Strategic nomination programs offer a wide range of flexibility for companies that are looking for measurable ways to drive business forward. They’re highly configurable, so there are many ways in which you can leverage them.
You can control the evaluation process, you can control the budget, you can even control things like who is able to nominate for a specific program at a specific time. Here are a few examples of nomination programs run by our client base to get the wheels turning:
- A quarterly "Shine Recognition Program," where nominations are set to $0 and auto-approved so they appear on the social recognition wall, so others can celebrate accomplishments. Monetary awards are then distributed to the winners. The program is even more cohesive with star-studded designs on the nomination forms and award eCards!
- Multi-layered nomination programs, such as an Annual Award for top-tier nominees, a quarterly award for those who go above and beyond and live core values, and an annual Innovation Award where employees can submit ideas to accelerate business goals.
- Employee and Manager of the Year awards to reward outstanding talent at all levels.
- An award for best young achiever (25 and under) to encourage awards that will retain top ambassadors at the early stages of their careers and build long-lasting tenure.
- Creatively named programs such as ‘Nailed it,’ which is from a power tool supplier.
Reducing the admin burden of nomination programs
One of the most common challenges I hear from our clients is that their current nomination process is clunky and manual – think of a collection of numerous spreadsheets, or hundreds of emails to sort through, catalog and then figure out the delivery process for the actual award.
Using a digital reward and recognition platform such as the one we offer at Reward Gateway can help lessen the admin burden by giving access to a set number of types of approvers at once and keeping all nominations in one, easy to navigate place. Approvers can bulk approve or reject nominations, and quickly see any supporting information the nominator provided in their form.
You can also run several programs at once through segmentation criteria, which will only deliver the programs to the relevant and/or eligible groups. I’ve found this helpful for managers that want to run their own team-led nomination programs such as a Customer Service Team award for “Best Customer Resolution Call of the Month.” Administrators can easily control the windows for these open nominations.
What’s more, these nominations are displayed in real-time via a live social recognition feed (we call ours the "Wow Wall" at RG), so more employees can see the moment of recognition and cheer on their peers through comments and reactions. In lieu of in-person celebrations, this amplifies moments of great behavior, while enhancing an individual’s visibility.
Plus, with email notifications that let the nominator, nominee and approver know of submissions, approvals or rejections, nothing will go missing from the nomination queue! This all leads to a faster process for evaluation and approval, plus the maximum impact of the reward moment delivered to your people.
Strategic nomination programs are a great way to invite your employees to lead the recognition experience by bringing your values to life and defining what great looks like in action day to day.
If you need support thinking through how to bring a program to your business, or are curious about what Reward Gateway offers to reward and recognize your people, we’re here to help.
