5 Reasons to screen for eligibility in your awards entries

Your awards program is aimed at celebrating outstanding efforts and contributions in your industry. In the quest to recognise and celebrate excellence, you likely invite countless entries. Unfortunately, not all entries will pass muster.

To save time and streamline your submission process, it can be ideal to screen for eligibility. Here are some compelling reasons why this moderation step can help in your awards process.

1. To guarantee transparency and set expectations

Screening for eligibility erases any possible confusion about the purpose of your awards program. By making clear the qualifications that potential entrants must possess to participate and be considered for the award, the eligibility criteria clarify what and who the awards program aims to recognise.

Potential entrants will understand the requirements they need to meet to participate in the awards program, giving them transparency and understanding of what the awards program is about and what is expected of them to qualify.

2. To save time for entrants

Eligibility screening in your awards entry helps save time for entrants. It achieves this in different ways. Not only will they be able to check instantly whether they meet the basic requirements for entry, but the criteria will help entrants prepare their submissions efficiently, guiding them to create excellent submissions that align with the standards of eligibility.

So, instead of spending time on aspects of their submissions irrelevant to the eligibility requirements, entrants can tailor their submissions to emphasise relevant feats.

3. To ensure fairness and integrity

At its core, screening for eligibility is a path to fairness in awards entry—not a barrier to participation. It ensures that participation and recognition are earned by those who uphold the standards of excellence. This gatekeeping function preserves the integrity of the award process.

Awards are created with goals in mind, including the promotion of certain values, recognition of excellence or encouragement of advancements in the relevant industry. Similarly, an award’s prestige is strongly linked to the quality of the entrants and recipients. Screening for eligibility guarantees that entry is limited only to quality entrants who align with the award’s purpose.

This helps establish and maintain integrity in the awards program and achieve the program’s objectives.

4. To give your judges a good experience

As an awards manager, it’s imperative to provide value to your awards judges. Screening for eligibility improves your judges’ experience by setting up awards entries for easier judging. It eliminates submissions that don’t meet the standards of qualification set by you and your eligibility managers.

As a result, the judges only see entries that align with the objectives of the award.

The screening process gives your judges a more manageable workload; the judges don’t have to deal with large volumes of entries, many of which might not meet the eligibility criteria. With less work and more time, they can dedicate greater attention to the highest quality submissions.

5. To streamline your workflow

Eligibility management doesn’t have to be burdensome. The right awards management software allows you to enjoy all the benefits of eligibility screening while doing all the heavy lifting. Award Force’s entrant eligibility checker streamlines the process by using your pre-set criteria to automatically check for eligibility, allowing eligible entrants to continue with their submissions without hassle while ineligible entrants are gracefully redirected.

The Award Force eligibility screener boasts essential features such as notification triggers to keep entrants updated on their submission/eligibility status and flexibility in configuration, all to help streamline the process and save time for you, your entrants and your judges.

Awards managers, eligibility managers, judges and entrants—eligible and ineligible, all benefit from automatic eligibility management as it saves time and makes the job easier for everyone. Learn how Award Force can help you automatically screen for eligibility and enjoy transparency, clarity of expectations, ease of eligibility management and in the end a better experience for your judges and integrity for your awards program.