Rating: 
Summary: Useful guide for rewards of every type
Review: Heard the taped version of 1001 WAYS TO REWARD EMPLOYEES,
written and read by Bob Nelson . . . the author says that what most
motivates people who work is recognition--and not just money! . . . he
then presents a most useful guide to rewards of every conceivable type
for virtually any situation . . . the ideas include the spontaneous gesture
of praise to formal company-wide programs and just about everything
in-between.These ideas, in particular, made a great deal of sense to me: Works who must stay late at TIME INC. get cab fare home. Marion Laboratories annually takes all employees and guests to see
a Kansas City Royals game. Chevron keeps a Treasure Chest brimming with gifts so supervisors
can reward employees on the spot. Every Christmas, the Walt Disney Company opens Disneyland for
employees and families only--with executives running the park. My only disappointment in the book was in the author's narration . . . he
lacked any real enthusiasm for the task, and this is one time that it
would have been much better had anybody else been the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: The Value of Rewards
Review: High achieving workers are motivated by self-actualizing stimuli such as having a chance to accomplish something worthwhile, pride of achievement, a sense of challenge. (Good salary and lucrative benefits serve primarily to obtain and retain good employees, not necessarily to motivate them.) Employees who put forth extra, unselfish effort should be recognized by their peers and rewarded. Not to be confused with company incentives like bonuses and gainsharing, non-cash rewards are employed simply for fun and as a way of saying, "Thanks." Using non-cash, non-competitive rewards is a useful way to strengthen the team and help define its values. To help stimulate team spirit, team members themselves should give the rewards. Team values must remain paramount. The criteria for giving rewards should be based on actions and values, rather than solely on physical accomplishment. The team should establish clearly which values it honors highly enough to reward individuals for. Any reward should be fun and at the same time have value, whether symbolic or actual. It may be a "homemade" trophy or a ribbon with a catchy phrase; a gift certificate or dinner for the family. Employees are quite creative when it comes to brainstorming for ways to reward themselves. Management will usually approve reimbursement for a sensible rewards program. Don't block the door to rewarding those on other teams who have helped your team achieve its goals. When team members present a reward, they must explain exactly why the reward is being given and not just say, "Here ya go!" A reward should be given only when someone really merits extra recognition. If given on a regularly scheduled basis, the reward becomes the featured event instead of the behavior being honored; team members may just end up nominating their friends, resulting in rapid trivialization of the reward. To keep a reward program most beneficial, use it sparingly. This book is a virtual encyclopedia of inexpensive, practical and fun rewards. There is lots of great info and novel resources with a text that promotes rewards as a motivational way of making work more fun --- not as tools for controlling.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Ideas to Make You a Better Source of Motivation
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good "idea" book, but does not address corporate cultures.
Review: I bought this book and its companion, "1001...Energise Employees". The ideas in them are creative and fun, but in the wrong corporate culture would get chewed to pieces. These are good reference materials, but I would not characterize them as a panacea for all companies.
Rating:
Summary: I use to create R & R Programs for our client companies, A+
Review: I have used this book with public and private companies, and governmental and union-oriented clients. We use it to create programs that will work to promote and reward secret shopping. It is invaluable. It even works with tiny and abundant budgets. It is always on loan.....
Rating:
Summary: A perfect book for learning how to make the workplace fun!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Your employees will thank you...with more hard work.
Review: I started reading Nelson's books when I was struggling to understand why a former employer seemed to care so little about his employees. May sound silly, but even the most motivated people like to hear "Good Job." And the best companies in the world know this...that's how they keep good people.
Rating: 
Summary: I was disappointed. Most of the ideas were impractical.
Review: 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.)
Rating:
Summary: Best of the bunch -- easy to read, a must-have
Review: I've had this book for almost 10 years, and as an HR professional, it's a requirement in my library. I also have 1001 Ways to Energize... Must-haves. They both get borrowed frequently so I have to really wallpaper my name all over the books in order to get them back. Which sometimes I don't but they are cheap enough to buy again. So easy to read, they help get the creative juices flowing... for all HR consultants and itnernal advisors as well as managers!
Rating:
Summary: Must have item for every Company library !
Review: It is extremely creative, offering high budget, low budget and NO BUDGET ideas for recognizing employees as well as suggestions on when and how in order for the programs to
be most effective. The company anecdotes are great!
(comments from HRNET posting)
| 
