Best practice
The aim of the judging process each year is to find those people, teams or organisations who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and innovation. For that reason, ‘best practice in payroll and HR’ will be a key theme this year.

We’ll offer tips on best practice in the magazine and on the website, while everyone who attends the event will receive a special best practice publication. Finally, in honour of our 15th year we’ve created a special award, the Judges' Award – essentially a ‘best in show’ award that will see the judges select one of the 2009 winners as the overall ‘Judges’ Award for Excellence 2009’. 

Reader vote
Over the years many dedicated and deserving payrollers from practitioners through to trainers and civil servants have won the Strathearn Award for Lifetime Achievement. This year the readers of Pay Magazine will decide who picks up the trophy on 3 November.

The entry process will be run as normal and we will then profile the nominees in the magazine and online, with every reader having the chance to vote for their favourite. One lucky voter will be asked to attend the awards evening and help present the trophy to the winner.

User vote
We will also utilise a popular vote for the Software and Outsourcing Provider categories. The providers will enter as normal, with the judges’ score on their entry making up half the points, and a user vote the other half.

Also, there will be an SME employer winner and a large employer winner in both provider categories.

Individual categories
The individual categories have been streamlined, with the employee and administrator categories being replaced by Payroll Professional of the Year.

More than one winner
The judges will have the discretion to recognise payroll teams working in very different environments, for example, awarding a private and public sector winner in Payroll Team of the Year.

Equally, in the reward category, the judges will be able to recognise very different entries, such as Reward Strategy of the Year: Pensions or Reward Strategy of the Year: Salary Sacrifice.