Customer Reviews

1001 Ways to Reward Employees

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is great and works under the premise that you get the best effort out of people, not by lighting a fire under them, but by building a fire within them.

In short, its simply a collection of ways to reward employees for doing a good job. It is divided into 6 sections (day to day rewards, intangible rewards, tangible rewards..) so there's definitely a boatload of reward ideas to fit just about any work situation. Examples from companies across the United States make this a fun read as well. Also good for any HR department- The Sixty-Second Motivator.

BOOK REVIEW 1001 WAYS TO REWARD EMPLOYEES by Bob Nelson Workman Publishing Company, NY, NY Whether you manage a department, oversee a division, lead a company, or run a family business with just one employee, there is an essential principle to follow that is too often overlooked: What most motivates the people who work for you is recognition. The problem for too many of us, however, is that we don't have "employee recognition" as a line item in our budgets. In response to that all-too-common problem, Bob Nelson, author of 1001 Ways To Reward Employees, polled the American business community asking for low-cost ideas, proven strategies, achievement awards, contests, time off, case studies, and praise ideas. And the business community came through for him-and for us. This paperback has 225 pages of great ideas that leaders in the business community use to reward their hard-working employees-from keeping a "treasure chest" brimming with gifts so supervisors can reward employees on the spot (Chevron) to cab fare for workers who have to stay late (Time, Inc.) to pocket protectors, magnetic calendars and notepads imprinted with the slogan "Got an idea? Write it down!" to encourage employee participation in a suggestion program (John Deere). Whether you have a large recognition budget, a small budget, or no budget at all, you will find informal and formal ideas, expensive and cost-free ideas-something that will fit your need to let employees know how much you appreciate their efforts. Ken Blanchard, who wrote the forward, noted, "With 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, praising, recognizing and rewarding employees just became a little easier. You can now provide the rewards and recognition that people in your life so richly deserve...This is one book that should be on every manager's desk!" I have taught first-time manager classes over the past five years, and this is one of the concepts and tools our new managers appreciate the most. I've used many of the ideas myself. I highly recommend it!

As the title implies, the book contains a large number of ideas. Some will work in some organizations, while others might work elsewhere. As often happens when one tries to generate ideas in abundance, not all will be useful. But being able to puruse the overall landscape of opportunity has been helpful.

My concern, however, is the focus that this book places on recognition, as opposed to results. For a deeper treatment of human performance in the workplace, I suggest people also read RESPONSIBLE MANAGERS GET RESULTS: HOW THE BEST FIND SOLUTIONS, NOT EXCUSES, by Gerald Faust and co-authors. This provides a balance to the overall perspective of the leader. Because after all, the main purpose for rewarding employees is to achieve responsible performance that leads to organizational, bottom-line results.

I am always leary of books of lists. With my skepticism on full blast, this book immediately disarmed me by leading off with my own favorite advice about motivating people: Ask them what motivates them.

The book is then organized into sections that capture different kinds of ways to praise and recognize individuals. Taking the items that turn someone on, you can then cruise the lists until they trigger an idea that fits your situation. The book works well in that sense.

The book works well at another level: You get a sense of human ingenuity by reading all of the interesting things that people have done to appreciate each other. It gives you a good feeling, as well, to consider how much thoughtfulness people show for each other.

Reading the book reminded me of an experience I had in my 20s. Our CEO had encouraged me to run a seminar for people in our company to make strategy development easier for people. I had worked hard, and it went well. Hoping to inspire people, I had arranged for him to speak to the group at the end of the seminar. I was tremendously pleased when he did. Imagine my immense happiness when he arrived with a gavel in hand, and presented it to me. He had ripped it off of a Junior Achievement trophy that he had in his office, because he wanted to give me a gift. After 27 years, I still have and treasure that gavel. This book will help inspire you to have the same effect on others.

Most of us would love to be great founts of motivation, but our imagination trails our enthusiasm. This book will help you fill that void. As Bob Nelson points out, 75 percent of companies do too little motivating. Even if you do the right amount of motivating, this book will help you do it better. There are appendices in the back to make it easier to implement the ideas in the lists in the front.

It's a great book concept for managers. No wonder the book has been a great seller for years. Be sure you get this book and use it often! You'll be well on your way to overcoming the communications stalls that delay progress in almost all organizations, by creating the basic appreciation for one another that forms the trust necessary to all good understanding.

There's an old saying: Don't show me how much you know, show me how much you care. This book embodies that spirit in a beautiful way.

This paperback is an easy reference book for managers considering ways to reward (read: acknowledge excellence) among employees. There is also some suggestion of programs designed to reward longevity (just being there).

Good managers are good leaders with vision and drive. Using this book as a tool, a manager might provide a team with the seeds for some creative thinking. However, if your organization is not part of a bigger corporate structure, many of the ideas are too expensive or too large to personally manage. The result is a bit discouraging as you flip pages thinking "good idea...but..."

There are great quotes in shaded areas along the edges of each chapter, and the general ideas are organized under headings such as Employee/Company Anniversary, or Safety. Finding information is easy thanks to the author, Bob Nelson.

I've let my managers read and react to the book, and I used it in a workshop on rewarding employees. This is a fine resource, an affordable book to stimulate discussion, but not likely the sole solution to your issues.

Amazon features a wide selection of books on the topic of employee reward and recognition, this is a mid-range book in that spectrum of resources. It is an effective argument against simply providing cash incentives and managers seeking to win that debate are greatly served by this book.

I own a charity-focussed website, and have over 300 volunteers who donate their time and effort towards the site's efforts. We deliberately channel all the extra money we can towards charities. I greatly value and appreciate all of the volunteers efforts and try to do my very best to show them my appreciation. I bought this book looking for ways to help those volunteers to feel cared for and respected.

You get about 225 pages worth of one-paragraph blurbs describing specific ways that companies have recognized their employees. Many of these, despite the book's subtitle of "low cost ideas", are rather expensive. Leo Burnett provides $3,000 in adoption assistance. Kollmorgen Corporation takes its people for ocean cruises. Domino Pizza holds company-wide Olympics, giving away $4,000. I just don't have that kind of budget.

Still, as with most management books, if you go through the details, you can pick out a few great ideas amongst all of the ones which are entirely unworkable. You can make a hall of fame of outstanding employees. Create awards for individuals who go above and beyond the call of duty. Recognize great contributions immediately, and encourage people to offer up suggestions on how to improve things. Find ways to help your employees become healthier and happier.

I really did appreciate many of the suggestions, like offering cash prizes, would help companies with spare cash. I think I was disappointed because right at the top of the book it says "money isn't everything" and "low-cost ideas". There were a few inexpensive ideas at the beginning of the book - and then it promptly went into things requiring a fair amount of money or are simply cash bonusses. If I had money to burn, then I could *easily* think up thousands of ways to reward my volunteers without any help at all. That would be easy! The balancing act is that I do *not* have a lot of money - but want those volunteers to know how incredibly valuable they are. That is the challenge, and I had hoped this book would help me with that. The book claimed on its cover that it would ... but that wasn't quite what it offered.

For those with a fair amount of money, the book will be a great help. However, I think that it should remove the "money isn't everything" title at the top, given how many of its suggestions are either cash awards, or costly items.

I was disappointed with this book. Yes, it does have lots of reward ideas (I tried counting them but only got to around half of the advertised 1001 ideas). What really disappointed me, however, was that most of them required a fairly large expenditure. I work for a small company (under 100 employees) and in a tight economic environment, we just don't have the funds to be sending people to Hawaii or some of the other *big* rewards in this book. I needed something that recommended inexpensive reward options. This book was not it. (I did find another one listed on Amazon that advertises it has "101 ways to reward team members for $20 or less" -- I think that might suit me better. I'm going to buy that one next and see if it suits my situation any better.)

I read this book at least a year ago for the first time and implemented several of the ideas immediately. I still refer to it several times a year to find new ways to keep the staff motivated and make the workplace more fun! With so many ideas to choose from it is easy to pick the ones that my staff will appreciate and find ideas that fit into my budget. It has made a great impact on my staff's effectiveness and efficiency in the office! When employees have fun and love what they do -- especially in a service-oriented office -- it can't help but have an impact on gross income of a business!

As a teacher and counsellor in business management, I have found many employers to be lacking in expertise, when it comes to human resource issues. Any successful employer knows that you invest in employees; you cut back on other expenditures. Successful entrepreneurs have learned that treating an employee with respect and dignity, providing a positive work environment, paying what the employee is worth and providing incentives and benefits will increase productivity and enhance profits. If this does not produce results, perhaps you have hired the wrong employee for the job. An employee wants to feel a part of the business, as if he/she is working with you, not for you.. MINIMUM WAGE IS NOT AN INCENTIVE OR A REWARD FOR QUALITY WORK, DEDICATION AND LOYALTY! After all, it is your employees who are going to help you achieve a profit.

This is a fantastic book and one employers, particularly those with few human resource skills, should read. Money is not always the answer when it comes to rewarding quality work. This book is well-written and contains some very worthwhile points and suggestions on both motivating and rewarding your employees.

Even though Bob Nelson wote this for business-oriented workplaces, it can apply to anyone in a supervisory/ team-oriented situation. Even as the advisor of a high school student organization, I found the suggestions and examples very encouraging at thinking of ways to increase member satisfaction. I used a few suggestions as soon as I could, and I saw our membership increase 20% after implementing the first idea. Any organization would benefit from what is offered here or in Nelson's followup books, such as 1001 Ways to Energize Employees. I have given this book as a gift to others in leadership positions, and have been on the receiving end of some of the concepts since one of the recipients was the principal of my school. If you had only the time and money for three books to help an organization improve, this should be one, and teambuilding books like the Indoor/ Outdoor Teambuilding Manual should be among them.