How to Recognize & Reward Employees: 150 Ways to Inspire Peak Performance, Second Edition

Preface

The first edition of this book came out twelve years ago. The economy was inching out of a recession that had cost profits and jobs and cracked the façade of employer-employee loyalty that had marked decades of corporate expansion. Companies were pared close to the bone in terms of personnel, and although it was a time of cautious optimism, salary increase budgets were still low and likely to remain that way. So a book on recognizing and rewarding employees that focused more on treating people well than on giving them big raises made a lot of sense.

A lot has happened in the intervening twelve years. First, there were years of economic expansion, riding on the technology wave. There were plenty of tales of ordinary people in low-level jobs ...