The full list, published in this week’s edition of The Sunday Times (23 February), is restricted to firms with between 50 and 249 employees, and is compiled for the newspaper by work-engagement specialist Best Companies.

Recruiters by ranking – the number in brackets is position in overall list – are:

9          Oscar Recruit

11        Orion Electrotech

16        SF Recruitment

17        LHI Group

18        Searchability

19        Gleeson Recruitment Group

21        Charlton Morris

23        networx

30        Oyster Partnership

33        Roc Search

36        Austin Fraser

39        Annapurna Recruitment

43        ITECCO Recruitment

50        Prime People

53        La Fosse Associates

64        Heat Recruitment

68        Tradewind Recruitment & SANZA Teaching Agency

74        IT Works Resource

75        Premier Group

80        Whitehall Resources

81        Optimus Search

96        McGinley Group