From ‘almost there’ to ‘award worthy’: How to sharpen your DWG Awards entry

Your Digital Workplace Group Awards submission is nearly ready. You’ve gathered the screenshots, shaped the story, filled in the form – and now comes the crucial question…

Does this entry really do justice to what we’ve achieved?

The DWG Awards celebrate organizations and practitioners creating well-executed, high-performing digital workplaces. The strongest entries are not polished marketing brochures or feature-by-feature product tours. They are clear, human stories of progress, backed by evidence, impact and learning.

The 2025 winners showed this clearly. Kellanova‘s WorkSmart programme grew from a Teams transition into a global movement for AI, data and digital literacy, powered by peer learning and community engagement. Vodafone Group Services delivered AI enablement at scale, embedding Copilot and other AI capabilities directly into everyday workflows across a global employee base. Adobe showed how a lean team could combine content strategy, engineering and governance supporting tens of thousands of employees with a unified digital experience.

So, before you press submit, here are a few ways to turn a solid entry into one that helps judges clearly see why your digital workplace stands out.

1. Tell the story, not just the system

It can be tempting to list everything you have launched: the homepage, search, integrations, news channels, mobile app, AI assistant. But judges need more than a catalogue of features.

They need to understand the human and organizational story behind your digital workplace. What problem were you trying to solve? Who was affected? What changed for employees? How does this support wider business goals?

A strong entry puts people at the centre. EY‘s Digital Knowledge Platforms team, winner of Digital Workplace Team of the Year 2023, stood out for its human-centred approach and its clear, ambitious vision for employee digital experiences that were making a real difference to the organization.

2. Back bold claims with strong evidence

Bold claims are easy to make. Strong evidence is what makes them credible.

Instead of saying your digital workplace has “transformed communication” or “revolutionized productivity”, show what has changed. Use metrics, examples and employee feedback wherever you can, such as:

• Since launch, weekly active use has increased from 45% to 76%.
• Time to publish frontline updates has reduced from three days to same day.
• 81% of survey respondents agreed it is now easier to find the information they need.

Numbers are most powerful when they include context. Give judges the baseline, the direction of travel and why the improvement matters.

3. Show, don’t tell: bring the experience to life

Judges are seeing your digital workplace for the first time. Supporting materials can make the difference between “this sounds promising” and “I can really see how this works”.

Use screenshots, short videos or slides selectively. Choose visuals that support your strongest stories, not every available screen. DWG entry guidance notes that previous winners have used short video clips and clearly labelled screenshot decks to help judges quickly understand what makes their environments stand out.

A screenshot of a personalized homepage is more useful if it explains whose view it is, what content is prioritized and how this improves the employee experience.

4. Demonstrate how you test, learn and improve

Great digital workplaces rarely arrive fully formed. They develop through testing, feedback, iteration and sometimes course correction.

Don’t be afraid to include what did not work at first. Perhaps usability testing showed employees could not find HR policies. Maybe frontline users found the language too corporate. Or analytics revealed that an important service was being missed. Explain what you discovered, what you changed and what happened next.

Judges value evidence that your team listens, learns and adapts. Cox Communications, winner of Digital Workplace of the Year 2023, involved employees in discovery, used pilot testers to gather feedback, and built an admin community and champions network to support rollout.

5. Connect adoption clearly to outcomes

A good launch campaign is useful. Sustained use is better. Meaningful outcomes are better still.

Explain how you supported adoption: communications, champions, leadership involvement, training, feedback loops or local engagement. Then connect this to what changed.

Think in terms of:

• Before – What was difficult, fragmented or inefficient?
• After – What is different now?
• So what – Why does this matter?

Fidelity Investments, winner of Digital Workplace of the Year 2022, showed the value of connecting an associate-centric digital workplace ecosystem to strategy, governance and measurable impact.

6. Explain governance and how you’ll sustain success

Behind every strong digital workplace is a structure that keeps it useful, trusted and aligned to the business.

Include a concise explanation of your approach to content ownership, governance, standards, accessibility, search, lifecycle management or decision-making. Judges will want to know how you keep the experience relevant after launch.

This is where examples such as Adobe‘s 2025 win are particularly useful: the story was not just about a lean team, but about how focused content, engineering and governance can create a sustainable digital workplace at scale.

Final check before you submit

Before sending your entry, ask:

• Have we told two or three clear stories rather than trying to include everything?
• Have we backed up our claims with evidence?
• Have we shown the employee experience, not just the technology?
• Have we explained how we test, learn and improve?
• Have we linked our work to business and employee outcomes?
• Have we addressed the criteria clearly?

The entry process is also a valuable moment to pause and reflect. It can help your team recognize how much progress has already been made, where your strengths lie and where the next opportunities are.

So, if your entry is almost there, take the time to give it one final polish. Tighten the story. Sharpen the evidence. Trim what is not essential. And make sure the judges can see not just what you have built, but how it is changing work for your people.

Entries for the DWG Awards 2026 close at midnight BST on June 22, 2026.

Categorised in:   → Digital Workplace Group Awards