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.)

In this key to the Awards, we're highlighting the importance of telling us what makes you unique! Tell us about who your organization is. Tell us about how you use your employee platform. Tell us about the people who make your organization special.

Wondering what this might look like in action? Start with your business, does the kind of work you do lend itself to unique challenges in bringing your people together? Take, for instance, Million Air Dallas, a private jet service and charter company in Texas. Their business is unique as they frequently have staff all over the map, literally!

Connecting employees worldwide (and even sometimes 30,000 feet in the air) and building camaraderie is no easy task; thankfully, their Jostle platform supports their efforts. Their Jostle Awards submission detailed the different ways they used their platform to keep people connected. One of the key initiatives they wanted to connect their people to was their Safety Management Program. For this, they used the Activity feed, posting daily updates on their consecutive safe days and reporting safety hazard remedies. Most importantly, their employee platform is the one-stop shop to collaborate on projects in Discussions and Tasks and access everything from benefits information to details on company events.

Of course, not everyone has a particular use case. However, this doesn’t mean you don’t have something to set yourself apart from the crowd. Never forget, your people make you unique! The folks at Littlefish UK knew that, as providers of IT security services (not hardware or software), it was their amazingly skilled staff that made them unique.

Because of that, they wanted to put recognition and celebration at the center of their culture. Littlefish’s Jostle is the place where this happens. Anyone can share good news stories easily in their News view, and staff is encouraged to use Shout-Outs regularly to share praise and acknowledge great work. They don’t use incentives or mandates to make this kind of recognition happen; the platform provides a simple way to highlight that someone has gone above and beyond because they feel strongly about the achievement.

Don’t forget about campaigns you run that help your employees share their uniqueness with your organization. In their 2019 Jostle Awards submission, Prospect Human Services shared an ongoing campaign in their News view that focused on Lollipop Moments. Based on a 2010 TED talk by Drew Dudley, a Lollipop Moment is an everyday act of leadership that impacts someone’s life (or simply their day). Staff shared stories of Lollipop Moments they’ve experienced through a News article. This campaign has helped them learn more about their coworkers, some of whom they would’ve never typically connected with, and prompted many discussions. Response to the campaign was overwhelmingly positive.

When preparing to write your Jostle Awards submission, think about what makes you stand out in the crowd! The ways you bring people together, the stories you share, and the way you meet your organization’s use case are the things that make you unique (and the stories we look forward to hearing).