Kathleen Smith, director at Preferred IT, the company that won the award, told Recruiter: “We have a very well developed back office support team. They sit on the main floor of the office and the department heads all come from a recruitment background.”

Smith added the company’s focus on credit control had meant the last time it incurred a bad debt was five years ago.

Judges praised the company’s measured return-oninvestment programmes for staff retention and benefits programmes.