Note: Nominations are only available on the Organization plan (as well as certain legacy plans).
Setting up nomination periods
Nominations allow employees and managers to propose peers for awards based on achievements, values, and contributions, and provide a structured way to recognize individuals for their impact, beyond day-to-day recognition.
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
3. A new nomination form will open. Start by entering the basic event information including:
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.
Only end date is optional. Nominations without an end date will remain open until the admin edits the nomination period and enters an end date.
4. Next use the Settings form to select who can be nominated for this nomination period.
Select a Group Category (location, department, team, role, or anyone.) Groups are based on your data in Bonusly. Currently only 1 category can be selected at a time.
If applicable, select one or more groups to target in the options under each category.
In the example above, nomination eligibility is targeted to the department group category with 3 groups Finance & Compliance, Hr, and Project Management meaning that all users in the selected departments are able to be nominated.
5. Select who can nominate others.
6. Assign voting limits. Set how many nominations eligible users can submit by entering a voting limit. If no limit is added, users can submit as many nominations as they would like.
NOTE: Users can’t nominate themselves or the same person multiple times.
In the example above, Anyone in the organization can nominated a person from the selected departments.
7. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page - This turns on the nomination immediately, which is visible to users on the start date.
8. View and manage all nominations (Open, scheduled, and closed) 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
Closed - end date has already occurred
Admins can review the Nominees column for open and closed nomination periods to understand how many unique users have been nominated for a particular award or other honor.
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.
Open nominations
For open nominations, admins can access quick actions by clicking the vertical dots on the far right of the table row.
In the quick actions dropdown menu, admins can:
Review submissions to see all nomination submissions.
Export to CSV to download a spreadsheet with the nomination period results:
nomination period name, nominee, submission info, and nomination messages.
Edit nomination information.
Copy the url link to that specific nomination submission form to share directly with users in a Bonusly announcement, in internal presentations, email or chat messages, etc.
If a nomination period is open, admins can only edit certain information about that nomination. Admins can change the name, description and instructions, or adjust the end date.
Once a nomination period is opened, admins cannot adjust nominee or nominator audiences nor modify voting limits.
Scheduled nominations
Quick actions for scheduled nominations include:
Review submissions to see all nomination submissions.
Edit the nomination period
Copy the URL link to a specific nomination submission form to share directly with users.
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 clicking Open now.
If the scheduled nomination is no longer needed, admins can Delete the nomination period using the Delete button.
Closed nominations
For closed nominations, admins can:
Review submissions to view the results of a nomination event
Export the CSV spreadsheet of results
Edit limited nomination information, including end date, name, and details
Click the edit link to adjust the end date to a future date to effectively reopen the nomination period in order to get more submissions.
Admins cannot modify start date or any audience or voting limit settings for closed nominations.
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
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.
The Nominate button will remain in the givebox until all nomination periods are closed.
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.
Type in the Who are you nominating field to find the coworker you want to nominate and then select their name from the recipient menu. If the nominee pool is limited, users can review who can be nominated in the submission form.
Users must include a reason for nominating in order to submit. There is no length limit to how much a user can type. Users can use the editing tools to format their message and include URL hyperlinks if desired.
Users can only nominate 1 person at a time and cannot nominate themselves.
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 submissions
To confirm or review a nomination submission, click on the Nominate button in the givebox on the home page. If you have submitted a nomination, you'll see a blue check to the right of the nomination period information.
Hovering over the check will allow you to view who you nominated most recently.
For more information about your submission, select the nomination you'd like to review and hit the next button. If you have submitted at least 1 person for the nomination, a Nomination history button is visible in the top right of the form.
Click on the Nomination history button to review your submissions. Nomination messages. Click “Show entire message” to read the entire message you submitted for a nominee.
NOTE: Users cannot edit or change their nomination once it has been submitted.
Reviewing nomination results
To review the results of a nomination events, head to Admin Settings > Recognition > Notifications and click on the row that includes the event you would like to review.
You can also get to the same location by clicking Review submissions in the quick action menu for that nomination period.
Nominations Results Table
On the nomination results screen, admins will see
A table of all nominees
Total submissions per nominee
Nomination messages users submitted.
By default, the table is organized from most to least submissions alphabetically by first name. The nominations summary and messages for the nominee with the most votes is selected and shown by default. Click on a user to review the submission details.
The nominations panel shows all messages for that nominee and who submitted them. At the top of the panel, admins can read a brief summary that highlights why all nominators believe this individual deserves this award or honor. To view nominations for another nominee, admins can click to select another nominee row.
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 to share the results with individuals who do NOT have admin permissions, they should use the “Share results” button.
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 users 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 the why the individual was nominated, as well as all the nomination messages submitted on their behalf.
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.
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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