Who

Rhea Taylor - Associate Director of Budget Operations at UCCS, Suzanne Scott - Director, Budget Office

What

We implemented a "You Rock" peer recognition program in our department. We have a box where any of our employees can put in a note about another employee or a supervisor telling everyone something they have done that was awesome. Such as an awesome job on a project, great involvement with our campus community, helping someone in our office trouble shoot an problem, or even just something someone may have done that just put a smile on someones face. We select one person in our office to recognize each week at our departmental meetings. We have created hand painted rocks (from the 719 movement to get people outdoors), the person being recognized gets to pick a rock and they display it in their office. If they collect five rocks they they get taken to lunch (supervisor's treat), ten rocks they get a gift card (supervisor's treat). They also get a hand written thank you note from the supervisors for a job well done.

Why

We are a team, and a very strong team, that is very dependent on each other to be successful at our jobs and I want to keep us that way. We have a very heavy workload and it can be very stressful. I wanted a way to recognize our employees with minimal cost. Our employees seem to really enjoy it, it is fun, cost efficient but lets our awesome team members know they "ROCK"!!!!

Where

We just started it a few weeks ago. We are testing it to see how it works so at this time we do not have any plans to expand it.

When

We started two weeks ago, we have given two employees rocks and thank you notes and it has been very well received.

Submitter's Information

Submitter's Name: Rhea Taylor
Submitter's Email: rtaylor@uccs.edu​