Customer Reviews

1001 Ways to Energize Employees

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I like this little book for highlighting out-of-the-box ideas for improving the enthusiasm, and therefore the productivity of employees. Each energizing idea is described succinctly in a short paragraph. The ideas consist of short stories of some strategy or new approach a particular company implemented, and what the rewards and benefits were. About three of these vignettes fit on a page; about 212 pages minus the index, table of contents, and some other overhead, makes for quite a few suggestions. 1001 of them I guess. Some of the ideas are pretty original, such as having the boss call everybody's mother when a tough project is completed on time. Some suggestions are old news, like having a team-building event in which participants must depend upon each other in order to achieve some goal, like scaling a wall. I say "yawn" to that idea, but I liked the one about the mothers. I bet my mom would fall over if my boss ever called her.

The book is sprinkled with quotes, bullet lists, principles and ideas that you are welcome to take or leave. I must say, I have heard a lot of this before, but there are one or two useful tidbits.

I recommend this book for people who want invigorate their organization. Throw away the clichés and you will find some good solid original ideas in "1001 Ways to energize Employees." Even if you only find one useful idea amongst the 1001, and it helps your company or your employees, "1001 Ways to energize Employees" will be worth your investment. Anyway, it's cheap.

I purchased this book and I want my money back. The book is clearly written, yet it repeats and repeats things which we all know and things the author keeps repeating in all his well-worn works. Instead of 200-plus pages, it could have been done in 20.

This book was enlightening. I never knew there were so many easy and low cost ways to energize employees --- and Bob shows you all of them plus more. A must-have for today's best managers. A great follow-up to Bob Nelson's best-selling "1001 Ways to Reward Employees."

1001 ways to Energize Employees is an excellent follow-up and companion to Bob Nelson's first book, 1001 Ways To Reward Employees. The current book is focused more on morale building, and gives 1001 fresh, new ideas for building morale in individuals, teams, and organizations. Bob Nelson knows that the best way to build morale is to reward and recognize performance. These books contain 2002 excellent "tools" which can inspire every manager with creative ideas. A must-read.

It's probably unfortunate that I already owned "100 Ways to Motivate Others" before buying this book. I was looking for ways to help appreciate and reward my volunteers with the low budget I had available. I purchased "1001 Ways to Energize Employees" for the same reasons - looking for ways to help my volunteers feel happy and appreciated in their chosen tasks. Unfortunately, the books seem to overlap quite a bit, and in both cases seem to require quite a large cash outlay.

The book is in essence a collection of random ideas from established companies. One company spent $60,000 building a local playground instead of going on a golf outing. That's WAY outside my budget!! They talk about REI losing $1 million by choosing to situate its building closer to where employees live vs where it was good for shipping reasons. Again, way outside my budget. A company in Illinois saved $15 million by cutting out things like its employee picnic. That's nice (I think?) but again, not helpful at all.

There are a few reasonable suggestions in here. Provide employee training. Provide a way to solicit employee suggestions. Provide frequent updates on company health. These are all very common sense and are offered in the intro area of just about every management book I've seen. But in many cases, the items shown are contradictory. One item says "provide positive feedback on what is going on." The next item says "Be honest about what is going on even if it's bad news". Well? Be positively negative?

I suppose the clearest reason for this book's success is the example that they give, that the most enjoyed feature in a FedEx newsletter is where they report on what other mailing companies are doing. By reading this book, you get "secret" news about what other companies are doing. That's always fun in a peering-through-the-keyhole sort of way. But they rarely tell HOW the information was received, just that it was being done. In cases where they say "the employees love it", that can often be the enthusiastic hopes of the PR department that performed the task. It could be that the employees thought the item was completely inane.

It's not that the book was a complete waste of time. It's an enjoyable book to rent from the library, to skim through. It might spur an idea or two from you, out of the 1,001 presented. However, I really would have enjoyed a book that was much more organized, that had much more follow through about the cost involved and the aim of why they did it.

As the CEO of a large vending machine distribution company I can honestly say that the company is now unrecognisable after I applied the principles in Nelson and Blanchard's superb guide to energizing the workforce. Their Gay-For-A-Day initiative for equalities awareness was an eye-opener for sure, and has certainly changed the office dynamics. Tremendous.

If you are looking to truly turn around your company or department, this is not the book for you. When does this book come in handy? If you are seeking for quick ideas to energize your team, and are short on inspiration: that is where it's a very comprehensive source. But be realistic: true energizing and change is a process that can't be bought with treats or gifts, but rather built through trust and open communication, among other things. If you want to really energize your team, then be ready for a longterm commitment from your part, that will go beyond just getting them perks or giving them awards.

This book is helpful to have on the bookshelf for anyone looking for new ideas. I did not find that it really treated its subject in any depth.

Creative yet practical ways to motivate and retain staff are needed now more than ever before. Between the sour economy that makes raises and bonuses tougher, the specter of layoffs that's making everyone nervous, the ability of top staff to bail on you at a moment's notice, and the trend toward making managers accountable for employee retention, managers can never let down their guard in this area. Many of the ideas here are common sense, but can never be restated enough. Others are low-cost and can be implemented with the leanest of budgets. My one quibble with the book: the suggestion to have executives spend a day with the staff is, IMHO, insulting to the rank and file and may even be counterproductive, as it comes off as more of a feel-good stunt benefitting the executives than a real motivator.

If you have even heard ONE murmur about low morale at your office, try Nelson's books. He shows what successful companies know...that good employees deserve care and reward. These days salary is not enough; recognition, motivation and morale warrant your attention or your employees will move on.

A look at the appendices will show you the companies wise enough to care. Your employees will be looking at this list, if you don't.