It doesn t cost much, but goes a long way. People get so busy, they forget the natural human interaction. Fit the praise to the position. What matters most to them is acknowledgement in front of their peers. The sales guy, on the other hand, loves his Salesman of the Month plaque - you ll see it hanging on the wall of every company he ever works for.
Techies don t care about that stuff.
They play the actuarial tables - they start out low, then increase as usage increases. Server-side Java apps are growing in strength, and more companies are using it as a platform. If your programmers aren t working on a Java app at some level, try to get them on a server-side project. It was like a little tiny incubator shop within the company. You have to stay in the playing field.