Want to build the perfect workplace? Focus on relationships and do everything you can for your company to build them. That’s the topic of a recent article posted on LinkedIn. Author Geoff Colvin offers up a variety of creative ways that organizations have used to help encourage relationship building within their buildings; like offering free food at the company cafeteria, where standing on line encourages employee mingling and small talk. His main point is that relationships drive business.

Here’s another idea on how to build relationships: social recognition. Today’s workers are highly mobile and social recognition programs — delivered through any web-enabled device — can play a vital role in developing and maintaining positive relationships.

Through acts of recognition and appreciation, employees develop connections and associations. The giving and receiving of rewards triggers trust in managers and coworkers. That means that more employees are likely to share information and ideas, creating a cycle that strengthens productive working relationships.

Social recognition is especially important in businesses that rely on the intellectual give and take that feeds learning, innovation and newly discovered best practices. Keep in mind the physical distance that separates many of today’s global employees — people will never wait on line at the same food court — and you will begin to see how critical social recognition can be.