The best employee recognition practices are often the simplest.  

Here’s one that’s recently been adopted at the publishing company where I work: a progam called “See something good, say something good.”  It’s a way for employees to bring positive attention to things that their co-workers, managers and the company’s different departments do well. 

How it works: The company provides colorful index cards, placing them conspicuously in several commonly traveled areas in the building. When employees and supervisors want to publically recognize someone else’s efforts, they can grab a card and fill it out. It takes very little time.

When the index card is filled out, the employee drops it into a wrapped box (there are two in the building). The boxes are later collected and the cards displayed in a room the company uses periodically for meetings, presentations and quarterly employee appreciation events.

In order to build awareness and participation in “Say Something Good,” management put up fliers around the building, so people from every department can see them, as well as visitors and job applicants who’ve come in for interviews.

The program, which was originally thought up by the head of our product marketing division, doesn’t cost anything apart from the cost of the index cards and paper. There’s minimal administration time, and it takes employees only a moment or two to fill out a card on a fellow employee’s behalf. 

But the return is tremendous, and the recognition possibilities are endless. It’s a good way to boost morale, encourage productivity and differentiate the company culture from work environments where the negative things seem to get the lion’s share of the attention.