How an Engineering Association Streamlined Its Awards Review Process

An engineering association in Washington, D.C., used RQ Platform to improve the review process for its annual awards program. By introducing more structured reviewer assignments, incorporating stakeholder feedback, simplifying the reviewer experience, and improving reporting, the association created a more efficient and consistent process for both administrators and reviewers.

The enhanced workflow also eliminated time-consuming manual calculations and reduced the team's reliance on spreadsheets.

Introduction

The engineering association manages an annual awards program recognizing outstanding contributions in its field. As the program evolved, the team needed a more efficient way to assign qualified reviewers to nominations while maintaining a fair and consistent evaluation process.

The association wanted to categorize reviewers into primary and secondary groups based on their expertise and qualifications and then use those categories when assigning reviewers to nominations.

The goal was to replace manual calculations and spreadsheet-based processes with a more structured reviewer assignment workflow that could be used consistently from year to year.

The Objective

The association wanted to improve its reviewer assignment process while making awards administration easier for its team.

The key objectives were to:

• Categorize reviewers according to their expertise and qualifications

• Make it easier to assign appropriate reviewers to nominations

• Create a consistent process that could be repeated each year

• Reduce manual calculations and spreadsheet management

• Improve the experience for administrators and reviewers

• Provide better reporting and visibility into reviewer assignments

The Challenge

Manual Reviewer Management Was Time-Consuming

Managing reviewer assignments manually in Excel required significant administrative time. The team had to organize, update, and cross-reference spreadsheets throughout the review process.

This created unnecessary administrative work and increased the potential for errors, particularly as assignments changed or the number of nominations and reviewers increased.

Matching Qualified Reviewers to the Right Nominations

Ensuring that each nomination was evaluated by reviewers with the appropriate expertise and qualifications was another challenge.

Without a structured assignment process, administrators had to manually determine which reviewers were best suited to evaluate individual nominations. This added complexity and made it more difficult to maintain a consistent approach across the program.

The Solution

Working with the association, the RQ team developed an enhanced reviewer assignment workflow within RQ Platform.

Reviewers could be categorized into primary and secondary groups according to their expertise and qualifications. Administrators could then use these classifications when assigning reviewers to nominations, making it easier to create appropriate and balanced review panels.

The workflow was designed with input from the people who would use it. This helped ensure that the process was intuitive for administrators while providing reviewers with a straightforward experience when accessing and evaluating their assigned nominations.

Standardized reporting also gave administrators better visibility into reviewer assignments and reduced the need to maintain separate spreadsheets or perform manual calculations.

The Results

The enhanced reviewer assignment process gave the association a more efficient and repeatable way to manage its awards reviews.

By moving reviewer assignments and related calculations into RQ Platform, the association was able to:

• Save more than 50 hours of manual administrative work

• Reduce reliance on Excel spreadsheets

• Improve consistency in reviewer assignments

• Better match reviewer expertise with appropriate nominations

• Simplify the experience for administrators and reviewers

• Create a repeatable process for future awards cycles

The enhancements also became part of RQ Platform's broader reviewer assignment capabilities, allowing other organizations to benefit from a workflow developed around a real-world awards management challenge.

From Manual Spreadsheets to a More Efficient Review Process

For the association, improving reviewer assignments wasn't simply about replacing a spreadsheet. It was about creating a review process that was easier to manage, more consistent, and better equipped to support fair evaluations.

With RQ Platform, the team was able to spend less time coordinating reviewer assignments and more time focusing on the quality and success of its awards program.