How Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs influences Employee Engagement

This month’s post is a little different as I explore the psychoanalytical side behind Employee Engagement. The story starts with the eminent psychologist Abraham Maslow and his much lauded (and later criticised) hierarchy of needs model.

Maslow argued that individuals needed to satisfy basic needs such as warmth, safety and security in order to then realise their own personal growth and development. The same theory can be applied to how an organisation treats and engages with their staff.

For many people the basic needs of a job are that the salary allows them to pay the bills and live a lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Having a sense of financial independence is innate in almost all of us with very few people brave enough to run a risk and disregard monetary reward in favour of other factors. For many of us this is SURVIVAL.

Next comes a sense of stability and what is commonly known as job SECURITY. Given the volatile nature of the job market, most people fear the thought of losing their job and the prospect of having to join the unemployment line. Whilst the concept of a ‘job for life’ is all but dead, people generally crave security and structure in the workplace – and much like salary would put this above other aspects of a job.

Let’s face it, whilst we may like to think we’re motivated by other criteria, the two questions we often ask when reading job ads are “what’s the pay?” and “is it a permanent position?”. When these two things don’t meet our needs the job instantly becomes less attractive to us.

Read more | hrzone.com