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Creating Nomination Programs

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Use Nomination Programs to effortlessly collect submissions, manage approval and voting rounds, and celebrate your nominees and final winners—ensuring everyone feels seen and appreciated. This article focuses on creating and configuring a Nomination Program. For information about managing your nomination program, see Managing Nomination Programs.

 

  1. Value and Impact of Nomination Programs
  2. Creating a Nomination Program
  3. Settings
  4. Adding the Nomination Programs Widget to the Homepage
  5. Implications and Things to Consider
  6. FAQ

 

Value and Impact of Nomination Programs

Nomination Programs help you:

  • Gather nominations from a wide group of employees.
  • Use approvals and voting rounds to narrow down submissions.
  • Recognize winners with awards.
  • Notify non-winners that they were nominated and share key nomination details.
  • Add a structured way to run contests, awards, and peer nominations.
  • Give clear visibility into nominations and the stage of review they are in.
  • Automate notifications and recognitions for both winners and nominees.

This keeps your programs transparent, fair, and engaging for your whole company.

 

Creating a Nomination Program

 

 

Use these steps to create a Nomination Program from start to finish.

  1. Log in to your Awardco platform.
  2. On the homepage, select the “Admin” button at the bottom of the left navigation menu.
  3. From the left navigation menu, click “Recognition,” “Programs,” then “Nomination Programs.”
  4. Select “Create Nomination Program,” name the program, and select “Create Program”.

 

 

Settings

General Tab

After creating a Nomination Program, you’ll see the full list of settings in the General tab.

General Settings:

  • Program Name.
  • Program Description: Brief description to help users identify the program (125-character limit).
  • “Learn More” Link Message: Text shown when users select "learn more" for program information (2,000-character limit).
  • Program Cover Image: Upload a header image for the program; recommended dimensions are 1200 x 600 px, with a maximum file size of 50 MB.

Nomination Eligibility

  • Giver Eligibility
    • Select “Everyone” to allow all users to submit nominations.
    • Select “Limit Givers” to define eligible users by:
      • Users: Specify individual users.
      • Metadata: Define eligibility using metadata tags, e.g., users with "VP" or "Manager" titles, or users tagged as "Employee" in one category and "Part-time" in another.
  • Recipient Eligibility
    • Select “Everyone” to allow all users to receive nominations.
    • Select “Limit Recipients” to define eligible recipients by Users or Metadata, using similar logic as above.
      • Select “Same as Giver” when working with metadata to match recipients to the same metadata group as eligible givers.

 

 

Submission Period

  • Use Submission Period to schedule when employees can submit nominations. This controls nomination collection on the employee side, not the full program management timeline.
    • Select the program start date and time.
    • Enable “Add an end date” to set the program end date and time.
    • Select the time zone for the program.

 

 

Rules Tab

Nomination Rules

  • Recipient Configuration:
    • Determine if only individuals, groups, or both groups and individuals can be nominated.
    • If Groups is selected, set the minimum and maximum number of individuals per group.
  • Toggle between yes/no to allow a person to nominate themselves.
  • Enter the number of nominations an individual can give or select “Unlimited Nominations.”
  • Toggle between yes/no to allow a person to nominate the same person multiple times.

 

 

Questions Tab

In the Questions tab, you can tailor the nomination form by updating the default questions and adding any additional prompts needed to collect the right information for your program.

  • Primary Question: The primary question is “Why do you want to nominate this person?” You can modify the text and order of this open-ended question to fit your program, but it cannot be deleted. The answer to this primary question is what appears in the feed as the recognition text if you choose to send recognitions to your winners and nominees.
  • User Select Question: The User Search Question is "Who would you like to nominate?" You can modify the text and order of this question, but it cannot be deleted. Because this question is included on the form by default, you do not need to add an additional User Selection type question just to pick the nominee. Only use a User Selection type question if you need an additional user-based question elsewhere in your form.


 

Click “Add Question” to create additional questions for your survey. You can choose from the following types:

  • Short Answer: Prompts concise written responses.
    • Enter the Question Text.
    • Check the Participant’s Answer is Required box if applicable.
    • Click “Save.”
    • Note: The character limit for a short answer is 600.


       
  • Long Answer: Invites detailed written responses.
    • Enter the Question Text.
    • Check the Participant’s Answer is Required box if necessary.
    • Click “Save.”
    • Note: The character limit for a long answer is 4,000.


 

  • Single-Select: Similar to a multiple-choice question, a Single-Select question allows only one answer.
    • Enter the Question Text.
    • Add multiple answer options by typing an answer and hitting enter.
    • Check the Participant’s Answer is Required box if necessary.
    • Click “Save.”

 


 

  • Multi-Select: Allows participants to choose multiple answers.
    • Enter the Question Text and the answer options.
    • Check the Participant’s Answer is Required box if needed.
    • Click “Save.”



 

  • File Upload: Prompts respondents to upload a file.
    • Enter the Question Text.
    • Check the Participant’s Answer is Required box if necessary.
    • Click “Save.”

 

 

  • Media: Prompts respondents to upload a media file.
    • Enter the Question Text.
    • Check the Participant’s Answer is Required box if necessary.
    • Click “Save.”

 

 

Reorder questions by dragging and dropping the six-dot icon next to any question, except the primary question, which cannot be reordered at this time.

 

Evaluation Settings Tab

Nomination Programs support Evaluation Settings, which let you run multiple rounds of approvals and voting to narrow your list of nominees and submissions to ultimately determine your winners.
 

Voting

Use a voting round when you want voters to narrow a larger pool of nominees into a smaller group. You can set up voting for individual voters or a committee.

  • Individual voting: Each voter reviews their assigned nominees and selects nominees to advance.
  • Committee voting: One committee reviews a shared pool of nominees for the round. You can assign committee members by CSV, metadata, or user selection. Only one committee can be assigned to each round.

 

Individual Voting

For individual voting:

  • Assign nominations to voters manually.
  • Filter nominations by metadata, such as department, location, or role.
  • Bulk assign voters to save time.
  • Make sure every nomination has an assigned voter before starting the round.

For an individual voting round with manually assigned reviewers, select Start Round and set the Voting Quantity, which determines how many nominees each reviewer can select.

*Example image of what an individual voter will see for a voting round.

 

Committee Voting

To use committee voting:

  1. Add or edit a voting round.
  2. Select Committee Voting.
  3. Assign committee members using the available assignment method, such as:
    • CSV upload using an email address or employee ID.
    • Metadata.
    • User selection.
  4. Configure the Voting Quantity and Total Advancing settings. Voting Quantity determines how many total votes each voter can cast. Total Advancing determines how many nominees the committee can advance to the next round.
    • Example: Each voter can cast up to 3 votes, but the committee can advance only 1 nominee as a winner. 
  5. Configure result visibility and, if you prefer, add a committee vote confirmation step. Enabling post-vote results allows committee members to view the voting distribution after they cast their vote. Enabling committee vote confirmation enables a final meeting once all votes have been cast to make a final decision as a committee.
  6. Add a reviewer guideline or rubric, if needed.
  7. Save the round.

Only one committee can be assigned to each round. The committee is automatically assigned to the voting round.

 

The settings below from steps 4, 5, and 6 determine how committee members vote, what they can see after voting, and how the committee submits its final decision.

 

Voting Quantity

Use Voting Quantity to control how many nominees each committee member can select.

You can set the quantity to:

  • Limited: Each voter can select a defined number of nominees.
  • Unlimited: Each voter can select without a set limit.

 

Total Advancing

Use Total Advancing to control how many nominees advance from the round.

You can set the total to:

  • Limited: A defined number of nominees advance.
  • Unlimited: All nominees who meet the program’s advancement rules can advance.

 

Results and Transparency

Use the results and transparency settings to control what committee members can see after voting.

Configure Post-Vote Results as:

  • Off: Committee members do not see post-vote results.
  • Results only: Committee members see general vote totals.
  • All details: Committee members see detailed voting information, including who voted for each nominee.

Enable Committee Vote Confirmation if you want the committee to review its results before submitting a final decision. Committee members can review the results and edit their selections if needed. Only one committee member needs to confirm and submit the final decision on behalf of the committee.

 

Reviewer Guidelines

Add a reviewer guideline or rubric to a voting round when you want to give reviewers consistent criteria.

Only reviewers can see the guideline.

 

Approval

An approval round is best used as a simple “yes/no” check on nominations.

Choose your approval type in settings:

  • Supervisor approval:
    • The nomination automatically goes to the nominee’s supervisor; no manual assignment needed.
  • Manual assignment:
    • Unlike an automated supervisor routing above, nominees will NOT automatically have an assigned supervisor from the start.
    • Manually assign approvers as nominations come in.
      • Filter nominations by metadata like department, location, or role.
      • Bulk assign approvers to save time when you have many nominations you want to assign to one person.

 

*Example image of what an approver will see for an approval round

 

In Evaluation Settings, you can create different types of rounds, such as a first approval round followed by a second voting round, by selecting Add Round. Rounds act like stages in a review pipeline. In each round, a specific group of approvers or voters reviews nominations and decides which ones move forward. This lets you narrow the list step by step until you reach your final winners. You can also delete a future round from Evaluation Settings if needed, but you cannot delete a current or past round.

There is no limit to the number of rounds, but 2–3 rounds are ideal.

 

 

Recognize Tab

Use Recognize to configure recognition settings for nominees and winners.

Nominees

  • Select the email template for nominee notifications.
  • Recognizing Nominees Upon Submission:
    • Toggle on send recognition at time of nomination if you would like recognitions sent to employees when they are nominated (in real time). 
      • We highly recommend recognizing nominees upon submission to build momentum and drive awareness throughout the Nomination Program process; simply knowing they were nominated increases the overall value and cultural impact of the program.
    • If you choose to recognize nominees on submission, select whether the recognition is public or private, and choose the feed banner image. 
    • Note that the same email template you select for nominees can also be selected as the winner's email template below in settings.
  • Only nominees who are manually removed from the Nomination Program by an admin will not receive a notification.
  • Feed Banner: This image will appear on the nominee’s recognition in the feed.
    • Use a 1200x300 image for the recognition in the feed.
    • Ideal for distinguishing recognitions.

Note: It is recommended to start from the standard Recognition email template for nominee notifications, then adjust the content to fit your specific Nomination Program.

 

 

Winners

  • Select the email template for winners.
  • Select the budget from which the points will be pulled to be awarded to the winner.
  • Select the Award Network that the points will be associated with.
  • Feed Banner: This image will appear on the winner’s recognition in the feed.
    • Use a 1200x300 image for the recognition in the feed.
    • Ideal for distinguishing recognitions.

Note: It is recommended to start from the standard Recognition email template for nominee notifications, then adjust the content to fit your specific Nomination Program.

 

 

Adding the Nomination Programs Widget to the Homepage

The Nomination Programs Widget appears in a dedicated homepage widget for maximum visibility. From the widget, employees can click to quickly access the Nomination Program(s). You cannot open your Nomination Program until this widget has been added.

Setting up the Nomination Programs Widget:

  1. On the homepage, select the “Admin” button at the bottom of the left navigation menu.
  2. From the left navigation menu, click “Customize” then “Homepage Editor.”
  3. On the left-hand or right-hand side of the homepage editor, click “Add Content” and add “Nomination Programs.”

 

 

  1. Optional, edit the widget title if desired.
  2. Add the Nomination Programs widget to the mobile homepage layout as well, making sure it is visible and easy to access.

 

 

It is recommended to move this widget closer to the top of your homepage, at least above the “Recognition Feed” widget. Ensure you also preview the widget placement on the mobile homepage.

For more detailed instructions on customizing your layout, please refer to our Homepage Editor support article.

 

 

Your nomination program is now set up. To open nominations, manage submissions, run approval or voting rounds, and recognize winners, see Managing Nomination Programs.

 

Implications and Things to Consider

When you set up a Nomination Program, keep these points in mind:

  • Budget and awards:
    • Make sure your award budget matches the number of expected winners.
    • Decide if all winners get the same award or if you will have tiers.
  • Approver and voter workload:
    • Be conscious of how many nominations you give a single reviewer to approve or cast votes on.
    • Use filters and bulk assignment to spread work fairly.
  • Timeline:
    • Clearly define:
      • Nomination open and close dates.
      • Each round’s start and end dates.
      • When the winners will be announced.
  • Communication:
    • Tell employees:
      • Who can nominate.
      • What makes a strong nomination.
      • How and when winners will be chosen.
    • Plan announcements for:
      • Program launch.
      • Nominations closing.
      • Winners and nominees notifications.
  • Data and fairness:
    • Use consistent criteria in your program questions.
    • Make sure approvers and voters understand what they should look for.
    • Use multiple rounds if you need more control or more review.

 

FAQ

Who can use Nomination Programs?

Nomination Programs are designed for Awardco Admins and Program Owners who manage recognition programs. End users see the nomination form and notifications you set up, but only Nomination Program administrators manage rounds and results.

What is the difference between approval and voting?

Approval is a simple pass/fail decision for each nomination. Voting lets reviewers choose a set number of nominees from a group, which is useful when you need to narrow down a large group to a smaller set of finalists or winners.

Can I have more than one round?

Yes. You can create multiple rounds of approvals and/or voting. You decide how many rounds you want when you set up the program.

When are nominees notified?

Nominees can be notified in two ways: immediately when they are nominated, if Send recognition at time of nomination submission is enabled, or at the end of the program from the Winners page if they were not already notified. If neither option is used, nominees will not receive a notification.

Can I see how many people participated?
Yes. The All Submissions tab shows participation rate, total nominations, and other key metrics for your program.

Can I nominate a group of individuals?
Yes. To allow group nominations, go to Settings, then Rules. Under Recipient Configuration, select “Groups” or “Groups and Individuals.” If you select Groups, set the minimum and maximum number of individuals allowed in each group nomination.

For those who were nominated but not winners, what text shows up on their recognition feed?

The nominee will see the response the nominator typed for the primary question, usually “Why do you want to nominate this person?”

What is the difference between individual voting and committee voting?

With individual voting, nominations are assigned to individual voters. With committee voting, one committee reviews a shared voting pool and submits a group decision per round.

Can a committee member rescind a submitted vote?

A committee member can rescind a vote when a committee vote confirmation is enabled. A Super Admin can rescind a vote regardless of the setting.
 

 

If you have any questions, please contact Awardco Admin Support.

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