Employees are the lifeblood of your organization.

When they’re informed and engaged—and their diverse backgrounds and viewpoints are heard and championed—organizations flourish, and talented employees grow within your organization.

Ragan’s Employee Communications Awards is the premier awards program for internal communications. Our program recognizes the best internal communicators, teams, programs, campaigns, intranets and events that excelled in engaging and informing employees, boosting collaboration, fostering innovative and accepting workplace cultures, and so much more. This is your opportunity to showcase your incredible organization and its dedication to offering an amazing employee experience.

Work life also looks a little different than it did a few months ago. So, this year, we’ve also added categories dedicated to showcasing the remote communications, events, campaigns and projects that have helped you stay connected with employees, even when so many are working from home.

Categories in our Employee Communications Awards cover content and communications, employee experience, intranets, publications, remote culture and video. Our Grand Prize categories will recognize the best in remote work experience, use of technology, employee communications campaigns, employee communications teams and intranet.

Enter more than one category to increase your chances of winning—and save on multiple submissions of the same campaign or project.

New this Year: Top Places to Work. Is your organization a top place to work, whether it's in-office or remote? If your company culture is something to write home about, and if your organization is true to its mission and vision, then yours is most likely a Top Place to Work and you should enter it into this program. Ragan's Top Places to Work competition will shine a spotlight on the workplaces that shine a light on their employees and that walk the talk. Share with the judges in 500 words or less what makes your company an extraordinary workplace.

Check out last year’s winners to see what award-worthy work looks like.

See a full list of categories and eligibility requirements, and read how to enter below.

Eligibility Requirements

These awards are open to in-house, agency and independent communication practitioners, and vendors, in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. Enter your work, the work of your organization or submit entries on behalf of your client.

Companies from around the world are welcome to enter as long as the entry is submitted in English.

Contact Brendan Gannon to find the perfect category for your campaign or project. You can reach him at 312-960-4407 or brendang@ragan.com

This year’s program is open to any work executed between Aug. 1, 2019, and Oct. 23, 2020, inclusive.

Recognition

Each category winner will receive:

An elegant trophy: Display this shiny trophy for all to see. Go ahead, you've earned it.

Editorial & Social Media Coverage: You’ll be featured on Ragan’s web sites Ragan.com and PRDaily.com, on our social platforms and in our eletters, reaching more than 250,000 communicators and marketers.

Marketing & PR: Leverage your win in your marketing materials, press releases and other messaging.

Digital Badge: Add the Winners badge to your email signature and your web site.

Press release: We’ll provide you with a quote for your press release plus we’ll post your organization’s award release on our site to boost recognition.

CATEGORIES

TOP PLACES TO WORK

Small Organization (<100 employees)

Tell us in 500 words or less what makes your organization of less than 100 employees a top place to work, whether it's in-office or remote. What makes your workplace culture amazing? How does your organization shine a light on its employees? Tell us everything that makes your organization a Top Place to Work.

Mid-Size Organization (100-1,000 employees)

Tell us in 500 words or less what makes your organization of 100 to 1,000 employees a top place to work, whether it's in-office or remote. What makes your workplace culture amazing? How does your organization shine a light on its employees? Tell us everything that makes your organization a Top Place to Work.

Large Organization (>1,000 employees)

Tell us in 500 words or less what makes your organization of more than 1,000 employees a top place to work, whether it's in-office or remote. What makes your workplace culture amazing? How does your organization shine a light on its employees? Tell us everything that makes your organization a Top Place to Work.

REMOTE CULTURE

Virtual Employee Engagement

Working form home can make employee engagement a little more difficult—but not for you. Tell us about your organization’s efforts to engage your employees virtually. What was your strategy? What worked? What does success look like? Show us your engagement results—before and after your campaign.

Virtual Employee Recognition

A little recognition goes a long way—especially amid a pandemic, when employees are holed up in their work-from-home workspaces. What did the recognition look like? What were employees recognized for? Tell us how you let employees know you appreciate and recognize their work.

Virtual Events/Celebrations

You held an internal event worth celebrating. What was the event for? What were you celebrating? How did you get employees to attend the virtual event? We want to know how you delivered a successful virtual event.

Virtual Executive Communication

Even though

Virtual Onboarding

It’s important that new hires are well-informed of organizational practices, benefits, policies and more. But it’s a little more difficult to when you can’t meet face-to-face. We want to know how you completed the onboarding process virtually—and smoothly.

Virtual Team Meetings

Even when in person, team meetings can be a bit, well, boring. How did you make them exciting and engaging, especially with the added challenge of having to hold them virtually? What helped increase engagement? What unique approaches did you take? Share with us how you made virtual employee meetings fun and productive.

Virtual Town Hall

Even when working from home, employees still expect to hear from their organization’s leaders—and they want two-way communication. How did you orchestrate an engaging virtual town hall meeting, allowing your organization’s leadership to deliver business updates, company initiatives and more? What was the employee response? Share the goals, tactics, execution and results.

Virtual Wellbeing Programs

Working from home and not being able to socialize as often can take a toll on employees’ mental and physical health. What programs did you offer to help employees who are struggling with their mental health? How did you entice your workforce to commit to staying physically active during COVID-19? We want all the details.

Other

Something we missed, remotely? Enter it here!

CONTENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

Benefits Communication

How did you make delivering benefits information fun, entertaining and informative to employees? Do you use infographics? Video? Interactive news and updates? Tell us your goals and how you achieved them. Please include employee feedback.

Change Communication

Let’s face it—change can be scary, especially within an organization. When employees are kept in the dark, they fear that any change could be detrimental. Your communications kept employees in the know and at ease during these turbulent times. Share how communication played a key role in making a smooth transition during periods of change.

Community Relations

How has your organization and its employees gotten involved in your community and helped make it a better place? Do employees volunteer their time to serve in the community? Does your organization donate financial support? We want to hear about the positive impact you’re making on your community.

COVID-19 Communication

How have you kept employees informed and engaged during the pandemic? What is it they wanted to hear from your organization? How did your organization keep your workforce up to date with important organizational news—as well as news about COVID-19—when so many employees are working from home? Employees have been looking to their organizations as sources of information amid the pandemic, and we want to know how you delivered.

Crisis Response

Data-Driven Communication

Diving into metrics can shape a successful employee communications program or campaign. How did tracking and monitoring employees’ engagement drive your internal communications? Did this help you craft captivating content that received tons of engagement? Share the metrics, details, strategy and content that captured the attention of your workforce.

Digital Signage Communication

Digital signage can be an effective tool for sharing information. What pain point did the addition of digital signage address for your organization? How did you implement signage throughout your workplace, and what information did you include? How did employees react?

Email Communication

Email still reigns supreme as a communications channel. We want to hear how your email messaging delivered important news in engaging ways. Don’t forget to share the goals, strategy, execution and metrics.

Executive/Leadership Communication

Your organization’s leaders are often viewed as mysterious, intimidating and out of reach. What did you do to make your executive’s more relatable and human? Reveal your creative ideas and share employee and management feedback.

Manager Communication

When managers and their direct reports are on the same page, your organization is in a much better place. How did you ensure clear, open communication between managers and employees? What positive outcomes and new ideas that this produce? We want to hear it all.

Newsletter/Feature Section

Did your newsletter showcase a feature interview, profile or section? Who or what was the subject? What was the message and goal? What was the employee response? Share the content that earned engagement.

Personalized Communication

Sometimes, all employees don’t need to receive the same communications—that’s where your tailored messaging came in handy. We want to know about your targeted messaging strategy. How did this help increase engagement and productivity within your workforce? Share your goals, tactics, execution and metrics.

Podcast

You have a lot of information to share with employees, and a podcast was the perfect medium for your message. How did your podcast improve the effectiveness of your internal communications strategy? How did you get people excited about it? Share your plan, audio files and the metrics that prove its success.

Rebranding Campaign

Your organization is evolving, and you have to put together a campaign to reflect the changing tide. How have you updated your image with a new mission, culture and aesthetic? How did you announce it to your team? How did you engage frontline employees in this difficult job? What was the feedback? We want to see the solutions this effort brought to the forefront and the impact it has had.

Recruitment Campaign

Finding the best and brightest candidates for open positions at your organization is hard work. We want to know how you put together a campaign to attract prospective employees. How were you able to connect with the best and brightest talent without the benefit of an in-person event or meeting? Tell us about the content of your campaign, who you were looking to attract, the channels you distributed it on and why it was effective.

Reputation Management

Many organizations have crumbled in the wake of a reputation-ruining issue. Share how you prepped employees or teams to be ready to respond if—and when—a crisis struck. How did you navigate the murky waters of a reputational issue? What was your plan? We want to hear how everyone within your organization was prepared to quell the backlash.

Return to Workplace Communication

As employees returned to work, their safety was your top priority. We want to know how you delivered effective communication that ensured that new safety procedures, policies, processes and more were received and followed. Did you come up with creative ways to deliver this important information and track employee response? Share your goals, strategy, tactics and results.

Use of Social Media

Creating connections within offices or among global workforces is a huge task. Thankfully, social media can make it easier to build connections and break down walls in your organization. How did you motivate employees to share more than what was required of them? Tell us how using social media improved productivity and creativity. We want links, screenshots and feedback.

Social Justice Communication

Your organization took a stand to fight for social change. What issue did you aim to address? How did you bring this issue to the forefront of public consciousness? Why was video essential to educating your community about important issues?

Speechwriting

We want to award communicators with impressive speechwriting abilities. Tell us why a speech was the right medium for delivering your leader’s message. Share video or a written version of the speech. Don’t forget to include feedback and the impact the speech had on executive visibility, organizational transparency or employer branding.

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

Amazing Workplace Culture

Employees want to work at your organization—bottom line. What makes your workplace culture so appealing and welcoming?

Brand Ambassador Program

When employees feel supported and valued, they can be your greatest brand ambassadors. How did you inspire your employees to advocate on behalf of your organization? Tell us how you encouraged employees to share their experience on social media or via other means. How did this effect perceptions of trust, reach and influence as an organization?

Burnout Busters

Keeping employee morale and productivity at their peak can be, well, difficult—especially amid a pandemic, when much of your workforce might be working in their pajamas. What activities, processes, initiatives, campaigns and more have you introduced to keep employees engaged and ensure their creative juices are still flowing?

Corporate Social Responsibility/ESG Initiatives

Socially responsible workplaces are held in high regard, especially among millennials. Tell us the strengths of your CSR/ESG program and how it’s succeeded in the last year. What were its goals? We want to know how you communicated your goals to employees and got them excited about participating. Share the details.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commitment

You’ve created a workplace that cultivates creative thinkers and champions its diverse employees. Tell us how communications played a pivotal role in fostering this atmosphere of acceptance. What new ideas have been introduced thanks to diverse points of view? How has this led to outstanding success for your organization? Share your success.

Employee Education/Training Program

A commitment to continuous learning is at the core of your organization. Did you offer employees financial education programs, extra training, employee development, higher education or certifications? What incentives did you create to encourage them to participate? How has this affected organizational culture and employee retention? We want to know how you were able to keep employees’ minds sharp.

Employee Engagement

You want your culture to generate excitement. How did you get your staff to participate in functions, volunteering opportunities or fundraising drives? Tell us about your organization’s efforts to engage your employees. What was your goal? Your strategy? Your success? Show us your engagement results—before and after your campaign.

Employee Resource Groups

Your employees led groups that fostered a workplace that champions diversity, equity and inclusion among all employees. What was the goal of your ERGs? How did this foster career growth or benefit your organization? We want to hear how these employee-led groups benefited your employees and organization.

Internal Event Strategy

Town halls and organizationwide meetings don’t have to be boring. Tell us how you made meetings exciting and engaging for your employees. Did you add something special so your remote employees felt included? Tell us about the unique events you put together for employees, their purpose and how they’ve improved life at your organization.

Return to Workplace Office Redesign

Your organization’s office(s) likely look a lot different than they did pre-pandemic. What have you done to redesign your physical workspace(s) to make them safe, while still providing a place that inspires creativity—and that employees love?

Wellness Program

The health and wellness of your employees is important to you. What was your strategy to promote healthier choices in the office? How did you make living a healthy lifestyle easier for your employees? What was the response? We want to see how you motivated employees to make important lifestyle changes.

PUBLICATIONS (ELECTRONIC AND PRINT)

Annual Report

How do you reveal the heart and soul of your organization while you impart information to stakeholders? How did you take your annual report beyond the numbers to tell a real story? Our judges will look for the personal, human touch, even in sections dealing with IT, legal and finance departments. Send us your digital or print versions. We’ll consider both.

Article Series

You wanted to delve deep into an untold issue, so you put together a compelling series to tell the full story. What made your story so significant it merited several installments? What did employees think about your series? How many people read every installment? We want to know how you were able to bring people back to read more of your story time and time again.

Blog

You share news using many formats, but your blog is the most popular. What topics are most successful? How has the team responsible for your blog grown its readership? Do you feature executives or celebrate staff accomplishments? We’re also interested in active comment sections if you have them. Show us your results and how you measure the blog’s popularity.

CEO Letter

Your chief executive delivered a captivating letter with a powerful message. What issues or concerns did your CEO address? On which channels was this message delivered? What was the employee response? Tell us how this letter connected with its audiences.

CSR/ESG Report

Your organization did a lot of good this past year. We want to know how you delivered your CSR/ESG report in a compelling way. How did you communicate the results to your stakeholders in a way that told the deeper story? What were the results? Share the details. We’ll consider either digital or print versions.

Design of Newsletter or Magazine (Print) (Digital)

Your publication’s content wasn’t the only thing that caught your readers’ eyes. What made your organization’s magazine or newsletter stand out? Was it visually appealing with striking photography? Did your typeface, color scheme or layout earn eyeballs? Show us your dazzling design and share any feedback you received.

Internal Email Campaign

Internal emails are typically met with yawns, eyerolls, a quick skim and a delete—but not in your case. Tell us how you delivered essential information in a way that engaged employees. Share metrics, screenshots, outcomes and any feedback that proves your success.

Feature Article (Print) (Digital)

What story were you hoping to tell with this feature article? We want to see an impressive combination of a compelling headline, a magnificent lead, in-depth reporting and a creative vision. How did employees respond to the story? Share both metrics and comments.

Interview or Profile

You conducted an interview that gave an inside look at the personal or career journey of one of your employees. Why were they selected for the interview and how did the story impress your readers? How did you pull the story together to throw light on someone’s life and enrich your organization’s culture? We want to know how you highlighted one of your employees to better connect with your entire organization.

Magazine (Print) (Digital)

Does your internal publication rival those on newsstands? We want to see magazines that combine visually arresting photography with fantastic storytelling. How do you decide which information is most useful for your employees? We want to know what successes you’ve achieved with your magazine. How do you measure your success?

Newsletter (Print) (Digital)

How does your newsletter engage employees and deliver important information about your organization at the same time? What in your design makes employees want to read more? What information do you include? How do you communicate the most important information? Links, screenshots and feedback are essential.

VIDEO

Humorous Video

We’re looking for all types of videos that incorporate humor: regular installments, video news with a light touch, organization-wide lip dubs or your something even more unique. Tell us what the sober, no-nonsense goal of your video was, along with your strategy and success.

Informational Video

Have you produced a video to train new employees, explain a new procedure, lay out a new vision or update the members of your organization? We want to see your clever ideas not solely in words, but in motion and action. Send us your goal, strategy and proof of success (and, of course, your video).

Inspirational Video

Video has a unique power to connect with audiences on a deeply emotional level. How did you inspire your employees with your video? What was the goal of the video? What was the employee response? Share all the details—and, of course, the video.

Leadership Video

Executives can no longer sit in their ivory towers, never seen or heard from (except when addressing a dicey situation). Employees want a connected, two-way channel of communication. Video has the wonderful power to convey a leader’s human side. How did a video help executives connect with employees? We want the details.

Training or Orientation Video

Did you create a video to welcome new employees and share your organization’s history? Did your video train existing employees on a new process? Why was video the right medium for your message? We want to see more than talking heads and corporate jargon. Share your video with us and include metrics or feedback.

Recruitment Video

If you aim to expand your talent pool, video is a must. Share with us the video storytelling that touched the hearts and minds of a demanding audience of potential new hires. A new generation in the workforce expects an ultra-intelligent but lighthearted and passionate picture of your organization and its doings. How did you achieve this?

INTRANET COLLABORATION & INNOVATION

Employee Engagement

Embracing a digital workspace turned your dispersed or uninterested workforce into an inspired and engaged crew. Your intranet booms with ideas, discussion and collaboration. We want to see how your intranet made a BIG difference in your workplace—in productivity, collaboration and employee satisfaction.

Employee Recognition

How did you use your intranet as a space to celebrate your employees’ accomplishments? Do managers make off-the-cuff announcements to spotlight a team member’s great work? Can employees nominate their peers? What rewards or accolades do they receive? Share how this has increased engagement on your organization’s intranet.

Gamification

The elements of gamification can motivate employees to engage with your content—and with each other—on your intranet. Tell us what gamified features were most successful on your platform. We want to know your strategy and how employees responded to it.

Internal Social Network

Did you use a social intranet to communicate with your employees—both in-house and remote—to discuss internal projects and initiatives, connect workers and boost engagement? How has it created a happier and more involved, productive workplace? What was your goal? How did you achieve it? We welcome links, screenshots and feedback.

Launch or Relaunch

Why did you decide to launch your intranet? Maybe your current intranet wasn’t meeting the goals you originally set for it, and a relaunch was in order. What was the feedback? If this is a relaunch, please include documentation (numerous screenshots) of the previous site, and show us before-and-after images. If you have the figures, what impact did your new intranet or relaunch have on employee engagement?

Mobile Integration

How did you ensure that your intranet was accessible and usable for your dispersed workforce? We want to see how mobile integration increased engagement and intranet use. Share how you made your intranet accessible for multiple devices. Put your modern intranet transformation on display.

Partnership with Human Resources

How do you easily and creatively share information on benefits enrollment, wellness programs, policies, procedures and employee celebrations (accolades, birthdays, promotions)? Do you use gamification to interact with employees to make benefits enrollment painless? What improvements have the HR department seen because of your efforts? Share the results.

Value to Employees

Intranets should add value to your staff’s day-to-day activities. What features make your intranet a priceless tool for your teams? We want to know how you persuaded employees to use your intranet to communicate, submit content, suggestions or feedback, or to get access to information about your organization. Be sure to include measurement results.

INTRANET CONTENT

Best Feature/Section

Did your intranet showcase a feature interview, profile or section? Who or what was the subject? What was the message and goal? What was the employee response? Share the content that earned engagement.

Instructional or Educational Content

Does your intranet provide important benefits information, a detailed organizational history, interactive videos or a fun and personable employee directory? Share content that teaches employees about important processes, even if it’s specific to their department. Don’t forget to include metrics and employee feedback.

Interactive Content

In the quest for more engagement, you added interactive elements to your intranet. Why were these successful and engaging for your employees? We want to see polls, surveys, discussion forums, quizzes and more. Why did these work to create a sense of community and connection on your intranet?

Video

How did you use intranet videos to enhance your employee communications? Was it an emotional ad, a 30-second clip, a media reel or a video testimonial? Give us the story behind the video. Tell us about its conception, growth, message and how it succeeded.

Visual Storytelling

Tell us how you make use of visual elements for internal storytelling. Did you create a photo series to show off your new international office? Maybe a series of infographics illustrated a new internal process change for employees. Tell us how you told internal stories on your intranet with the help of visuals like photos, infographics, GIFs and more.

INTRANET DESIGN

Best Intranet Design

Without functional and attractive design, your intranet will be a desolate digital wasteland. How was your design a hit with employees? What makes your layout so effective and popular? How have you simplified your intranet design to get more click-thrus and increase the average time spent there? How does your design engage employees?

Intranet Usability

How did you create a truly efficient and usable intranet for employees? What tools, layout and design make it easy and enjoyable to use every day? Share your goals for intranet usability and tell us how you executed them. We want to see screenshots and evidence of how your intranet vastly improved employee efficiency.

Personalized Experience

Rather than asking employees to log on to the same boring and identical site, you created a personalized intranet experience that’s right for each employee’s preferences and day-to-day tasks. Share your one-of-a-kind intranet features with us. Tell us how this led to higher levels of engagement, intranet use and productivity. Before-and-after shots of your intranet will help to seal the deal.

TECH

Best Employee App

A mobile app was the perfect solution to keeping everyone in your organization—no matter where they live and work—connected. Walk us through the pain point your organization was experiencing and how an app provided just what you needed. What kinds of content make the app informative and enjoyable? Share all of the details with us and include screenshots and creative assets unique to your app.

Best Digital Collaboration Tool

Wellness Tool/Service

GRAND PRIZE

Best Overall Intranet

Creativity. Collaboration. Connection. What was your strategy when you pulled it all together? How does your intranet set the tone for your organization, empower and engage employees, reduce email and influence your organization’s culture? Tell us how and why it makes your staff more productive, collaborative, confident and cheerful. Share screenshots, testimonials and results. Tell us how your intranet made your organization better.

Best Remote Work Experience/Culture

Work life is a little different than it was just a few months ago—the pandemic has caused most of us to hunker down at our work-from-home spaces. How have you made the experience fun and productive for your workforce? What benefits, tools or experiences have your offered? We want to know how you make WFH life more enjoyable for your employees.

Best Use of Technology

There are so many technological platforms and resources that can help improve employee engagement, productivity, communication, collaboration and so much more. How has your organization made the most of these tools to keep employees connected, informed and productive? Be sure to share the goals, tools, tactics and results.

Employee Communication Campaign of the Year

Did you capture the attention of your entire organization? What channels did you use to share your message and create a comprehensive internal campaign? What was the story you were trying to tell? Our judges will look at everything—your mission and goals, your strategy and tactics—and, of course, your results.

Employee Communications Team of the Year

Sometimes it takes a team of dedicated internal communicators to engage an organization of busy employees. Tell us how your team delivered important information to your workforce in a way that caught their eye and kept them from instantly deleting any internal material. What worked best? What was your team’s strategy, and what tactics did you use to achieve success? We want to hear it all. Share your wins and results.

How To Enter

On the entry form, be sure to include a thorough synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your project. We ask that the synopsis be a maximum of 1,250 words (Top Places to Work entries must be 500 words or less) and include the following sub-headings (when applicable):

  • Goals
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Execution
  • Evaluation: success, results or ROI

Be sure to follow the guidelines laid out in the category descriptions, as the judges will look for those elements when they select the winners.

You will be able to upload additional documents, links, videos and URLs to your submission. We encourage you to include press releases, design concepts, videos, analytics, testimonials and anything else you feel will give us a better sense of your project. Proprietary or internal information can also be attached and will not be shared with the public.

Supporting documents that can’t be uploaded to the system should be mailed to:

Brendan Gannon 
Ragan Communications 
10 S. LaSalle St., Suite 310 
Chicago, IL 60603

ENTER

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you apply?
Our award programs help you measure the success of your work and prove the value of your contributions to your organization. You can set yourself apart in the industry as an expert, which will open doors throughout your career. As a winner, you’ll earn publicity for your brand across our websites and social media audiences, a custom write-up about your campaign and a trophy.
Who can enter?
Entries may be submitted by organizations worldwide. The only requirement is that entries be submitted in English. The program is open to in-house, agency, independent communication practitioners and vendors in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors.
What does it take to be a winner?
We look for top-quality work that shows clear, bold and creative ideas that benefit your business or client. Please provide metrics or media coverage that back up your claims, and share creative collateral such as videos, visual design or websites that were a part of your project. Please look at our past award winners to see what gets recognized and rewarded. We encourage you to submit the same campaign to multiple categories, if you feel they are relevant. Doing so increases your chances of winning. You'll also save on multiple submissions of the same campaign or project. 
Why are some deadlines extended?
We extend deadlines based on applicant needs and upcoming promotional opportunities.
When will I find out results?
We try to announce a list of finalists about eight weeks after the close of the program. The announcement of the winners comes about four weeks after the announcement of the finalists. Each announcement will be made with a headline on our website, in our daily email newsletter and on our social media platforms. Emails notify entrants of these announcements. As deadlines are extended, so are expected announcement dates.

Additional Questions

If you have any questions about the program or problems submitting your entry, please call Brendan Gannon at 312-960-4407 or email brendan@ragan.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring one of Ragan Communications’ award programs, please contact Hannah Lavelle at 312-960-4628 or email hannahl@ragan.com.

Ragan Communications is not responsible for international shipping fees related to Winner trophies.