Creating a Workplace Culture Infused With Recognition and Appreciation

May 19, 2025

Infusing Recognition into Your Culture

Ideally, you want to infuse your workplace culture with a spirit of appreciation, celebration, and recognition so that everyone takes responsibility for appreciating and recognizing one another’s success. Peer-to-peer recognition can be even more effective than when it comes from a manager. One study from Brigham Young University found that when people share positive news with supportive colleagues, the people sharing the news get a significant jolt of happiness for up to 4 weeks.

Passing praise along to a colleague also creates a domino effect, where employees are then more likely to spread some positive goodwill along to someone else. When employees are on the receiving end of a random act of kindness, for example, they are far more likely to do something generous for another colleague.

According to research by Dr. Richard Wiseman, the phenomenon known as “positive trait transference” also kicks in. When someone passes along a positive comment about a colleague, the listener subconsciously applies those same positive traits to that colleague.

Create an Oasis of Positive Feedback

When I toured the office of the Finnish company Futurice, I was delighted to see their Jolt Station, a dedicated place that encourages peer-to-peer recognition. The “Oasis for Positive Feedback” is stocked with fun office toys and snacks, along with this list of instructions.

1. Notice when a colleague does something awesome, no matter how big or small.
2. Write their name and the awesome thing they did on the list.
3. Choose something fun or delicious from the Jolt Station.
4. Give it to your colleague and explain why.

Many companies, such as Zappos, have instituted an official peer-to-peer recognition program. With Zappos’ monthly Hero Award program, employees are gifted a $50 monthly allowance to award a colleague they think has done something exceptional. The executive team then picks one overall hero of the month from all of the employees who were recognized. The winning hero gets announced over the PA system, and a mini parade walks through the office with the song “I Need a Hero” playing through the speakers. The hero receives a $150 Zappos gift card, a covered parking space for a month, and, of course, a cape.

A Buffet of Recognition Ideas

Here are some additional ideas to help you infuse a spirit of recognition into your workplace culture.

• Create a celebrations calendar where you highlight all special events, social events, employees’ birthdays, etc.
• Create a “Brag Board” (online or an actual physical one) where employees can share positive news that everyone can see.
• Create an “Appreciation Board” where employees can write notes of appreciation.
• Bring three thank-you cards for each participant to a meeting and dedicate 10 minutes where everyone takes the time to write the notes to someone in your organization.
• Create an annual yearbook that celebrates key milestones and accomplishments.
• Have a “Jar of Awesomeness” where people submit notes of appreciation throughout the year. Then. at the end of each month or quarter, read the submissions from the jar at a meeting or send them out via email.
• Have a success jar/box where people write down any and all wins throughout the year. At the end of the year review the highlights at a celebration event.
• The company Mindvalley holds an Awesomeness Meeting every Tuesday, where people deliver awesomeness reports on all the awesome things that have happened both in and outside of work. They also have a “Bell of Awesomeness” that gets rung anytime something truly awesome happens at work.
• Hold a Random Acts of Kindness theme day.
• Once a quarter, hold a recognition day where employees write small notes of appreciation and thanks on Post-It Notes, which they then hide in obscure places so people keep finding them over the course of the following weeks.
• Once a quarter, during an employee meeting, have everyone share one thing each team member does that makes the team better.
• Have an “out-compliment” each other theme day, where everyone tries to out- compliment the other person. (Incidentally, World Compliment Day is celebrated every year on March 1.)
• Encourage the spreading of “possip.” This is gossiping positively behind someone’s back.
• Make use of a recognition app. A software app, such as Kudos, can help make it simple for all your employees to recognize one another and improve the transparency of your recognition program, so it’s fairer and more effective. An app can help employees working in hybrid workplaces or working on different teams stay more connected to create a greater sense of belonging and it can offer a consistent approach to recognition and track the progress of your recognition efforts.
• After a Zoom meeting, LaSalle, the Chicago-based global real estate investment firm, has teammates pay it forward by having each meeting participant send an encouraging note to the person whose face was on the screen below them.
• The Danish auto parts company, The Kjaer Group, has The Order of the Elephant program to encourage peer-to-peer recognition. If someone does something noteworthy, an employee leaves a giant stuffed elephant on that person’s desk, which must be passed along to another employee who has done something special. Because the elephant is so large, it’s a great way to start a conversation about the elephant in the room!
• Alpine Tubular Management and Supply doesn’t just recognize employees effectively, they recognize the recognizers with Alpine Bucks – gift cards that are doled out to employees who consistently recognize other employees.

This final idea, recognizing the recognizers, is a great one to end on. If you really want to build a culture of recognition and appreciation, after all, then it’s important to communicate the importance of being a team cheerleader as often as possible and to intentionally recognize employees who recognize others.

Copyright Michael Kerr, 2025. Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame speaker who travels the world researching, writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures. Michael is the author of nine books including Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Fuel Extraordinary Results!