We’ve all had that moment as HR practitioners.

You’re deep in the middle of running a nomination program, perhaps an employee of the month award, or ethics award, or company values award. The spreadsheet is growing. The review process is taking longer than expected. Leadership is asking for updates. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re wondering:

Is this actually worth it?

It’s a fair question. Nomination programs are not lightweight initiatives. They require time, coordination, and real investment. And at the end of it all, only a small percentage of employees walk away as award recipients.

So why do we keep coming back to them?

Awardco’s latest State of Recognition research helps answer that question directly, and it clearly shows that nomination programs are not just another recognition tactic. They are one of the most effective tools we have for driving engagement, retention, and cultural alignment.

Let’s break down what the research actually says and why it matters in practice.

The peak of the recognition pyramid

Not all recognition is created equal.

Day-to-day recognition matters. A quick message, a shoutout in a team meeting, a peer-to-peer moment in a platform—these are the building blocks of a healthy culture.

But when we look at what actually moves the needle on engagement and intent to stay, company-level awards consistently rise to the top. These are the moments that cut through the noise.

Why?

Because nomination-based awards are both public and crowd-sourced. They don’t just say, “your manager noticed you.” They say, “your impact was visible enough that someone took the time to tell your story and the organization agreed that it mattered.”

That combination carries weight.

This is why nomination programs often feel like the “crown jewels” of a recognition strategy. They are high effort, but they are also high signal. When they are done well, they define what excellence looks like across the organization.

Why senior leader recognition has staying power

There’s another layer to this that shows up consistently in our data: recognition from senior leaders is different from any other type of recognition.

There’s no doubt that manager recognition is essential, and we’re not disputing that. Without it, engagement drops quickly. But senior leader recognition operates on a different timeline and at a different level of impact.

Our research shows that recognition from senior leadership can have roughly twice the positive effect on engagement compared to manager recognition, and it can sustain that impact for up to a year.

That’s a long time for a single moment.

In practice, this makes sense. When a nomination program culminates in executive visibility—whether that’s a CEO award, a President’s Circle, or a company-wide recognition event—it signals something bigger than day-to-day performance.

It says: this is what matters here.

For employees, that kind of validation tends to stick. It becomes part of how they see their role, their contribution, and their future with the company.

The recognition gap is real, and it’s expensive

If nomination programs are the peak, they also play a critical role in solving a deeper problem: the measurable “recognition gap” most organizations face.

What is the recognition gap? Think of it this way: a meaningful percentage of employees report receiving little to no recognition at all. And when that happens, the impact on engagement is significant. We’re not talking about small dips. We’re talking about major drops in how connected people feel to their work and their organization—and those major drops have a dramatic effect on engagement, productivity, intent to stay, and more.

And here’s an important note: the recognition gap is especially visible in industries like healthcare and education, where the emotional and physical demands are high, but recognition is often inconsistent.

From a strategy standpoint, this is where nomination programs become more than a celebration mechanism. When done right, they become a way to intentionally surface excellence that might otherwise go unnoticed.

They create a system where recognition is not left to chance, and it becomes visible, impactful, and measurable.

The practitioner’s reality: where programs break down

If the research is this strong, why do so many nomination programs feel frustrating to run?

Most of the challenges don’t come from the idea of nominations. They come from how the programs are executed.

Too often, the process looks something like this:

• Nominations are collected through forms, emails, or spreadsheets
• Submission and review guardrails are hard to manage and enforce
• Submissions disappear into a review process that only a few people can see
• Employees never know if their nomination was received, reviewed, or appreciated
• Only the final award recipients experience any visible recognition

From the outside, the program looks successful. Awards are given. Leaders are involved. The initiative checks the box.

But under the surface, something important is missing.

When that happens, practitioners are sitting on a collection of powerful stories—examples of impact, collaboration, and values in action—and most of them never see the light of day.

A shift in perspective: the high return of more opportunity

There is a common concern that comes up when designing nomination programs:

“If only a few people win, are we creating a sense of scarcity?”

In my experience, that’s not a risk, it’s an opportunity.

What opportunity, you may ask? It’s the chance to have hundreds of meaningful moments reach the people they were intended for. For example, when nominations are hidden, delayed, or disconnected from the employee experience, we lose the opportunity to reinforce behavior, build momentum, and make people feel seen in real time.

The value of a nomination is not only in the final decision, it’s in the act of recognizing someone’s impact. And when that moment is highlighted, so is a significant portion of the program’s impact.

Why this matters now

Organizations are investing more than ever in employee experience, culture, and retention, especially in the age of AI where human connection matters more than ever. And yet at the same time, expectations around recognition are changing.

Employees want to know that their work matters. They want visibility. They want acknowledgement that feels timely and specific.

Nomination programs already have the ingredients to deliver on those expectations. The research supports their impact. The intent behind them is strong. The question is whether the way we run them actually unlocks that value.

Modern platforms are starting to close that gap by making the nomination process more visible, more structured, and easier to manage at scale. Instead of acting as a “black box,” the process becomes part of the recognition experience itself—surfacing stories, giving managers insight, and allowing employees to see the impact in a timely manner.

What comes next

If nomination programs are one of the most powerful tools in your recognition strategy, the next question is straightforward:

Why do so many of them still feel so difficult to run?

In the next part of this series, we’ll look at what’s really happening behind the scenes—from administrative friction to the “black hole” effect—and how modern approaches are changing the way organizations think about nominations altogether.