Call for Entries Deadline: Sept. 29, 2023

Ragan’s annual, highly anticipated Employee Communications Awards celebrates and recognizes the most outstanding internal comms campaigns and initiatives from the past year. This prestigious award program shines a spotlight on companies and individuals who have excelled in fostering effective communication, engagement and collaboration within their organizations.

As the corporate landscape rapidly evolves, effective internal communication has become a cornerstone for success. The Employee Communications Awards provides a platform for you to showcase your innovative strategies, compelling campaigns and inspiring initiatives that have transformed your organization's internal communication practices. We want to hear your success stories and recognize your efforts in driving meaningful connections with your workforce.

Entering the Employee Communications Awards is not just an opportunity to showcase your achievements—it's a chance to gain well-deserved recognition, inspire others in the field and elevate your organization's reputation as a leader in internal communication. Don't miss out on this incredible chance to celebrate your hard work and dedication. Join us as we recognize excellence and submit your entry today for a chance to be honored at the special industry event in early 2024.

CATEGORIES

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 now. How have you made the experience fun and productive for your remote workforce? What benefits, tools or experiences have your offered? We want to know how you make WFH life more enjoyable for your employees.

 Employee Communications 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 Professional of the Year

 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.

COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS/INITIATIVES

 Alignment with External Communications

You built bridges to connect your internal and external communications teams, leading to wonderful collaboration and effective messaging. We want to hear how you worked with your external communications companions to create and deliver effective messaging for your audiences.

 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.

 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.

 Artificial Intelligence

AI platforms are here. Tell us how you’re using AI to personalize the employee experience, streamline responsibilities, increase engagement and more.

 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.

 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.

 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 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.

 Crisis Response

How did you confront and power through a crisis this past year? What was the crisis? How did you navigate the issue? Tell us what your strategy was for getting your message to the right audience in a timely and tactful manner.

 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.

 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.

 Employee E-Letters

 Employee Retention

 Employee-Generated Content

Employees are your best advocates. Tell us about the impressive content they created and shared, organically. Did it give insight into the culture at your organization? Did it help shed light on your organization's mission and values? What was the content and what made it so special?

 Employer Branding

We want to hear about your employee experience—and how you got the word out about it. What did it say about your workplace? What were the results?

 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.

 Feature Article

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.

 HR Communication

 Innovation in Internal Communications

The status quo just wasn’t cutting it. So, you dreamed up creative new strategies, tactics, initiatives, content, campaigns or ideas that delivered impressive results for your internal audience. Tell us all about the ways you’ve transformed some aspects of your internal comms.

 Internal Email

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.

 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

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?

 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.

 Measurement and Data

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.

 Mission and Values Communication

We want to know how your organization's mission and values are expressed, demonstrated and illuminated in your internal and executive communications. How are you working with your executives to craft messages that acknowledge the needs of the business and align with your organization’s mission and values?

 Newsletter

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.

 Partnership with Human Resources

You and HR worked in perfect harmony. How did you work together to deliver important news, updates, resources, etc. to your employees? What was the employee response? We want to know what worked and hear about the successful tactics.

 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.

 Pulse Survey

You make sure your employees’ voices are heard. Tell us about your regular surveys and what insight you gleaned from these questions and responses. How did you use the results to improve your internal communications? Did this lead to any new, exciting ideas? We want to hear all about the survey and the responses.

 Rebranding

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

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, potentially 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.

 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? We want to hear about the powerful communications you delivered about important issues.

 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.

 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.

 Storytelling

 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.

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE CAMPAIGNS/INITIATIVES

 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

Tell us about your innovative initiatives and strategies that foster a healthy work-life balance, enhance employee engagement, and cultivate a supportive and sustainable work culture.

 CSR/ESG Initiatives

Socially responsible workplaces are held in high regard, especially among younger employees. Tell us the strengths of your corporate social responsibility or environmental, social and governance program and about your success in the last year. What were your goals? We want to know how you communicated your goals to employees and got them excited about participating. Share the details.

 DE&I 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 the success of your diversity, equity and inclusion commitment.

 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. 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 Recognition or Reward Program

You appreciate your employees, and you wanted to make sure they knew that. How do you shower your workforce with recognition or rewards? Why do they love the program so much? What feedback have you received? Tell us all about it.

 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.

 Employee Volunteer Program

Service learning can inspire and motivate employees. Why is that an important component of your business, and how has it made a difference for your organization and team? How did you recruit volunteers? What project did you take on? Did employees take a day off to help build a house, volunteer at an animal shelter, plant an urban garden or do a virtual activity to help a specific cause? Tell us how you inspired your team of volunteers. How has this affected employee recruitment and retention, along with your reputation in the community?

 Employee Well-Being 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.

 Hybrid Workplace Strategy

The "new norm" is hybrid, and your organization has thrived with this blend of in-office and remote employees. How do you keep all parties engaged? What do you do to ensure collaboration and creativity flourish among your in-office and remote workers? Tell us all about how you seamlessly connect with your workforce, regardless of where they are working.

 Internal Event Strategy

Town halls and organization-wide 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.

 Leadership Development Program

 Onboarding Strategy

 Talent Management Strategy

 Total Rewards Program

INTRANET CAMPAIGNS/INITIATIVES

 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.

 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?

 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.

 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.

 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?

REMOTE CULTURE CAMPAIGNS/INITIATIVES

 Virtual Employee Engagement

Working from 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 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

Employees want to hear from their organization's leaders. How did you deliver executive communication virtually to a remote workforce? How did you make it engaging and informative? What was the employee response? What was the messaging? We want to hear it all.

 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

Employees still expect to hear from their organization’s leaders when working remotely—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 Well-Being 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!

VIDEO CAMPAIGNS/INITIATIVES

 Company Overview Video

Video was the perfect way to showcase your company—we want to know why. How did your video portray the benefits and features of your company? did you share your company's values in a unique way using video? Tell us why video was the ideal medium for delivering results.

 DE&I Video

We're looking for videos that showcase how your organization champions its diverse employees and fosters an atmosphere of acceptance. Show us how diversity and inclusion are woven into the fabric of your organization. You've taken this beyond a statement and made it part of your organization's mission.

 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.

 Interview Video

Video captures human wisdom and emotion more powerfully than any other medium. Why did you choose video to bring a person’s passion or story to life? Did you interview an employee to share his or her experience at your organization? We want to know what made your interview video a success.

 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.

 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?

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

What tools are helping keep employees connected and increasing productivity? We want to hear about the tools that kickstart inspiring and beneficial conversations among employees. Tell us about this tool and all its benefits.

 Best HR Tool/Service

 Best Wellness Tool/Service

This category recognizes the product or services that help organizations achieve their wellness goals. Share how these tools or services are helping facilitate, accelerate and improve employees’ wellness initiatives.

HOW TO ENTER

On the entry form, be sure to include a thorough synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your entry. The synopsis should be 350 to 900 words 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. Proprietary or internal information can also be attached and will not be shared with the public.

ENTER

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

The award program is open to in-house teams, agencies and individual practitioners in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. Vendors may also submit their work or their client’s work. Enter your work, the work of your organization or submit entries on behalf of your clients.

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 email him at brendang@ragan.com or call 312-960-4407.

This year’s program is open to any work executed between Sept. 1, 2022, and Sept. 22, 2023, inclusive.

ENTRY FEES

The fee for this program is $475 per entry into standard categories, and $550 per entry into Grand Prize categories.

A late fee of $250 per entry will be added to all entries received after 11:59 p.m. Central time, Sept. 22, 2023.

Do you have a campaign, project or team you'd like to enter into multiple categories? Pay the original entry fee, and then only $250 for each additional category!

All entries are non-returnable and non-refundable.

W-9 Form / Tax ID Number Request

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you apply?

Ragan's Employee Communications Awards are the pinnacle of recognition in the fields of internal communications and employee experience. By participating in these awards, you will:

  • Elevate Your Brand: Gain well-deserved recognition for your organization's internal comms and employee angagement efforts, demonstrating your expertise and commitment to excellence.
  • Stand Out from the Crowd: Differentiate yourself from competitors and peers by highlighting your successful employee communications strategies and campaigns.
  • Inspire Your Team: Celebrate the hard work and dedication of your internal comms team, motivating them to continue pushing boundaries and achieving extraordinary results.
  • Gain Industry-wide Exposure: Showcase your achievements to a global audience of industry leaders, journalists and influencers, amplifying your reach and opening doors to new opportunities.
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 results 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?
Ragan will recognize all finalists—and announce category winners—at a special live event in early 2024. All entrants will be notified in advance of this live event.

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 brendang@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 trophies or certificates.