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 managing and reporting on a Nomination Program. For information about creating your nomination program, see Creating Nomination Programs.
- Value and Impact of Nomination Programs
- Manage
- Reporting on Nominations
- Implications and Things to Consider
- 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.
For information about creating your nomination program, see Creating Nomination Programs.
Managing a Nomination Program
Use these steps to navigate to your already created Nomination Program:
- Log in to your Awardco platform.
- On the homepage, select the “Admin” button at the bottom of the left navigation menu.
- From the left navigation menu, click “Recognition,” “Programs,” then “Nomination Programs.”
Once the program is live, you will manage it via the Manage tab. From here, you can view all submissions, progress through rounds of review, and recognize winners and nominees.
All Submissions Tab
This is the main page for managing nominations once your Nomination Program is live. Before opening nominations, you must first add the Nomination Programs widget to the homepage. The “Open Nominations” button will not appear until this widget is added.
- Selecting “Open Nominations” makes the program visible and available to eligible participants directly within the homepage widget, allowing them to discover the program and begin submitting nominations.
Note: If you schedule a start date in the Submission Period settings, you do not need to manually select “Open Nominations.”
Once the Nomination Program is open, you will be able to start round 1.
Complete the Nomination Programs widget setup on both desktop and mobile before selecting Open Nominations.
Use the “All Submissions” page to keep track of what is happening in your live program.
From here, you can:
- See all nominees in the program, filter nominations by metadata, and download a CSV file.
- Review nomination metrics, nominee metrics, and participation rate for the program.
- Share the link, or a QR code, to take individuals directly to the Nomination Program.
- View nominee status, for example, pending approval, in voting, winner.
- See the number of nominations each person has.
- Sort nominations.
- See who is assigned for round voting or approvals for each nomination.
To control when nominations are open and closed:
- Select “Close Nominations” when you are ready to stop new entries for the round.
- Re-open nominations if you want to accept more nominations and have not started Round 1.
Before you can start a round, you must manually assign its approvers and voters from the Evaluations page (unless you've opted for an automated approval round where approval is assigned to supervisors).
Unlike many standard Recognition Programs, you do not assign approvers or voters before opening a Nomination Program; this step happens later, on the Evaluations tab on a round-by-round basis.
Evaluations Tab
Use the “Evaluations” page to manage the rounds already configured in Evaluation Settings.
From here, you can:
- See all the rounds and their results.
- Start or stop rounds.
- Assign reviewers, including individual voters or committee members.
To add another round or delete a future round, go to “Evaluation Settings.” Once reviewers are assigned, select “Start Round” when you are ready to begin the review.
NOTE: You cannot start a round until every nomination has an assigned approver, individual voter, or committee.
Voting Round
Use a voting round to narrow a larger pool of nominees into a smaller group. You can use individual voting or committee voting.
Individual Voting:
Each voter reviews their assigned nominees and selects the allowed number to advance.
To assign individual voters:
- Assign nominations 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.
When starting the round, the program admin sets how many nominees each voter can select.
Individual Voter Experience:
- Voters are notified by email as soon as they are assigned a nomination to review. If multiple nominations are bulk-assigned to the same voter, they receive a single email notification rather than a separate email for each nomination.
- They can click a link in the email to open their nomination for review.
- Voters can also find the nominations needing their review on the homepage by going to Manage > Approvals > Nominations.
- Individual voters select nominees from their assigned group. Committee members review nominees in the committee’s shared voting pool.
- Voters make their selections, then select “Confirm Selections” or follow the on-screen instructions to submit their decision.
Admin View of Individual Voting:
The admin view for individual voting focuses on assigning nominations, tracking reviewer progress, and managing the voting round.
From the admin view, you can:
- Assign nominations to individual voters.
- See which reviewers have started or completed their reviews and which reviewers still need to vote.
- Delete a nomination from the voting round when needed.
- Confirm a nomination when needed.
- Start or end the voting round.
Use the admin view to monitor progress and manage the round. Voters use their individual view to review their assigned nominations and submit their selections.
Committee Voting:
Committee voting lets a group review a shared pool of nominees for the round.
To set up committee voting:
- Assign committee members by CSV, metadata, or user selection.
- Configure how many nominees each committee member can select.
- Set how many nominees can advance to the next round.
Only one committee can be assigned to each round. Only one committee member needs to submit the committee’s decision.
Committee Voter Experiences:
- Committee voters are notified by email as soon as they are assigned as a voter.
- They can click a link in the email to open their nomination for review.
- Committee voters can also find the nominations needing their review on the homepage by going to Manage > Approvals > Nominations > Review.
Review and submit your votes
- Review the voting rules and guidelines set by the program admin.
- Select the nominees you want to advance.
- Select “Confirm Selections.”
Review voting results
- What committee members can see after voting depends on the program admin’s Post-Vote Results setting:
- Off: Committee members cannot view post-vote results.
- Results Only: Committee members can view aggregate vote totals.
- All Details: Committee members can view individual voting details, including who voted for each nominee.
*Example of the committee member view when Post-Vote Results is set to All Details and Committee Vote Confirmation is enabled.
*Example of the committee member view when Post-Vote Results is set to Results Only and Committee Vote Confirmation is enabled.
Confirm the committee’s decision
- If the program admin enables Committee Vote Confirmation, committee members can review the committee’s results before the final decision is submitted.
- Any committee member can edit the committee’s selections during the confirmation step.
- The Still more to do message indicates that the committee’s final decision has not been submitted.
- Only one committee member needs to submit the final decision on behalf of the entire committee.
- Screenshot of submitting final decision:
Admin View of Committee Voting:
The admin view gives you a broader view of the committee’s progress and the actions available to manage the voting round. While committee members use their voting view to review nominees and cast votes, admins can monitor activity across the entire committee.
From the admin view, you can:
- Monitor which committee members have submitted their votes and which members still need to vote.
- Review the committee’s current voting activity, including the nominees committee members have selected.
- Edit rankings or selections when needed.
- Send reminders to committee members who have not yet submitted their votes (as shown in the image below).
- Monitor the committee’s progress through the voting or confirmation process.
The actions available to you may depend on the voting round’s result visibility and committee vote confirmation settings. For example, committee members can edit their selections during the confirmation step when Committee Vote Confirmation is enabled. The admin view may also include management actions that are not available to committee members.
Use the admin view to manage the round and follow up on outstanding votes. Use the committee member view to understand what voters see when they review nominees, cast votes, edit selections, or submit the committee’s final decision.
Approval Round
An approval round is best used as a simple “yes/no” check on nominations.
Choose your approval type in evaluation settings:
- Supervisor approval:
- The nomination automatically goes to the nominee’s supervisor; no manual assignment needed.
- Manual assignment:
- Unlike an automated supervisor routing, 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.
- An admin can start the round once nominations have officially closed and all submissions have an assigned reviewer.
- Make sure every nomination has an approver.
Review before starting the round:
- All nominations in the round.
- Who is assigned to approve each nomination.
- Confirm that the setup looks correct.
Approver experience:
- Approvers are notified by email as soon as they are assigned a nomination to review. If multiple nominations are bulk-assigned to the same approver, they receive a single email notification rather than a separate email for each nomination.
- They can click a link in the email to open their nomination for review.
- Approvers can also find the nominations needing their review on the homepage by going to Manage > Approvals > Nominations.
- For each nomination, the approver approves or denies it.
Admin View of Approvals:
The admin view for approvals focuses on assigning nominations, tracking reviewer progress, and managing the approval round. Each approver reviews the nominations assigned to them.
From the admin view, you can:
- Assign nominations to individual approvers.
- See which reviewers have started or completed their reviews and which reviewers still need to approve.
- Delete a nomination from the approval round when needed.
- Confirm a nomination when needed.
- Start or end the approval round.
Use the admin view to monitor progress and manage the round. Approvers use their individual view to review their assigned nominations and submit their selections.
Ending Rounds
Once reviewer decisions are made, the Nomination Program administrator will close the round.
The round will be finalized, and no further changes can be made after the round has ended.
You can’t move to the next round unless all decision makers have made their decisions for the round.
If there are still pending nominations that require approval, the Nomination Program administrators can:
- Approve remaining nomination(s), or
- Deny remaining nomination(s)
Winners Tab
When all rounds are complete, use the “Close Final Round” button to finish your program. Doing so does NOT automatically notify winners; you have the opportunity to recognize winners on the Winners page.
From the Winners page, you can:
- See the final list of winners.
- Review the final status for all nominees.
- Confirm who will be recognized and celebrated.
Recognizing Winners
Use the Winners page to:
- Send recognitions for winners based on your award settings.
- Make sure winners receive:
- Their points or awards.
- The correct program messaging and branding.
- Recognitions can be scheduled to be sent for a later date or immediately.
Note: There will be no “from” shown when the recognition is given. The Program Name will appear here instead.
The Winners tab will show even while the program is still running and winners are not yet selected. As a reminder, closing the final round adds winners to this page, but it does not automatically notify them or send their winner recognition.
Notifying Nominees Who Did Not Win
As a reminder, nominee notifications can be sent in two places:
- In real-time: Nominees can be notified the moment they are nominated. (Configure this using the Send recognition at time of nomination submission option in the program settings).
- From the Winners page: Notifications can be sent at the end of the program if they were not already sent upon submission.
These notifications let nominees know they were recognized and display the response to the primary nomination question, showing them exactly why they were nominated or what they did well. This helps keep the program positive by making sure nominees know their efforts were recognized.
Reporting on Nominations
Use the “All Submissions” page in your program settings as your main reporting view.
On this page, you can:
- See the status of each nominee (for example, pending, in review, winner, not selected).
- See the total number of nominations in the program.
- View who is assigned to each nomination or round.
- Review participation rate and other high-level metrics.
- Export or review data (as available) via a CSV file to share with leaders or track program success.
- View winners and those who received nominations via the recognition details report.
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.
- Clearly define:
- 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.
- Tell employees:
- 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.