Peer nominations let any team member nominate a colleague for a spin directly from Slack using the /nominate command — no admin involvement needed to kick it off. Admins can choose whether nominations fire a spin immediately or queue for approval first.

Enabling nominations

1

Open Settings in the Swivel app

From the Swivel dashboard, click Settings in the left nav.

2

Toggle on Peer Nominations

Under the Nominations section, flip the toggle to enable peer nominations. This activates the /nominate Slack command for everyone in your workspace.

3

Choose your approval mode

Select either Auto-approve (nominations spin immediately) or Admin approval required (nominations queue for an admin to review before firing). See below for guidance on which to choose.

4

Choose a default spinner

Select which spinner should fire when a nomination is approved. You can set one default; admins can override this per-nomination in the approval queue if needed.

How it works for team members

Once enabled, anyone in the workspace can type:

/nominate @username reason for the nomination

For example: /nominate @sarah Closed the Acme deal after 6 months of work

Swivel will confirm the nomination in a private DM to the nominator. What happens next depends on your approval mode:

  • Auto-approve: the spin fires immediately in the default channel.
  • Admin approval: the nomination lands in your approval queue (see below) and waits for a thumbs up or rejection.

Tip

Nominations work best when team members know they exist. Announce it in your #general or #wins channel: "You can now nominate teammates for a prize spin — just type /nominate @name reason in Slack."

Managing the approval queue

If you have admin approval enabled, incoming nominations appear in the Nominations tab of the Swivel app. For each nomination you'll see the nominator, the nominee, the reason they wrote, and the date it was submitted.

From there you can:

  • Approve — triggers the spin immediately and notifies the nominator
  • Reject — dismisses the nomination; the nominator gets a private DM letting them know (no public announcement)

Note

Rejected nominations are not visible to anyone other than the nominator. The nominee is never notified that a nomination existed, so there's no awkward situation if a submission doesn't pass.

Auto-approve vs. admin approval — which should I use?

Both modes work well depending on your team culture:

  • Auto-approve is best for high-trust teams where spins are frequent and lightweight. It removes friction and makes recognition feel immediate. Good for teams that already run lots of spins.
  • Admin approval is best for teams where spins represent meaningful rewards (gift cards, PTO, etc.) and you want a sanity check before something goes out. It also lets you catch duplicate nominations or off-topic submissions.

Tip

Start with admin approval if you're not sure. You can always switch to auto-approve once you get a feel for how your team uses nominations.

Nomination limits and allowance

Nominations consume a trigger credit from the nominator's weekly allowance, the same as triggering a spin from the dashboard. By default each user has 2 trigger credits per week. Admins can raise individual limits from the Manage Allowance page.

If a nomination is rejected by an admin, the trigger credit is refunded to the nominator automatically.