Non-monetary rewards should form one important part of a complete employee recognition program along with monetary rewards.  Each motivates employees differently.  Non-monetary rewards can be used for either individual or team rewards.

Research shows that employees some employees are primarily motivated by financial rewards, and will dramatically improve their performance to achieve such rewards.  On the other hand, some other employees may see motivating others with money as vulgar, and are disincented by such offers.  This second group of employees is more likely to be motivated to improve their performance through the use of nonmonetary rewards such as being thanked publicly at a departmental function, having lunch with the head of the organization, or receiving an extra day off.  The desired outcome of rewards and recognition programs is to improve performance. Non-monetary recognition can be very motivating, helping to build feelings of confidence and satisfaction. An American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) report on employee retention research identified consistent employee recognition as a key factor in retaining top-performing workers.

This site is devoted to providing you with links to articles and other resources on the topic of non-monetary rewards and recognition to improve employee motivation and performance.   Below is a list of free rewards articles, grouped by category.  Many of the articles have been reviewed by our editors and assigned a 1 to 5-star rating along with a brief sentence describing the focus of the article or other resource.

If you would like to contribute additional articles to this non-monetary rewards article directory, then please fill out our Article Submission form.

In addition to this directory page, you can also read our reviews of articles and books on employee recognition programs and team rewards.

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