All judges are involved in rating and ranking the entries. We allow companies employing the judges to take part but a ‘conflicts’ rule ensures that judges do not vote in categories for which their employer has been nominated. Where judges are conflicted, they are not given access to the write-ups of other candidates within the conflicted category to ensure neutrality.
The integrity of the judges underpins the awards system. Judging is not based on consensus but on the judges’ scoring of the write-ups in the first instance, and then ranking the finalists on the final judging day, based on the strict criteria as stipulated with each category.