Staff Shelf Reading Sweepstakes Completed

We completed the shelf reading in six weeks, a record. Normally it would have taken three months to completed what was done in six weeks. The incentive was a good one and inspired several of the staff to shelf read when they would have used the time on other nonessential tasks. Others were not motivated to increase their shelf reading, but all but one participated. And I feel that it was a success. I tried to motivate the staff and make an uninteresting but necessary task more appealing. It worked in most respects.

Looking back at the Fish! concepts. I chose the attitude to tackle an unpleasant task. The El Toro Library is a very busy branch. It is easy to get caught up in the pressing business of the day. We needed to let our hair down and introduce some fun in the day. I provided a game with incentive.

We played the Sweepstakes game. One staff member did 28 hours of shelf reading. Second highest amount of hours was 19. The number of hours dropped drastically after that to 12 and 9. Most of the the staff did 7-5 hours. A few did one hour and only one person did not participate.

I was present shelf reading along with the staff, putting in 6 hours. It was difficult for me to get these hours in, but I made the effort to make sure the staff realized that I was not asking them to do anything I would not do. It also showed them that I thought this was important.

To make their day, I treated the entire staff to a sandwich luncheon, with homemade lemonade and a chocolate bundt cake. I asked the other department heads to bring fruit, chips and salad. So everyone had a nice lunch. Before leaving for the day I commended the staff on a job well done and announced the winners of the Sweepstakes. The grand prize winner choose a $50 gift certificate to JoAnn's. I awarded two prizes for the most hours. Each received a coupon for a box of See's chocolate. And I surprised two of them with a third prize of a $10 gift certificate to Golden Spoon Yogurt for the next most hours. The staff was not expecting a third prize.

Results: The staff is more connected. We accomplished the task in record time. It gave staff a break from the regular routine. It added a little fun and motivation. From a supervisory and managerial perspective: It is going to be hard to be as creative for future projects, but I'm confident that this can be accomplished. It is my deepest wish to make the El Toro Library a better place to be both for patrons and staff.