- Looking for 1,001 ways to motivate or reward your employees? Bob Nelson can help. Visit his Nelson Motivation site at http://www.nelson-motivation.com to get some ideas you can put to use to help you do a better job, either as a manager or as an employee.
- Some companies offer their employees stock ownership plans. To learn the differences between an ESOP and stock options, visit the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) at http://www.nceo.org and the Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED) at http://www.fed.org. Which stock plan would you rather have? Why?
- Open-book management is one of the better-known ways to create a participatory work environment. Over 2,000 companies have adopted this practice, which involves sharing financial information with nonmanagement employees and training them to understand financial information. Does it really motivate employees and improve productivity? The NCEO website, http://www.nceo.org, has a number of articles on open-book management. Read several of the articles to get more insight into this practice, and then develop your answers to this question.
- You’ve been asked to develop a staff recognition program for your company but don’t have a clue where to start. Three sites with articles and other useful information are Incentive magazine, http://www.incentivemag.com, the National Association for Employee Recognition, http://www.recognition.org, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, https://www.opm.gov. Using the material you’ll find there, outline the plan you would recommend for your company.
- You have two great job opportunities. Both are equally attractive in terms of job content and offer the same salary. However, one offers year-end bonuses, whereas the other includes stock options for employees. How do you compare the offers? Learn how to evaluate stock options at the Money section of How Stuff Works, https://money.howstuffworks.com. Prepare a comparison of bonuses versus stock options, and determine which appeals to you more. Explain your reasons.
- Use a search engine to find companies that offer “work-life benefits.” Link to several companies and review their employee programs in this area. How do they compare? Which benefits would be most important to you if you were job hunting, and why?