

SARAs submission checklist

Ready to start your SARA submission? We've created a checklist to help you get your submission all set.

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We’re excited to be back and celebrate the industry

Check out the excitement and energy from our prior year awards nights.

Watch now

Learn more about this year’s award categories

We’re thrilled to announce our new category, Best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative. Find out what judges are looking for across all categories.