Award nomination: how to write one that gets shortlisted

In short

• A strong award nomination answers the judging criteria one by one, with evidence for each, inside the word limit.
• Judges only know what you write down, so swap adjectives for numbers, dates and quotes from other people.
• The Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) structure turns a list of duties into a story with an outcome.
• Write in plain English and get someone outside the team to read it before you submit.
• Write your best lines so they could be read aloud. On the night, they may end up in the winner’s citation.

An award nomination is the only thing the judges see. They don’t know the nominee, they didn’t watch the project happen and they have a pile of other entries to get through. Whether you’re nominating a colleague for your company’s employee awards or entering your team for an industry prize, the job is the same: make it easy for a stranger to say yes.

Below is how to write one, with a sample you can adapt. I host award ceremonies, so I’ll also show you where your words end up: read out to a full room on the night.

What is an award nomination?

An award nomination is a written case, put forward by you or someone else, for why a person, team or organisation deserves a particular award. It usually has a short summary, a longer statement answering the judging criteria, and sometimes supporting letters or evidence.

The format varies. The UK honours system asks for 2 supporting letters from people who know the nominee. Many business awards ask for a 150-word summary plus a 1,000-word entry. Internal staff awards are often shorter and less formal. Read the rules for the one you’re entering before you write a word.

How do you write a nomination for an award?

You write a nomination for an award by working backwards from the judging criteria: collect the evidence first, then write one section per criterion, then cut it to the word limit. Here is the order that works.

Start with the criteria

Copy the criteria into a blank document and make each one a heading. The Black Country Chamber suggests you map each point to a supporting example, and use words from the criteria as your headings. If a criterion has nothing under it, you’ve found your weak spot before the judges do.

Collect evidence before you write

Gather the numbers, dates, feedback and links first. The same guide splits evidence into input (what was invested), output (what was done) and outcome (what changed). Outcome is the one that wins the argument.

MIT’s staff awards guidance asks for measurable results such as cost savings, faster service or better morale, and several examples of the nominee going beyond their normal job.

Use the STAR structure

Situation, Task, Action, Result. The Analysis in Government awards recommend the STAR method for the main description. It stops you listing job duties and forces you to say what happened because of the nominee.

The honours guidance makes the same point: don’t just list jobs or posts, explain the nominee’s actual contribution or impact.

Write for a judge outside your field

Judges may not know your industry. Short sentences, everyday words, and spell out every acronym the first time. If a sentence would confuse someone from a different department, rewrite it.

Use the word count, then stop

The word limit tells you how much detail the judges expect. Use most of it, but don’t go over. Meet the deadline too: one chamber of commerce states that late or incomplete entries will not be judged.

Get a second reader

Ask someone who doesn’t know the work to read it. If they can’t tell you in one sentence why the nominee should win, the judges won’t either.

What should an award nomination include?

A good award nomination includes a short summary, one evidenced section per judging criterion, at least one measurable result and at least one voice other than yours. Here’s a checklist:

Manchester’s volunteer awards put it bluntly: the judges’ decisions are based solely on what is in the nomination. Their sample entries lean on specific activities and quotes from people who saw the work.

Award nomination examples

Format matters less than you’d think. The Ross staff awards at the University of Michigan accept essay or bullets, as long as every point carries a detailed example.

What matters is the difference between a claim and evidence:

• Weak: “Sarah is a fantastic team player who always goes the extra mile.”
• Strong: “When two colleagues left in March, Sarah covered both roles for ten weeks while training their replacements, and the team still hit its quarterly target.”

The second one gives the judges a situation, an action and a result. It also gives the host a line worth reading out.

A sample write-up for an employee award nomination

Here is a template for a 150-word summary. Swap the brackets for your own facts and keep anything you can’t prove out of it.

I’m nominating [name], [job title] in [team], for [award category]. In [month and year], [describe the problem: for example, customer complaints had doubled]. [Name] [what they did, in one or two specific actions]. Over the next [time period], [the measurable result, with before and after figures]. [A colleague or customer] said: “[short quote].” Beyond that project, [name] [one example of going beyond the job]. That is why I think [name] deserves [award category] this year.

Problem, action, result, someone else’s voice, and a last line that names the award. Short, and every sentence earns its place.

Can you nominate yourself for an award?

Often yes, depending on the award. Many business awards are entered by the company or team itself. A past winner quoted by the Analysis in Government awards says nominating yourself or colleagues gives the work recognition.

Others don’t work that way. UK honours are put forward by other people, with supporting letters from people who know the nominee, and you may not hear anything for 12 to 18 months. Check the entry rules for self-nominations, caps on entries per company and whether the nominee needs to know.

How do you promote an award nomination?

You promote an award nomination once it’s shortlisted: post about it straight away, tag the organiser and sponsors, add the official badge to your website and email signatures, and send a short press release to local and trade press.

Business Wales calls a shortlisting a genuine news story and recommends writing the release yourself rather than waiting for someone to pick it up. Keep posting through the night itself, then follow up afterwards. Don’t announce anything the organiser has asked you to keep quiet until the ceremony.

Why does a good award nomination matter to the organiser?

A good award nomination matters to the organiser because the nominations are the raw material for the whole evening. Thin entries make for thin citations, and a room full of people clapping for achievements nobody explained.

Recognition is worth getting right. Gallup research with Workhuman found well-recognised employees were 45% less likely to have left their organisation two years later. If you’re running your company’s awards, send nominators a short guide (this one will do), give them the criteria up front and allow time. The Black Country Chamber also suggests you ask for feedback when an entry doesn’t win, and enter again.

If you’re at the planning stage, there’s a full guide to planning an award ceremony and another on running a corporate award ceremony.

From nomination to the winner’s moment on stage

Here’s the part most nominators never see. When I host an award ceremony, the shortlist and the winners’ citations become part of my script. My preparation includes a briefing on every nominee, a pronunciation check on every name and a run-through of the script with the organising team.

What helps me most is a short citation. Two or three sentences, written to be heard rather than read, with the one specific achievement that made the judges choose that winner. A 1,000-word entry is right for the judges. It’s far too long for a room that has just finished dessert.

Things do change late. I’ve handled a finalist list that changed at the last minute. What makes that manageable is a clean script and an organiser who knows exactly what I’ll say. That’s why I ask for the citations in the briefing, not on the night. The night is won in the briefing, not on the stage.

If someone in your organisation is handing out the trophies, there’s a guide on how to present an award without fumbling the envelope.

Turning the shortlist into a night people stay for

A shortlist of strong nominations deserves a ceremony that does them justice. Your winners will remember getting on stage. Everyone else remembers whether the room stayed alive.

So on a long list I sometimes break the presentations into short blocks, with a game-show round between them. One client wanted entertaining awards with twelve presentations to get through, and that’s how we ran it. If you’d rather hand the whole evening to one person, I work as an award host across the UK and Europe, from the first briefing to the final envelope.

Tell me about your shortlist. Call 07596 851647.