Motivated employees work harder, are more focused on their goals, produce higher quality and greater quantities of work, and are more likely to continue to persevere even in the face of obstacles or adverse circumstances.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is one of the fundamental theories of motivation. The theory can help organisations design programs to motivate their people, promote loyalty, reduce turnover, recruit quality people and ultimately increase productivity and return on investment. Maslow theorised that people have five basic needs that could be ranked in hierarchical order: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs.

According to Maslow, each need has to be satisfied before an individual can progress to the next level. Therefore, leaders and managers should motivate their employees by providing rewards or programs that help satisfy the need that is prevalent at that time. Once a need has been met, it ceases to be a motivator and employees move to the next level in the need hierarchy.

The most important aspect for just about every employee who starts a new job is pay. Once that need is satisfied, the employee then seeks a feeling of safety. The third level of needs focuses on developing a sense of belonging and connection to the workplace. Next, employees need to feel recognized and valued to satisfy their esteem needs. Once all these needs are met, managers need to add programs that lead to satisfaction of the highest level of need on Maslow’s hierarchy; the need for self-actualization.

Below is a list of various rewards, programs and practices that organisations can use to satisfy employee needs:

Start with Physiological (basic) needs:

Then, Security needs:

Then, Social needs:

Then, Self-esteem needs:

And finally, Self-actualisation needs:

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can assist companies to offer benefits and programs that help satisfy needs at all five levels of the hierarchy. In terms of identifying where an employee sits, this can be done through one-on-one discussions, performance reviews or by using employee surveys for groups of employees.

By providing considered incentives that are applied in Maslow’s building-block type manner, companies can use their resources in the most effective way possible while attracting and retaining the highest quality employees. Ultimately, the result is a workforce of individuals who have reached the final tier of Maslow’s hierarchy and who are now looking to not only better themselves, but those around them, and the company as a whole.

References

SADRI, G, & BOWEN, R 2011, ‘Meeting EMPLOYEE requirements: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff’, Industrial Engineer: IE, 43, 10, pp. 44-48, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 February 2013.