Employee Need Assessment - Maslow’s theory of Hierarchical Needs

Employee Need Assessment - Maslow’s theory of Hierarchical Needs

According to Maslow, Employee needs are stacked in a hierarchical order, where it is mandatory that the lowest levels of needs to be satisfied first before addressing the top-level needs (Jerome, 2013). 

These five levels of needs directly affected relationship with employee motivation as well. 

These needs are namely Basic seeds, Safety needs, Love and Belonging related needs, Self-esteem needs, and Self-actualization (Aruma,2017). 

Figure:1

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 

 Source (Aruma and Hanachor, 2017)

 Table 1

Hierarchy of Needs mapped to modern day requirements

Needs	Modern day mapping
Basic Phycological needs	Reasonable pay, Workstations, Snacks & refreshments, Meals, transport
Safety	Access control, Security personal, Surveillance Cameras, Job Security, Security alarms
Love and Belonging	Socializing, Sports, Team Activities, Team hangouts, get together
Esteem	Rewards and Recognition Bonusses, Increment, Bonus LOC
Self-Actualization	Training and development, Innovation initiatives, Challenging meaning full job tasks

(Source -Leading BPO company’s Policies and practices )

Applying the theory to the organization

I’m working for leading BPO company and is an evaluation of how Maslow’s theory is has been applied to the company and how benefits gained by it.

 

Basic Phycological needs

Survival requirements of a human being, Biological needs required for a person’s satisfaction.

As per my organization, the focus on basic psychological needs starts with the onboard complement.  The Complement package will provide all you need to kickstart your first day at work, which consists of an industry-standard latest laptop, a personalized company access card, Mug, Internet connection pocket Wi-Fi , directions to all the facilities in the organization, and workstation with calling facilities. At the same time, IT and Admin facilities department who keeps a track of all the facilities and making sure that they are up to date.

And, company is operating different shits (UK & US) and providing meals and transport, as well as medical insurance for the all the staff. Compare to industry pay more salary & wages to entire staff.

 

Safety

Physical security of the employee and the psychological fear of job security. This also be an area where employees treat as a mandatory need and not ready to compromise on.

My company is providing Job security, Environment security in the office premises -security alarms, fire alarms, Infrastructure to all the staff.

   All-access to the work environments is restricted via access cards, making sure no unauthorized malicious access is possible

      Every employee has been provided an access card which governs the authorization of the employee

      Security personal are place at every entrance 

      Multiple emergency exits, evacuation plans, fire plans, and periodic evacuations drills are performed to make sure that all employees are educated, and proper mechanisms are in place to safeguard employees in an event of a disaster

      Entire organization premises are under 24*7 surveillance

All communication channels in the organization are encrypted

      All personal data storage is compliant according to GDPR standards

      State of-the-art treat-guards’ functions in all the computers to make sure malicious attacks are prevented

 

Love and Belonging

This is an area where my organization has sold a framework. Not only the organization provides various means for employees to socialize and collaborate on in terms of Sport and Art clubs, company functions, annual vacation, Team outings, movie nights, team hangouts, compliment, appreciation. but also, has used digital technologies such as Microsoft Teams, zoom as full-fledged digital socialize platforms for employees to share thoughts, share knowledge and socialize on.

Esteem Needs

The organization has a transparent reward and recondition mechanism called Annual Appreciation and League of campions on quarterly basis. Every employee has a chance of score marks with various evaluating scales. Eg: If you complete a task on time this will be evaluate through KPI’s These points are taken into consideration in quarterly performance reviews. And, certain points achievements are rewarded both financially Increment bonus, Salary increment and as an organizational-wide recondition. This methodology follows certain gamification fundamentals, where employees feel proud of themselves and motivated to achieve more. And Giving more responsibilities employee make fee the person wants the company sustainability as well.

Self-Actualization

There is a separate team to focus on individual training and development needs. Every employee has been given a structured path in terms of skills to acquire as per his assigned role and the next level role.  which provides a graphical metric of each employee’s personalize career needs and where it is heading. At the same time, there are multiple initiatives to promote innovation and express creativity in terms of Hackathons, tech days and innovation clubs. Address the employees desire to become more and more what one is to become everything that one can become. Giving tasks or challenges which encourage creativity and discovery and provide all possible esteem and satisfaction to the employee.

Conclusion

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory still can be applied to any organization to make sure that the organization has done its part to have a sustainable foundation to address various levels of needs of an employee.

References

Aruma, E. and Hanachor, M. (2017). ABRAHAM MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS AND ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. International Journal of Development and Economic Sustainability, [online] 5(7), p.16. Available at: http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Abraham-Maslow%E2%80%99s-Hierarchy-of-Needs-and-Assessment-of-Needs-in-Community-Development.pdf [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].

 

Greenberg, J., and Baron, R. A. (2003), Behavior in Organization. 7 th Edition. Upper Saddle River. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

 

Jerome, N. (2013). Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and implications on organizational culture, human resource and employee’s performance. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, [online] 2(3), pp.39-45.Availableat:https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b0bc/c8ca45193eaf700350a8ac2ddfc09a093be8.pdf [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].