Motivating Employees
This week's reading was about motivating employees through rewards and not necessarily with cash bonuses or wage increases.
We learned through the HR Simulation that wage and benefit increases are actually much more expensive then one would think. Simple, "you are doing a great job" rewards are much less expensive and often can have the same effect. When I used to work in retail, my manager would give rewards to the person that sold the most credit cards in each month. The winner would recieve gift certificates to other stores in the mall. This had much more influence on me than my 20 cent and hour pay increase did. Other stores also would usually give the certificates for free or discounted rate, so the company actually spent less money but still had the same desired increase in sales productivity.
I also think Nelson's Ten Commandments of Recognition apply really well to today's workplace. I especially liked 5. Provide information on how the company makes and loses money, upcoming products and strategies for competing in the marketplace, and how the person fits into the overall plan. I think that Nelson's critic, Kohn, either does not really understand what Nelson is saying or he does not have very much management experience because after reading the article I would love to work in a place Nelson and advised. I also hope that we can try some of his strategies out during the HR simulation and we can find out for ourselves whether money or rewards is a better boost of morale and productivity.
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