Note: Nominations are only available on the Organization plan
Nominations let people on your team propose peers for awards based on achievements, values, and contributions. Depending on how you set up the period, they can nominate individual coworkers or groups (a department, location, or team). You can collect structured answers with custom questions, review results by nominee or in a table, optionally run a voting phase to pick winners, and then recognize or award nominees.
Setting up nomination periods
Creating a new nomination period
Start in Admin Settings and navigate to Admin Settings > Recognition > Nominations
Click the Create new button in the top right corner
Fill in **Basic info**:
Name- This is the title of your nomination period that will appear in both the admin nominations page and the user nomination submission form.
Description and instructions - information to help users understand what the nomination is for and what the process will be like, determine who they should nominate, as well as learn about nomination requirements.
Start date - the day users can start submitting their nominations.
End date - the day users can no longer submit nominations.
Dates follow your audience’s timezones: start date uses the earliest timezone among eligible users; end date uses the latest. That matters when your team spans regions such as New Zealand and the United States.
4. Under Eligibility settings configure who can be nominated and who can nominate.
Who can be nominated?
Choose Individual or Group.
Use audience filters (location, department, team, manager role) and exclusions the same way as elsewhere in Bonusly. If you leave filters empty, everyone can be nominated.
Eligibility counts update as you build filters so you can see how many people match.
People cannot nominate themselves and cannot nominate the same person twice in one period.
Group
Pick a group type: Department, Location, or Team. All groups of that type are eligible; audience filters do not apply to which groups appear.
Each submission is for one group. Users cannot nominate the same group twice in one period.
On the submission form, users search for a group and can preview members (with expand/collapse for long lists).
Who can nominate does not change which groups appear for a Group period.
Who can nominate?
Set which users can submit nominations using the same filter and exclusion patterns. If nothing is selected, everyone who can use Bonusly can nominate (unless something else limits them). Connect your HRIS under company integrations if you want to filter by location, department, team, or role and those dimensions are not set up yet.
Submission limits
Under Submission limits, set how many nominations each eligible user can submit. If you leave this blank, users can submit unlimited nominations.
The same employee cannot be nominated more than once by the same user (individual programs), and users cannot nominate themselves.
Custom questions
Add up to five custom questions per period. Each question has a format, prompt text, and a required toggle (optional questions show Optional on the form).
Question formats
Text Best for open-ended context, values stories, or anything that needs a full sentence or two. Text questions use the same rich formatting tools as the main nomination message (bold, lists, links, and more).
Select one Best when each person should pick a single option (radio buttons). Every option appears on the form.
Select multiple Best when someone might choose several options at once (checkboxes). Every option appears on the form.
Dropdown Same single-choice behavior as Select one, but the choices appear in a compact menu. Use it when you have a longer list or want to keep the form shorter.
When questions are locked
You cannot change custom questions after anyone has submitted a nomination for that period (even if the period is still open).
You also cannot change Individual vs Group, group type, nominee/nominator audiences, or submission limits after a period is close.
Plan question wording before the first submission, or create a new period if you need a different form.
Previewing the nomination form
Use Preview form to see the submission experience: nominee picker (user or group), description tooltip on hover, and all questions with optional labels.
Voting
In the Voting section you can turn on a post-nomination voting phase so eligible voters pick favorites among nominees.
Enable voting~ when on, configure a voting window, who can vote, and which nominees appear on the ballot.
Voting window~ Start and end dates are required when voting is enabled. Voting normally starts the day after the nomination period ends (not on the last day of nominations). If the nomination period is already closed when you enable or edit voting, voting may start as early as today instead.
Voters~ Same filter/exclusion pattern as nominators. Empty filters mean everyone eligible can vote. Open Advanced options to set voter rules on the create/edit form.
Limit voting to~ Example Top 5 nominees, Top 10 nominees, or All nominees (by nomination count).
Voting link~ After the period is saved, copy the link to share with voters. Voters see anonymized nomination content: text answers without nominator names; choice questions show aggregate charts only, not who picked what.
When voting is first enabled, each voter may cast one vote per period (fixed in product configuration today). Voters can change selections before submitting; after submit they can reopen the page, adjust votes, and submit again until the voting window closes.
Voting is available when the nominations-voting feature is enabled for your company.
Click Save at the bottom. The period appears on the admin list; users see it in the givebox on the start date(not before).
View and manage periods (Scheduled, Open, Closed, and Voting when a voting window is active) on the admin nominations page.
Managing Nominations
Admins can quickly find the nomination period they want to manage by searching keywords or sorting the Name, Status, Start date, End date, Creator columns.
Nomination periods are initially sorted by start date within 3 statuses:
Open - current date is between start and end date
Scheduled - start date is upcoming
Voting - Nomination window may be over; an enabled **voting window is currently open
Closed - end date has already occurred
Admins can review the Nominees column for open and closed nomination periods to understand how many unique nominees there are for a particular award or honor. A nominee can be a person or a group (department, location, or team), depending on how the period was set up.
Admins can review the Submissions column to monitor overall organization participation. Submissions tracks how many nominations have been submitted for that nomination period.
If a nomination period is open, the Nominees and Submissions columns will dynamically update as activity occurs.
Scheduled nominations
Admin can change any field before the start date, including questions, audiences, group type, submission limits, and voting.
If a nomination period is scheduled, admins can modify anything on the screen as long as editing occurs before the start date.
Admins can choose to open the nomination period immediately by setting the Start Date to today's date and saving.
If the scheduled nomination is no longer needed, admins can Delete the nomination period using the Delete button.
Open nominations
Admins can access quick actions by clicking the vertical dots on the far right of the table row.
Admins can only edit certain information about that nomination. Admins can change the name, description, and instructions or adjust the end date.
Close Now ends nominations immediately; users cannot submit more.
Once a nomination period is opened, admins cannot adjust nominee or nominator audiences nor modify voting limits. You also can't change custom questions, Individual vs Group, or group type (Department, Location, Team) after the period is open.
Note: If you change who can nominate or be nominated on an **open** period, the change applies only to **future** submissions. Existing nominations are unchanged.
From the results page you can still **Set up voting** / **Edit voting** (when the voting feature is on) without editing the full period form.
Closed nominations
For closed nominations, admins can:
Review submissions to view the results of a nomination event
Export the CSV spreadsheet of results
View nomination information by clicking the edit button (changes cannot be made if a nominations is closed)
Nominations can be archived from the Admin view!
Archived nominations will live in their own archived index, similar to Awards/Incentives
Only closed Nominations can be archived
Archived Nominations can be reactivated from the edit page
Archived Nominations can be deleted on the archived index
Communicating & Sharing Nomination Forms
You've created your first nomination period in Bonusly, great job! Now what? It's time to spread the word about the program to your teams. Proactive and targeted communication can help promote participation and engagement with your nomination program.
Nomination notifications
Creating and saving a new nomination will automatically send in-app notifications to the people you've made eligible to submit when the event opens. Notifications send reminders on the start date and on the end date of the nomination period.
You can view notifications on your Bonusly home page by clicking on your name in the lower left corner, then Notifications in the submenu that pops open. Notifications will open in a side panel.
When users click the in-app notification, they are automatically directed to the appropriate nomination submission form.
Sharing a link to a nomination submission form
On the Admin Settings > Recognition > Nominations page, find the row of the nominations event you'd like to share. Then click on the three dots on the right hand side to see additional actions.
Review submissions - opens the results page to review current submissions
Edit - allows you to make changes to the nomination program. (Changes are dependent on the status of the nomination event learn.)
Share link with users - copies the url to the submission form to your clipboard to paste and share directly with others.
Using Announcements to communicate your nomination event
A great way to get the word out about your nomination event is by including it in a Bonusly announcement. You can use the Share link with users action from above to copy the submission form URL and paste it into a new Announcement.
From the givebox on the Bonusly home page, click on Announce to create a new announcement.
Don't see the announce button? Admin permissions are required to create announcements. Check with your Bonusly admin to learn more.
Next, paste the link into the description input directly or by using the link icon in the editing tools.
If the nomination is only for a certain group, you can target the announcement to a specific group by adding a team handle (location, department, team, everyone) into the Who should see the announcement post field.
When users click this link in the announcement, they will automatically be directed to the appropriate nomination submission form.
Learn more about creating and managing announcements in Bonusly in this article: Announcements
Submitting a nomination (Employee)
Once a nomination period is open, all users who are eligible to submit nominations will see a Nominate button in the givebox. The Nominate button is badged with the number of open nominations available to the user.
Click on the Nominate button to open available nomination events. Next, choose the nomination you'd like to make a submission for and click the next button.
Individual nominee: Use Who are you nominating to search for a coworker and pick them from the list. If the nominee pool is limited, the form shows who can be nominated.
Group nominee: Use Which group are you nominating? to search, then pick one department, location, or team (depending on what the admin configured). You'll see the group type and size where the product shows it (for example Team and member count).
You'll answer each required question before you can submit. Optional questions show Optional next to the label and you can skip them. By default, the first question is still Why are you nominating them? as a text field, but your admin may have changed the wording or added more prompts. Select one, Select multiple, and Dropdown questions appear inline on the same form.
There is no length limit on how much you can type in text questions. You can use the editing tools to format your message and include URL hyperlinks if desired.
Each submission is for one nominee: one person for individual programs, or one group for group programs. For individuals, you can't nominate yourself. You also can't submit duplicate nominations for the same person or the same group in the same period.
Click on the Submit nomination button to complete. A message will appear letting you know the submission was successful!
If the nomination has a voting limit, the user is informed when they reach that limit and prevented from making another submission. However, they can review who they submitted for the nomination.
Reviewing nomination results (admins)
By Nominee
Open Review submissions or click the period row. Summary stats: nominations, nominees, nominators, questions.
List of nominees with submission counts; select one for detail.
Text answers per nominator with dates; choice questions show **Aggregate across N nominators** then individual responses.
Winner column (ribbon): mark/unmark internal winners; nominees are not notified
Row menu: **Give recognition**, **Give award** (individual nominees only), **Create new award**, **Copy all messages**.
All responses
Table: nominee, nominator, date (UTC), one column per question (type in header). Long text may truncate; use By nominee for full text.
Periods created before custom questions existed still show legacy free-text reasons as a single text question in these views.
**CSV export** from the list row menu or results includes one column per custom question.
Voting results (when voting is enabled for the period)
Summary: voter count, total votes, **Didn't vote** (eligible voters who have not voted).
Table: winner ribbon, nominee, nomination count, vote count, voter names, same recognition/award actions as By nominee.
**Export** voting results CSV (nominee, counts, votes, voters, winner flag).
Nominations results page-level actions
On the nominations results screen, admins have access to page-level actions based on nomination status.
Review description and instructions Admins, or other submission reviewers, can remind themselves of what the nomination period was for by clicking the document icon button. This will open those details in a popup view.
Copy Share link Admins can copy the nomination submission form link by clicking the link icon button. This action is only available for open or scheduled nomination periods.
Share nomination results Admins can share the nomination results with others in their organization for collaboration or to celebrate all nominees. This action is only available for open or closed nomination periods.
Share with other Bonusly Admins To share results with other global admins or awards admins, copy the url in the browser address bar to share.
Share with non-admins If you want people without admin permissions to view results, click Share results, turn Share with non-admins on, and copy the link that appears.
By default, non-admins cannot access nomination results. However the admin can toggle the "share with non-admins" control ON, in order to get a link that can be sent to anyone with allowed company email domains.
Once the admin toggles "share with non-admins" ON, a unique url will appear that you can copy directly.
The unique url will bring people to a nominations results screen where they will be able to see all nominees, how many users made submissions for that nominee, a summary of why that nominee was nominated, as well as all the nomination messages submitted on their behalf.
The shareable view uses the same tabbed layout as the admin page (By nominee and All responses), including aggregate breakdowns for choice-style questions, so committees and broader audiences get the same scannable experience without admin access.
This shareable view can be used for nomination committee process. If admins want to celebrate everyone who was nominated, the shareable view is a great way to give everyone at their organization (including all nominees) access to the nomination results.
Nomination voting (employees)
When voting is enabled and the window is open:
A banner on the home page prompts users who still owe votes (one period → voting page; multiple → voting index).
Vote page: nominee list (sort by name or submissions), select a nominee to read anonymized answers on the right, toggle votes (up to the per-voter limit), Submit votes.
Before voting opens or after it closes, the page shows when voting starts or ended; submit is disabled outside the window.
Users can change votes and resubmit while voting is open.
Recognizing Nomination Winners
When you are ready to celebrate your nominations winner(s), You'll find multiple actions available in the in the results table including the ability to:
Give an award - Give out a previously created company to employee award
Create a new award - Create a new award specific to the nomination event if one isn't already available
Give recognition- Give recognition to a nominee from your own giveable balance
Copy all messages- share nomination messages with nominees in a channel outside of Bonusly, like via email or maybe in a chat message
Give an award
To give a nominee a preexisting award, click on the Give award button under the summary.
Next, select an award to give for any award that you have giver permissions for. When they continue via “Next”, the nominee’s recipient @handle is automatically prefilled into the award post.
Learn more about giving awards in this article: How to give an Award
Create a new award
If you don't find an available award in givebox pop up, you can choose to create a new award specific to your nomination event. Click on the 3 dots and then Create award.
You will be redirected to the Awards, Celebrations, & Incentives page with the awards tab active. Click Create new in the top right to make an additional award.
Note: To create a new award, the admin must have award permissions.
Give recognition
To anonymize and share nomination messages with a nominee, click Give recognition in the dropdown menu from the three dots.This will bring up the peer-to-peer recognition givebox. The selected nominee’s recipient will automatically prefilled into the recognition post. By default, the recognition post visibility matches the organization’s visibility setting.
Copy all messages
Admins can also share nomination messages with nominees outside of Bonusly (email, Slack, MS Teams, etc.)
Click Copy all messages to copy messages and submitter names to the admin’s [digital] clipboard. You can then paste the messages in other channels to share with the nominee.
Pro tip: To keep nominations anonymous, the admin can delete submitter names or even choose snippets of messages to share
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help!
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