The Employee Survey Task Force was designed in response to concerns raised by the employee survey. Its goal was to improve employee satisfaction in light of these concerns. 

Create a recognition program for employees to recognize colleagues and increase morale.

A tangible item was decided upon and paper cards were used to give the program a classic feel.

Employees at all levels of the company, especially those very busy in their day to day work.

The process started with a team discussion to curate ideas of what the program would look like. A team of three was created to bring the ideas to life.

Research was conducted to see what types of products are already on the market and the statistics of recognition programs. We found employees who were recognized on a regular basis had increase moral, improved performance and higher employee retention. More can be found on the subject here.

The initial design of the program involved a card where an employee writes a message of recognition, and places it in a collection box. Once a month cards would be distributed with balloons and a candy to the employees receiving recognition.

The card design needed to be low cost as we had to factor in the cost of the balloons, string, and candy. The ability to print cards onsite needed to be an option to ensure cards remained in supply. Within the task force, a survey was conducted to decide on slogans for the cards. As new slogans were developed, they could be incorporated into new batches of cards, keeping the content fresh.

The cards and program were reviewed by upper management, including the President of the company.  After receiving feedback, the initial program of slogans was scrapped and instead incorporate the company values into the cards. It was also decided that having a prize driven program could lead to favoritism and nepotism. 

The suggestion was made we reward those who encompass each of the company values. This sparked the new design of the cards.

The idea was to keep the experience as simple as possible but also very rewarding. By grabbing a card at your leisure, writing a quick message, and posting it on the board it gives those who are always busy a way to say thank you. This also allows the rest of the company visibility into how closely everyone works together.

When the program was rolled out, cards posted on the board the next day!

I took many lessons from this project. First was you will have many iterations and at times will have to scrap a project's initial direction and start over. Next would be to think of the steps along the process to ensure it will work for a large number of employees, if not everyone. And finally, projects of all sizes take time and don't happen overnight.