Certainly, people need to be treated with courtesy and respect. No employee incentive award is going to replace the need for that. But many working-class people have never received an award or otherwise been recognized for doing a good job, and those little throwaway trinkets are precious to them. A law enforcement agency in California designed a little pin (about 3/4 x 1/8 inches) that looked like a California license plate, with the license plate number reading "10851." "10851" is the California Vehicle Code section for "stolen vehicle," and the corresponding radio code for the same thing in most places. Officers that recovered six or more stolen vehicles in a calendar year got a 10851 pin to wear on their uniforms. It was an option to wear the pin or not, if you had it, but you couldn't buy one. I never saw an officer who had received the award without it.

My wife worked as a supervisor for Wal-Mart for several years. She had a supply of "Good Job!" pins that she could hand out to employees at her discretion. They were usually given at an employee meeting or in some semi-public venue, to increase the recognition value. Employees could turn in five Good Job! pins and get a share of Wal-Mart stock. Some employees kept the pins in lieu of the stock, because they wanted everyone to see how many they had received.

Don't underestimate the value of recognition, especially with people who may not have had a lot of it in their lives.