Meet Ruben Roman. Roman loves to hear complaints—complaints from his employees, complaints from his colleagues, complaints from anyone with something to complain about. Why? As a station manager for Xcel Energy’s Comanche Station, in Pueblo, Colo., Roman has learned that complaints lead to suggestions which in turn lead to improvements—improvements that have resulted in millions of dollars in cost savings opportunities to Xcel Energy over the last year.

The quest of Roman’s employees to turn problems into improvements is spurred by the company’s Xpress Ideas suggestion program. A leading energy provider, Xcel Energy has never underestimated the power of targeted, strategic recognition. For Roman’s crew and every one of Xcel Energy’s more than 10,000 employees, the company’s suggestion appreciation program encourages all to get involved and take ownership in the company.

“People involved in a suggestion system stay aware,” says Roman. “Any time they hear a problem they are looking for a solution.”

Although Roman’s participation in improvement projects has led to more than $15 million in savings for the company, he is particularly proud of one team that rose to meet an unexpected challenge.

The team had a short amount of time to figure out a way to keep a failed critical seal air blower unit online while a replacement part was ordered. Although the team didn’t know it at the time, it took a full two days to get a replacement blower and would have cost Xcel about $500,000 in purchased power. But thanks to the team’s enthusiastic problem-solving efforts, the unit stayed online, customers were better served and the company value of “Reliability” was upheld—all for about $600 worth of recognition points.

“The program absolutely encourages ideas,” says Roman. “You see someone with an iPOD and they tell you it’s from the Xpress Ideas catalog, suddenly everyone has a lot of ideas. Suddenly things people have been tolerating for years because that’s the way it’s always been are being taken care of and made better.”

“I see my people take away a sense of ownership in the company,” says Roman. “And when you own something you take care of it differently; you treat it differently because you take pride in it. The attitude becomes, ‘This company is part mine and I want to make sure it runs the best or the safest it can.’”