The following are readings, Web sites, and organizations that can assist behavioral health employers in providing effective recognition programs to employees:
 

Celebrating Employees: Beyond a Party and a Plaque. Talent Management provides insight into developing a “Culture of Celebration”.

Creating an Effective Reward and Recognition Program. The Corporate Leadership Council provides key findings in the literature concerning effective recognition programs.

Employee Recognition, Rewards, Awards, and Thank You Ideas. Numerous links to ideas for formal and informal employee recognition.

Employee Recognition: Selling, Implementing and Communicating the Program a SHRM White paper that outlines a 10-step model for creating and implementing an employee recognition program.

 

Understand how to Motivate your Team through Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors. This article covers the basics of Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory (sometimes known as Herzberg's Two Factor Theory) which states that certain characteristics of a job are consistently related to job satisfaction, while different factors are associated with job dissatisfaction.

The Carrot Principle. The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance by Adrian Gostick, Adrian Robert Gostick, and Chester Elton describes the results of one of the most in-depth management studies ever undertaken. It shows definitively that the central characteristic of the most successful managers is that they provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. The study included 200,000 people and took place over 10 years. The authors state that great recognition doesn't take much time – it can be done in a matter of moments – and it doesn't take large amounts of money.

 
Harness the Power of an Employee Suggestion Program: Beyond the Suggestion Box.  This article on About.com outlines questions for determining if your organization needs a suggestion program and provides elements of a successful program.

Provide Motivational Employee Recognition. About.com: Human Resources reviews key recognition traps and how to avoid them.

Recognition Professionals International. RPI is a professional association with the sole focus on recognition innovations and education as a systematic method for improvements in the workplace.

Recognition at Work. The book,Recognition at Work: Crafting a Value-Added Rewards Program by G. Michael Barton, describes how to design and implement a recognition program. It provides many checklists, evaluation tools, and alternatives that would help any organization customize its approach to employee recognition.

Rewarding Your Team. The Mindtools article, Rewarding Your Team: Learning Why Thank You is So Vital.

The Fundamentals of Employee Recognition. ASHRM White Paper that provides the rationale for implementing a recognition program and includes components of an effective program.