Rising star award: writing criteria about the work, not the person

In short

• A rising star award measures direction of travel, not position, and the three readings of “rising” (newest, youngest, fastest improving) reward different people.
• An age cap turns the category into a rule written around a protected characteristic. Anchor it to time in the role or sector.
• A manager-only nomination route gives the award to whoever has the most visible manager.
• The citation has to credit the person without promising a promotion nobody has agreed to pay for.

Every category on an awards night has a failure mode. This one’s is specific: the criteria get written about the person rather than the work. “Potential”, “promise”, “one to watch”. Those are forecasts, and a forecast is not evidence.

What does a rising star award actually measure?

It measures slope. Where somebody has got to matters far less than how far they have moved, and over what period.

That separates it from the rest of your award categories. Employee of the year measures the highest point reached. This one measures a gap, so it is the only one that needs a dated starting point to mean anything. Most forms never ask for one: they ask for impact, which always favours the bigger remit.

Newest, youngest or fastest improving: three readings of “rising”

Published UK schemes split three ways, and the split is worth seeing side by side.

Newest in the sector. The Food and Drink Federation’s category is open to entrants within their first five years in the industry, at any academic and training level. The British Dietetic Association sets its version at having graduated ten years or less.

Youngest. The brand and lifestyle licensing sector’s UK Rising Star has run as a combined rule: open to young professionals aged 35 or under with a maximum of five years in the sector. Two clocks at once, and only one is about work.

Fastest improving. Nobody writes this into eligibility rules, because it cannot be checked from a date of birth or a start date. It is also the reading most of your room assumes you are using.

Pick one and print it on the form. The usual failure implies all three, and the judges then argue about which award they are giving.

Why is an age limit on a rising star award a problem?

Because age is a protected characteristic, so a category framed around youth is framed around protected ground. Acas puts age among the nine protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010, and the Act defines an age group by reference to a particular age or a range of ages. Government guidance lists it among the characteristics you are protected from discrimination on at work.

The subtler risk is the indirect kind. Acas describes indirect discrimination as a practice, policy or rule that applies to everyone but puts a group at a disadvantage because of age, justifiable only where there is a legitimate aim and the effect is proportionate, appropriate and necessary. Acas also warns against the stereotype underneath the category, that young people will not work hard, and says opportunities should be open to everyone regardless of age.

I run awards evenings. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. If your category carries an age cap, put the wording in front of HR or legal before nominations open.

How do you write rising star award criteria about tenure, not age?

Swap every clause describing the person for one describing time and work:

The last row changes your judging. Written that way, it forces the nominator to name a before and an after, which is what a trajectory is.

The career-stage problem your form has already created

Somebody who spent eighteen years in retail management and joined your engineering business two years ago is rising by any honest reading. Most forms quietly exclude them, because “early career” has been a synonym for “young” since the category was invented.

The Civil Service Awards wording avoids that trap. It recognises significant impact within the first eight years of a person’s Civil Service career, a clock that starts when they join rather than when they were born. A fifty-four-year-old who joined three years ago is inside it.

Decide which clock you run and say so: time in the company, the role, or the sector. Time in the role is kindest to internal movers and to returners after a career break.

Who should be allowed to nominate a rising star?

Open the route to anyone and ask a manager to corroborate afterwards, rather than making the manager the gate.

That gate is the usual design. The Food and Drink Federation takes nominations from line managers or HR managers. The licensing award goes the other way, seeking them from the whole industry, including candidates themselves.

A manager-only route does not find the best early-career worker in the business. It finds the one whose manager writes well and remembers the deadline, and anyone reporting to a quiet, overloaded team leader is invisible to it. If you open it up, give nominators a structure: the quality of an award nomination mostly tracks how specific the questions were.

How do you judge trajectory without punishing a quiet first year?

Write down where each nominee started before you read a single nomination, then score distance covered, not noise made.

Somebody who spent nine months learning a system and rebuilt it in month ten has a steeper arc than somebody who shipped something modest every quarter. Read the calendar and the second looks busier; read the slope and the first wins.

Your evidence already exists. Acas guidance on performance reviews says to keep a written record of what was discussed and share it with the employee, and to talk informally through regular check-ins between reviews. That is what a panel should read, not adjectives typed at 11pm on deadline day. So ask for two dated points: where was this person in November 2025, where are they now, what changed. CIPD’s evidence review on incentives puts the principle plainly, which is to link rewards clearly and consistently to performance.

Writing a rising star award citation that does not promise a promotion

This is the hardest ninety seconds of writing on the running order, and I am the one who has to read it out.

Praise pointed at the future reads as a commitment. “Will be running this department before long” is a sentence the host says warmly into a microphone and the business answers for in the next pay round. Three rules keep you clear: past tense, name the work rather than the person’s qualities, no forecast at all.

Rewriting a citation that overpromises

The version that reaches my inbox most often:

“Sam is a real rising star with huge potential. Everyone agrees Sam is going places and will be running this department before long. A genuine credit to the team.”

The same nomination, rebuilt from the same facts:

“Sam joined us in January 2025 knowing nothing about the returns process. By October, Sam had rebuilt it, cut the average turnaround from nine days to four, and trained the three people who now run it.”

The second is warmer, oddly, because it is specific. It names what changed, over what period, with a number attached, and commits the company to nothing.

What do I say when the winner is young and the stage is frightening?

I say the same thing every time, quietly, at the edge of the stage: you do not have to say anything, stand here, take the photo, I will do the rest.

This category produces frozen winners more than any other. Social anxiety, as the NHS describes it, is an overwhelming fear of social situations that usually starts during the teenage years, and the person I am calling up here is often not far past them.

My prep for an awards evening is a full nominee briefing and a pronunciation check on every name, with a run-through alongside the organising team. For this award I add two things. I read the citation before the name, so the applause is already building by the time anyone has to move. And I keep hold of the microphone: if the winner wants it they can ask, but nobody is handed one they did not agree to in advance. Presenting an award is detail work everywhere. Here it decides whether somebody keeps the memory or avoids it.

Who should present a rising star award?

Somebody two or three steps ahead on the same path, rather than the chief executive by default.

Last year’s winner is the strongest choice available to you, because the handover reads as a relay instead of a blessing from on high. The winner’s own line manager is the weakest, because half the room reads it as the manager collecting credit. Sponsor presenters are fine: brief them to say the name and hand over the trophy. Keep the sponsor message in the segment introduction, settled when you plan the ceremony.

What if the same person would win it two years running?

Move them up rather than repeat them. If the same name wins twice, the category has stopped describing a trajectory and started describing a person.

Write a one-win rule into the eligibility, or shortlist them in your main performance category instead, competing on output rather than distance travelled. A second trophy in the same category carries an awkward message anyway: the business noticed twice and did nothing in between.

The one award that outlives the night

Most trophies end up in drawers. This one tends to stay on a desk, because it arrived early enough to mean something.

If you want it handled properly, by someone who has read the citation before the room hears it, that is the job of an award ceremony host. Call 07596 851647 and tell me what went wrong last time.