The STAR Awards will be determined by three independent panels
To ensure the awards process is as transparent and fair as possible, there will be a qualifying round, followed by a two-stage judging process.
Entries are fully anonymised before proceeding through to qualifying and judging rounds.
For the qualifying round, an independent external panel will assess entries against key selection criteria. Qualified entries will then proceed to judging.
For the judging process, one independent panel of talent acquisition leaders will determine the awards shortlist, then a second independent panel of HR and business leaders will determine the award winners.
STAR Awards categories
The STAR Awards are open to human resources, talent acquisition, hiring and employer brand teams and professionals within Australian organisations. Recruitment agencies and recruitment process outsourcing suppliers will be acknowledged by the SARA Awards at a later date.
Talent Acquisition Leader of the Year
The winner of this award will be focused on the big picture, and on how their talent team are driving the vision for their business. They will encourage continuous improvement throughout their team, while motivating and inspiring their team to achieve outstanding results.
Talent Acquisition Rising Star of the Year
The winner of this award will be a highly valued member of their team with fewer than 8 years of talent acquisition and/or hiring experience within a HR capacity. They demonstrate exceptional hiring skills and are helping to improve the talent acquisition strategy at their organisation through innovative and creative thinking, whilst always putting the candidate at the centre of what they do.
Talent Acquisition Team of the Year (over 1000 employees)
The winner of this award will be able to demonstrate that their team is a powerhouse, collaborating closely to drive toward their talent acquisition goals, and leveraging the strengths of their large organisation.
Talent Acquisition Team of the Year (under 1000 employees)
The winner of this award will be able to demonstrate that their team is striving to be a trailblazer in talent acquisition, taking a nimble and innovative approach to reaching their goals, and leveraging the strengths of their small or medium-sized business.
Public Sector Team of the Year
The winner of this award will be able to demonstrate that their team is championing talent acquisition in the public sector while ultimately ensuring the very best candidates go on to serve the greater community.
Best Employer Brand Initiative
The winner of this award will be focused on amplifying and optimising their unique Employer Value Proposition (EVP) to reach best fit candidates. Their nominated initiative will be strategic and innovative in approach, and will be contributing to a stronger employer brand.
Best Candidate Experience Initiative
The winner of this award will take a candidate-centric approach to ensure all candidates have a great experience. Their nominated initiative will go above and beyond their candidates’ expectations.
Best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative
The winner of this award will treat diversity, equity and inclusion as integral to their organisation, and will have an attraction strategy that supports this.
What the judges are looking for
The judging panels will assess entries using the following guiding criteria. These have been designed to reflect the essential role internal talent and hiring teams play within organisations, and the way these teams must adapt and strive for success in an ever-evolving landscape. Here's an overview of what the judges will look for:
Candidate centric
How are you putting the candidate at the centre of your strategy or initiative/s?
Innovation
How are you doing things differently, whether it's process, technology or strategy?
Results
How do you know you are succeeding?
Greater impact
How does this achievement better your organisation, your community, or your candidate experience?
The judges
This year, the STAR Awards will be determined by two independent panels. To ensure the awards process is as transparent and fair as possible, there will be a two-stage judging process. One independent panel of talent acquisition leaders will determine the awards shortlist, then a second independent panel of HR and business leaders will determine the award winners.
Juliet Bourke
Professor of Practice, School of Management and Governance, UNSW Business School
Juliet is an author and TEDx speaker and sits on a number of boards including the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College London, founded and chaired by Julia Gillard AO; the 30% Club Education Committee, qChange (an HR Tech Start-up) and Ovarian Cancer Australia.
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She consults to global leaders on D&I and was recognised in 2021 by Engagedly as a global thought leader in HR, and in 2019 as one of Australia’s top 100 Women of Influence by the AFR.
Andrew Staite
CEO and MD, The Pinnacle Foundation
Andrew’s passion is helping young people to realise their full potential. He believes in the power of education, focused support and visible role models to sustainably transform young lives. The Pinnacle Foundation is a national charity that awards educational scholarships and provides mentoring support to young LGBTIQ+ Australians to overcome challenges arising from their identity.
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Andrew is co-founder of search, outplacement and people advisory firm, SHK, remaining its non-executive chair. Andrew previously spent almost ten years with Morgan & Banks and its successor companies. He lives in Melbourne with his husband, Mark, and their Cavoodle, Raffaella.
Michelle Phipps
Chief People Officer, Australia and New Zealand, VetPartners
Michelle is currently Chief People Officer for VetPartners, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. She was previously General Manager HR AusPac - Business Partnership and Talent for QBE Insurance, Group Head of Talent, Leadership and Learning for Coca-Cola Amatil APAC and Vice President HR APAC for Brown-Forman as well as HR Director for Kellogg Company ANZ.
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With a PhD in Culture and Identity (UTS) and an MA in HR Management (Charles Sturt University), Michelle is passionate about culture, leadership and talent and workforce strategies. Michelle serves as a Board Director of Vet Nurse Plus NZ, Chair of the AHRI D&I Panel and Chair of AusDance NSW. She resides in Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her family and dog George and is an avid dancer.
Jason Collins
Head of People & Capability - People Advisory & Talent Acquisition, Kmart
Jason is a senior HR executive with experience working across all major facets of human resources. His career has traversed the Retail, FMCG and Telecommunication industries in iconic companies including Kmart, Telstra, The Coca-Cola Company and Coles Myer (Coles Group). After leading people and capability for stores and supply chain at Kmart for Australia and New Zealand for a number of years, Jason now heads up Talent Acquisition for Kmart and Target.
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He is particularly passionate about building, leading and engaging teams for high performance and driving transformative results in service delivery and the candidate/employee experience.
Jenny Neville
Organisational Development Project Manager, Mecca
Jenny started her career in Agency and RPO before making the move to Australia , from New Zealand in 2019, where she joined MECCA Brands as their Senior Talent Acquisition Partner.
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Now in the role of Talent Acquisition Manager, Jenny leads the team responsible for Mecca's Support Centre and Supply Chain recruitment, giving her the opportunity to apply a ‘whole of business’ lens to Talent including strategy, attraction, retention, mobility and EVP.
Libby Mitchell
Head of Recruitment, Australian Red Cross
Libby’s background in HR and Recruitment is full of variety and growth. She’s gravitated towards opportunities involving change and transformation hence why she often describes herself as ‘not a maintenance person’. She has been involved with many redesigns of teams and loves the challenges that are begging for something to be fixed or re-imagined.
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In her current role at Red Cross, she is focused on re-imagining the recruitment function, aligning it to the purpose and strategic goals of Red Cross and ultimately, streamline processes and improve experiences for employees and volunteers alike. Libby is deeply committed to her belief that ‘everyone deserves a wonderful life and a secure future’ and you see it in everything she does including her active profile on LinkedIn where she shares many tips and opportunities. She’s also a long-time, avid gamer (Diablo & WOW) who enjoys her inner-city life and her e-bike with her husband now that her children are out of the nest!
Katherine Mitchell
Talent Acquisition Leader, Australia & New Zealand, Microsoft
Kat is a globally experienced Talent Acquisition Leader currently heading up Talent Acquisition for Microsoft Australia and New Zealand through a period of hypergrowth. Kat has spent the past 20 years in Recruiting both in specialist agency and corporate environments.
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She has delivered worldwide, large-scale growth and transformation programs; leading teams of up to 40 people to deliver 3000+ hires annually from Executive Search and Industry hiring through to Diversity, Graduate & Apprentice hiring. Her background encompasses end to end best practice, across strategy, Organisation Design, scaling for growth, ATS/CRM implementation, EVP & brand development, RPO/MSP implementation, sourcing & market intel, customer experience, assessment strategy and onboarding. Kat speaks 4 languages and has lived and worked in 5 countries.
She is passionate about the difference great recruiting can make to an organisation and sees the ability to attract, hire and retain game-changing talent as the ultimate differentiator in the success of a business.
Pam Stroud
Head of TA, Transurban
Pam currently leads the TA team at Transurban Australia. Previous to this, Pam led the Talent Attraction & Engagement Experience team across Australia for REA. As a passionate & versatile Talent and Employment Branding Executive that has gained deep experience across multiple industries, three continents and nearly two decades.
Loren De Laine
Director, Talent Acquisition – Asia Pacific, India, Middle East, Tὓrkiye & Africa | CHEP
Loren believes that growth is achieved through maximising potential and there is nothing more satisfying than enabling people to reach their career goals. She has had exposure to all facets of Talent including attraction, succession, development and Early Careers across a diverse range of industries and companies, from agency to RPO and leading in-house teams locally and regionally.
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She is currently leading the Talent Acquisition function across Asia Pacific and India, Middle East, Africa regions for Brambles/Chep. Working across multiple markets and leading diverse teams has helped build awareness of the nuances that underpin equity and inclusion needed to shape positive organisational culture. Loren is passionate about connecting with peers to share experiences and continuous learning to stay abreast of the technology evolution in this rapidly changing world. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her husband and two children (now young adults), attending film and theatre, keen snow-skier and exploring nature.
Nicole Gioia
Head of Talent Experience, Mantel Group
Nicole’s passion is for an awesome people experience and supporting organisations to maintain a high bar of talent where people perform at their best. She operates in a collaborative way to make things better and has worked across a diverse range of industries.
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Nicole is the Head of Talent Experience at Mantel Group which is the fastest growing technology and design consultancy in Australia and New Zealand with a house of brands strategy. Her role is to design and execute the strategy of the end-to-end experience of talent from the first day of contact to the end of probation. Mantel Group is recognised as Australia's Best Place to Work in Australia in 2021 and 2022 by Great Place to Work and genuinely puts people first.
Hayden Stokes
Head of Talent Acquisition, Blackmores
Hayden is an accomplished professional with a wealth of experience in talent acquisition and recruitment. As the Head of Talent Acquisition at Blackmores Group, Hayden leads a team of skilled recruiters focused on finding diverse talent across multiple locations in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Hayden’s expertise lies in candidate selection, process improvement, internal recruitment, full-life cycle recruiting, and human resources information systems.
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Prior to joining Blackmores Group, Hayden held key roles at renowned companies like Diageo and Unilever, where he successfully sourced and engaged top talent. With great passion and a resolute dedication to making a positive impact in the recruitment field, Hayden is a distinguished talent acquisition professional who brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table.
Adam Buxton
Strategic Consultant
Adam is a strategic talent acquisition leader with over 20 years recruitment experience in the Technology and Financial Services sectors. Currently an independent consultant, providing strategic guidance and insights to organisations in both the private and government sectors. His broad history has seen him lead recruitment initiatives for companies such as Westpac, ING and IBM.
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Adam's expertise encompasses diverse areas such search, experienced hiring, diversity hiring, graduate recruitment, talent management, redeployment, employer branding, workforce planning, and contingent, MSP, and RPO solutions. With a strong track record of driving transformational change and operational excellence, Adam helps align talent strategies to enhance organisational performance.
Garth Quinn
Head of Talent Acquisition, APM
Garth is a seasoned senior leader boasting diverse expertise in talent acquisition and people experience spanning mining, construction, healthcare, and social services. With a proven track record, he excels in formulating and executing strategies amidst challenging markets and candidate shortages, consistently enhancing organisational capabilities for current and future demands.
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Adept at creating new functions and overseeing rebuilds, Garth emphasises the need for empowered teams, innovative marketing, transparent metrics, and advanced technology. His accomplishments stem from robust stakeholder engagement and adept project and change management. Garth's influence extends to advisory roles, policy design, and large-scale program implementation within prominent organisations.
Jenna Barnes
Head of Talent Acquisition, Australia & New Zealand, AECOM
Jenna is Head of Talent Acquisition ANZ at AECOM. Jenna has spent the last 20 years recruiting globally, initially commencing within agency recruitment before making the transition to internal recruitment 10 years ago. Throughout her career she has always led with an innovative and strategic approach to talent acquisition which has resulted in building high performing teams that drive organisations success.
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Jenna possesses a keen eye for identifying talent, employing creative sourcing techniques, and leveraging cutting edge technologies. Jenna is passionate about supporting individuals in their career journeys and enabling businesses to thrive through exceptional talent.