Nomination & Eligibility

1. Nominations for the Workplace Excellence awards must come from an employee of the company. Chief executive officers, owners or human resource managers may not nominate their company.

2. The prior year's Overall winner is ineligible for competition in the next year's event. Overall winner may be nominated and recognized but not compete. Category winners are eligible to compete. As the organizer, The Sun and Freedom Newspapers of SW Arizona are not eligible.

3. Nominations will be accepted until 5 p.m. on August 7, 2009.

4. Nominations may be completed on the site by following the Nominations tab in the menu or you may fax nominations ((928) 329-2753) email (kpaiz@yumasun.com) or mail a printed copy to Kay Paiz, The Sun, 2055 S. Arizona Avenue, Yuma AZ 85364.

5. Employees may nominate their employer on the site by following the Nominations tab in the menu or with a printed form (found in flier or ads that appear in The Sun and Yuma Business Direct).

6. For more information, contact Adrianne Wagner at Yuma Sun at awagner@yumasun.com or (928) 539-6805.

7. Nominations and applications will be seen and processed by Yuma Sun staff only, with a panel of independent, out-of-town judges making the final decisions.

8. Business previously voted as the overall winner in prior years, are not eligible to win again in this category. However they are still eligible to compete within their size category.

Application & Judging
1. Each nominated company will be invited to complete an in-depth application.

2. If a sponsor is nominated, they will not advance to the application process.

3. All applications will be divided into three categories: Small business (less than 15 employees), Medium-size business (16 to 80 employees) and Large business (81 employees or more).

4. A panel of independent, out-of-town judges will evaluate each application plus nomination.

5. Judges will review applicants' human resources practices and the chief executive officers' statements. Each will be judged on innovation, culture, environment, impact on the business and implementation excellence. Nomination may also be considered.

6. No additional material will be accepted at the application phase beyond the online application; no photos, no video tapes, no extra documentation will be accepted.

7. Total maximum points per application are 100. Judges will total the points awarded to each application, then rank the applications.

8. A winner will be selected in each category and an overall winner will be selected.

9. Applications will be judged by our panel of HR professionals from around the county and must be completed and received at Yuma Sun by August 28, 2009 at 5pm.

10. If no businesses in a category are nominated or complete the application process, the category will go dark for the year. No matter how many businesses per category are nominated, if none reach the judging threshold (of points, determined by independent judging panel) no prize will be awarded.