If you're new to Jostle and the Awards, never submitted before, or even if you have submitted before, this "Keys to the Awards" series is your crash course unlocking how you can write a standout Jostle Awards submission.

The idea of storytelling as it relates to your employee platform might seem a bit daunting at first. How can you tell a story about a piece of technology? In practice, though, it might surprise you how easy it is to do. Just think about how your Jostle platform has forged connections between individuals or between employees and ideas and share with us how it all came together. You’ll often find that these stories highlight what makes you unique and maybe even highlight your goals (our other two “Keys to the Awards”). 

One of my favorite examples of this storytelling came from Te Putahitanga o Te Waipounamu, a non-profit organization located in New Zealand. This fantastic organization helps support innovation and grow ideas of their Aboriginal communities. Most of their staff (called Navigators) never meet, as they’re spread all over the country, working directly with families and the communities they serve. 

One day, a Navigator was working with a family who was interested in beekeeping. They used Search on the Jostle mobile app and surfaced a Navigator who had listed their Diploma in Apiary on their Profile. The Navigator with the family was able to connect the colleague with the family so they could get advice on getting the hives started. The connection and resource sharing with the family continued long after the Navigator left, and the family now owns and operates a thriving honey business. 

FUJIFILM’s story described their journey to Jostle. Their Engagement Team identified the need for an internal platform, a project initially called FUJIweb. Two years later, the task was incomplete as higher priority items kept pushing their intranet project further and further down the list. 

Once the team realized the time investment it would take to build an intranet from scratch (and recognized that the first version wouldn’t be mobile friendly), their conversations turned to buying an out-of-the-box solution rather than building from scratch. After taking three months to analyze their options and present to leadership, they agreed to use Jostle as their platform provider in April 2019 and launched their new Jostle platform in May 2019 during their Annual Kickoff meeting. Wow! 

These are just a couple of small examples of how to bring storytelling into your submission. I hope you take some time to think of specific stories to share with us this year. These can include ways your employee platform impacted someone's work or how the platform impacted your organization’s people by keeping them connected.