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Employee Awards

Submitting a Nomination

Before getting started, please review the steps for submitting a nomination

Step 1: Review Awards

Read through all award descriptions, taking special note of the eligibility requirements and award criteria for each award. They may vary depending on the award. Decide on which award best suits the achievement.

Step 2: Complete The Nomination Form

Consult the Senior Dean, Director or Direct Supervisor to ensure the accuracy of the nomination contents and to obtain any additional information required to support the nomination.

Consult the Nominee - obtain the nominee's permission to be nominated. Obtain the nominee's contribution of any evidence or documentation that will support the nomination.

Complete the appropriate Nomination Form - the Individual Nomination Form for an employee, or a Group Nomination Form for a small team. Note that if you are nominating for more than one award, separate forms are required for each individual or group nomination. Fill all sections and obtain input from the employee and other stakeholders who can add evidentiary content to the nomination package. Use the Tips for Writing a High Quality Employee Award Nomination guide to help you craft the nomination.

Step 3: Complete The Video Tribute (optional)

Prepare a short video tribute, explaining in your own words why the employee or group deserves the award. Make it fun and specific. This video is submitted as part of the nomination package. Note that the video may be used as part of the tribute during the award ceremony or on the Recognition and Award website.

Step 4: Collect Supporting Documentation

Collect all documents you believe helps to prove and exemplify why the employee or group is deserving of the award and shows the achievement clearly. These are submitted as part of the nomination package.

Step 5: Submit Nomination Package

Once you have all required documents, you may submit these via email to oe@humber.ca.


Tips For Writing A High Quality Employee Award Nomination

Preparing for a nomination package can be time consuming and involved.
Following these tips can help to make the process easier.

Read through the criteria specific to the award you are nominating an employee or team for. Focus on keywords, examples and descriptors that are necessary to demonstrate or elaborate on, when you come to describing the achievement or performance of the employee/team.

As an example, for the 'Distinguished Faculty Award", the bolded keywords and examples shown below are what you would elaborate on when describing the employee's or team's achievement with respect to the award recommendation:

Criteria: This award is designed to honour the full-time faculty members that have demonstrated leadership in developing an effective learning environment for students both in and outside the classroom. Specifically, they have made contributions that enhance meaningful, deep learning in methods extending beyond the traditional classroom including faculty involvement in student recruitment, student success initiatives, professional development, strategic planning initiatives, and projects.

This award recognizes faculty members who achieve teaching and learning excellence, while providing an exceptional student experience. Please provide enough information to assist the selection committee in making its decisions.

Examples of practices that may be considered include the following:

  • Employs creativity and innovation in delivery methods and assessment strategies including the use of authentic assessments
  • Creates a learning environment committed to equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Creates a learning environment that exemplifies currency and relevancy to the field of study
  • Engages in advising and supervising students, and provides service on teaching committees
  • Looks for ways to incorporate current learning materials in multiple formats
  • Designs learning in creative and innovative ways that support Universal Instructional Design principles
  • Provides peer-to-peer mentorship and support
  • Fosters a culture of learning and sharing

Please comment on any other areas of faculty work that you feel would help make the decision regarding this nomination. Examples of other areas of work related to teaching and learning to consider may include, but are not exclusive to the following:

  • Professional activities
  • Community activities
  • Non-teaching committees
  • Scholarly or applied research

Using the keywords and examples from the criteria, expand, explain and be specific with examples. See examples below:

Employed Creative Innovative Delivery Methods:
Susan successfully implemented creative and innovative delivery methods into her courses by introducing inquiry-based and project-based learning, giving student the ability to create and control their learning on topics of interest to them and working on real world situations. This method directly impacted student engagement and resulted in a higher student satisfaction level for the course.

Peer to Peer Mentorship:
Susan took the lead on mentoring newly recruited and junior faculty members, providing guidance and advice to help them build their organizational awareness and in particular, supporting junior faculty in dealing with course and student issues.

A very common mistake made when writing the award nomination text, is that nominators simply state the achievements rather than demonstrating how the achievements actually makes the employee deserving.

For example, if the employee volunteered in a community program, this is not sufficient to demonstrate candidacy for an award. This is quite vague and does not elaborate on how the employee contributed to the cause which the community program aimed to support. A more compelling way to demonstrate achievement would be to explain the activities that the employee carried out and if possible, how did they help achieve the overall goals of the program.

This is done by giving a very specific measure of success. As an example, if the community program was to look after the elderly, you can say that the employee took the responsibility of taking care of a certain number of aged individuals and write what the employee did to improve the well-being of the elderly.

It is also a good idea to include the significance of the particular acts that the employee did. Remember that an award is for those who have done something exceptional. As such, it is crucial that you highlight anything that makes the employee stand out from the rest and mention how the particular activity was impactful.

This is perhaps the most difficult part of writing an award nomination. The nomination text should contain words that neither belittle the importance of the employee's efforts nor exaggerate them. One needs to strike the right balance between these two extremes.

However, the entire text should be kept formal and colloquial words such as "amazing" and "awesome" should be avoided. Rather, the text should contain words and sentences that sound more authentic.

For instance, "I found Jane's efforts highly conducive to improving the administrative procedures involved in...". Words such as "admirable", "distinguished" and "effective" are highly recommended. In short, words that develop authenticity and trust should be incorporated organically to make sure the overall text is logical and persuasive in a very subtle way.

As an additional feature to your nomination package, create a video explaining in your own words why you think the employee or group should get the award. Make it interesting, easy to understand and fun!

The 2023 President’s Awards nominations are closed.

For assistance, please contact

oe@humber.ca