Heartland Hero

These awards, Wascher says, are an ego boost for employees. She likes to give them even more recognition by inviting the bank's division heads to attend the awards banquets. Other employee-recognition efforts include giving out bonuses for work done over and above employees' usual tasks.

In the future, Wascher plans to become more active with Web page design. Already her department has designed some department intranet sites. She's also getting ready to hold an open house to introduce customers to the new First Printing facility.