Awards are powerful. But you know what makes recognition even more meaningful? When it comes from the people who see the work happen every day.

That's why we built Nominations—a way to let your entire team have a voice in who gets recognized, creating a culture of democratic, transparent appreciation.

Why Nominations?

Here's the thing about traditional top-down recognition: managers can't see everything. The teammate who quietly mentors new hires during lunch breaks. The designer who reworked the onboarding flow three times until it was perfect. The ops person who saved a product launch by catching a shipping error at midnight.

Your people notice these moments. Nominations give them a way to say, "Hey, this person deserves to be celebrated—and here's why."

It turns recognition into a shared responsibility, not just a leadership task.

Setting Up a Nomination (For Admins)

Creating a nomination takes minutes, and we've kept it simple so you can focus on what matters—celebrating your people.

Name it and describe it. Give your nomination a clear title like "Employee of the Month" or "Q1 Innovation Champion." Add a description that tells people what the nomination is about and why it matters. This is what employees will see when they're deciding who to nominate.

Set the window. Define when nominations open and close. Maybe it's a week-long window at the end of each month, or a two-week sprint tied to a specific initiative. You decide.

Choose who can nominate. Open it up to everyone, or narrow it down to specific departments, Smartlists, or individual employees. Your call.

Choose who can be nominated. Same flexibility here. Keep it org-wide or limit it to certain teams or roles.

Add reviewers. Bring in collaborators who can review submissions alongside you. They'll have full access to evaluate nominees and take action.

Set a submission limit. Control how many times each employee can submit nominations to keep things fair and focused.

Configure notifications. Decide how the word gets out—private notifications via email and Slack/MS Teams, public announcements in the ThriveSparrow feed, or posts to specific Slack or Teams channels. You can even use a dedicated channel just for nomination announcements.

Nominating a Teammate (For Employees)

Employee nominations

The experience for your team is refreshingly straightforward.

From the home feed, employees click Nominate, pick a nomination that's open, select a colleague, and write a short reason explaining why they deserve it. That's it—done in under a minute.

No complicated forms, no jumping through hoops. Just a genuine, meaningful recommendation from one teammate to another.

Reviewing Submissions (For Admins & Reviewers)

This is where it gets exciting. When the nomination window closes (or even while it's still open), head into Review Submissions and you'll see every nominee ranked by number of submissions.2You can mark nominees as favourites to shortlist them, and then take action directly from the review page—give an award or grant kudos to any nominee. Nominations and awards aren't locked together, so you have complete flexibility. Give one award to the top nominee, or spread recognition across several deserving people.

Need outside input? Share the nomination form link externally to collect anonymous submissions from people outside your organization — a feature that’s coming soon. You can also add collaborators at any time, export all submissions as a CSV, and share the results with your leadership team.

Keeping It Fair and Flexible

We've thought through the details so you don't have to worry:

Edit anytime. Admins can update a nomination's name, description, window, and participants even while it's live. If you remove a nominator or nominee from an active nomination, we'll let you know that their submissions will be removed before you confirm.

Collaborators have real power. Reviewers added to a nomination can do everything an admin can during the review process—evaluate submissions, give awards, and export data.

Notifications that make sense. Nominees get notified once (not every time someone votes for them). Nominators get reminders as the window closes. And admins get a heads-up when it's time to review.

Why This Matters

Nominations do something special that top-down recognition can't: they surface the hidden heroes—the people whose impact is felt deeply by their peers but might not always be visible to leadership.

When you let your team decide who deserves the spotlight, you're telling them their perspective matters. You're building a culture where recognition isn't just a program—it's a shared value.

And when nominations lead to real awards with real points? That's when people feel truly seen.

Ready to Let Your Team Lead the Way?

Head to ThriveSparrow, set up your first nomination, and watch your team rally around the people who make your workplace great. Because the best recognition doesn't just come from the top—it comes from everywhere.

‍Try ThriveSparrow free for 14 days!

‍