Time is running out for Bristol's top firms to enter the Evening Post recruitment awards.

There is just over a fortnight left before the deadline for entries closes and our panel of judges gets down to the tricky business of selecting the winner from the cream of the recruitment world.

Last year advertising agency TCS scooped an award for its Bristol campaign for the RAC.

The company took the crown for Best Recruitment Advertising Campaign, with the RAC itself also picking up an award for Best In-house Staff Benefits Scheme.

Judges praised a recruiting campaign mounted by the motoring organisation.

Using the iconic image of the RAC recovery van it used targeted advertising to recruit an average of 30 customer sales associates each month.

The RAC said it wanted to change its recruiting and job seeker habits in the area and lessen its reliance on agencies to do the job.

It rolled out a local campaign within north Bristol that spanned both press and online in order to reach the full spectrum of job seekers.

Through the campaign it recruited nearly 100 people.

A spokesperson for TCS said: "When we started working with the RAC the brand was not very well known in the Bristol area. Using the image of the van has really helped to raise the profile and get many more people interested in working for the RAC."

The firms collected the awards at a glamorous evening held at Brunel's Passenger Shed in Temple Meads.

Nic Lancaster, business support and improvement manager at the RAC, said: "It's been an absolute joy to win – it shows what a good set of people we've got at the RAC."

Carol Roffer, recruitment manager at RAC, said: "We went out for an aggressive campaign from our agency and they came up trumps – it's been a great night for us."

The deadline for entering the awards is September 15.

Chairwoman of the awards is Dawna Stickler, managing director of Evening Post owner Bristol News & Media.

A selection of the area's prominent businessmen and women will join her on the judging panel. There are 12 categories in the Evening Post Recruitment Awards.

They are Best Recruitment Consultant, Outstanding Achievement, Best Recruitment Consultancy, Best Training and Retention Scheme, Young Achiever, Best Corporate Responsibility Award, Best Recruitment Initiative: Public Sector, Private Sector and Small Business, Best Recruitment Campaign through an Advertising Company, Best in House Recruitment/HR and Against All Odds.

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on October 18 at Brunel's Passenger Shed, Temple Meads, part of the Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

Visit http://content.thisis. co.uk/bristol07/recruitmentawards/index.html