If I told you that December is the most wonderful time of the year for the Jostlers, you'd probably think it had something to do with wrapped gifts and festive decorations. But, while the Jostlers do love a good nog, the truth is we love December because it marks the beginning of the Jostle Awards season! 

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. (Check out the other two keys here, and here.)

Let’s dive in to the first key to a standout submission: tell us about your goals. These don’t need to be goals you set in January (we all know who we were in January is very different from who we are today). Any goal you set over the past year is fair game, long-term, short-term, or project-based goals included. For example, did you want to involve more people in your content creation process? Were you kicking off a new project through your Jostle platform? Did you pivot to focus on keeping employees engaged while working from home? 

These are just a few examples of great goals to share with us in your submission. Be sure to detail the steps you took to achieve them in your submission. 

In 2019, the team at Geffen Mesher told us about their goal to “make Jostle relevant”. Their excellent submission detailed how their Jostle instance had become something of a yard sale. Information was posted inconsistently, and everything was labeled “Pin until read”. This meant that new users had to wade through months of irrelevant information upon starting to remove the ‘pins.’ Not the first-day experience any new employee wants!

To solve their issue, they launched a new program with article templates and clear rules around pinning. They published videos in News that explained the “make Jostle relevant” campaign and the changes they made and kept that energy going with new on-the-fly videos for newly launched campaigns. 

The result? Employees were now checking Jostle often enough that their team was getting feedback where there wasn’t a new daily post—a massive change from just months before when no one noticed.

Remember, the goals you share with us don’t need to be platform-specific, let us know how your employee platform was able to support your broader business goals. Consumers Credit Union was launching a new promotion and knew employees would have a ton of questions about it. To combat this the project leads created a Discussion and posted frequently on best practices, guidelines, and conversation starters. When the promotion launched, employees used the board to get clarification on details and share ways they’d found success—what an excellent way to learn together (all while reducing emails and calls). 

Finally, when you’re launching a new shiny employee platform, you’re sure to have some early goals for the platform. United Way Halton & Hamilton launched in 2019 and told us their goal for Jostle was to have a fresh new way for people to share the incredible work they’re doing. To achieve this, they put together a Committee to brainstorm how to best leverage the platform offerings and roll it out to staff. They chose to present Jostle to staff in smaller groups and challenge them to find hidden answers to three questions in their new employee platform. 

Their staff was instantly engaged and enthusiastic. Activity has been a runaway hit as staff love sharing information in a quick, accessible way with an option for graphics and pictures. As a result, everyone feels connected and continuously informed. 

So, as you're getting ready to write your masterful Jostle Awards submission, be sure to come prepared with all the goals you had over the past year. We can't wait to hear how you got there.