Maslow’s five-tiered pyramid showing the hierarchy of needs is a well known construct to most. Maslow’s pyramid is a visual representation of his motivational theory, how human’s need to have certain needs fulfilled in order to reach their full potential.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a perfect tool for all HR departments to use when determining compensation and benefits, policies, strategies, and even single HR initiatives.

It isn’t called Human Resources Management for nothing.

Even if Maslow’s hierarchy of needs doesn’t need to be approached linearly, ignoring the lower levels will result in lack of structural integrity of the pyramid – the pyramid being the employer’s overall approach to their employees.

Connection With Compensation and Benefits

Looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a pyramid is useful for all HR professionals, as the pyramid shows where HR has to focus their work in order to build structural integrity of their policies, strategies, and initiatives.

The lowest tier of the pyramid lists physiological needs, which are all biological requirements for survival. As we live in a society domineered by Mammon, a lot of us rely on our paycheck for basic survival needs, and as such, all HR professionals must ask themselves:

Is the Compensation and Benefits plan set up so that even the lowest paid employee is capable of surviving on their pay alone?

If the answer to this question is no, and the HR department starts noticing unrest, disloyalty, high turnover, a lot of absence, and other behavioral issues from the employees, the problem might simply be in these numbers.

Connection With HR Policies

To see how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can assist with setting up HR policies, let’s look at the second tier of the pyramid: The basic need of Safety and Security.

HR policies are written policies that show employees how they can expect to be treated. But that’s not all:

HR policies are also the behavior that the employer chooses to show – despite written policies being in place stating otherwise.

This means that an HR policy on bullying stating that “all reported detrimental behavior will be investigated” and that “no one who reports detrimental behavior will be retaliated against” will tick in the box for the pyramid’s second tier.

However, if the employer chooses to ignore certain reports, and retaliates against employees who file reports on detrimental behavior, HR’s policy on bullying will be known as being unsafe – and thusly unticking this box for the pyramid’s second tier despite all the pretty written (and ignored) words.

Understanding how policy actively forms the employees’ opinion on the employer’s stance towards the employees – as long as the employer follows said policy – is important.

This opinion is what creates a sense of security and safety for the employees, not the written words themselves.

Connection With HR Strategies

Let’s continue our ascend up the pyramid, and see how the third tier can be used to shape HR strategy.

The third tier is the psychological need for Love and Belonging, essentially where employees need to feel a sense of belonging, connection, and even acceptance from their workplace.

This can be in the form of friendships with co-workers, shared values with the employer, or even simply from fun events planned by HR.

However, HR’s strategy is what builds these connections.

If HR’s strategy is focused on creating a division between employees, setting up different status and worth among the employees, or even to simply favoring one group of employees above others, the employees will always feel disconnected from their employer.

Simple initiatives such as pizza parties, DEI, sensitivity training, team bonding, having management approachable and part of the workforce, and even just celebrating days claimed by minorities can work wonders – if done correctly.

Connection With HR Initiatives

The fourth tier of the pyramid is the psychological need of Esteem. Maslow divided esteem into two:

1. 1. Esteem for oneself
      
      • • Achievements
      • • Dignity
      • • Independence
      • • Mastery
      • • Etc.

1. 1. Esteem from others
      
      • • Prestige
      • • Recognition
      • • Status
      • • Etc.

All of HR’s initiatives can be used to affect this tier of the pyramid, as HR’s work is often focused on:

• • Training (adding achievement, independence, and mastery – giving prestige, recognition, and sometimes even status).

• • Recruitment (achievement, independence – prestige, recognition, status).

• • Succession planning (achievement, mastery – prestige, recognition, promise of status).

• • Etc.

Essentially, everything HR does, should be adding to this tier in some way. The only way HR can fail in adding to this tier, is by actively looking at the workforce and handling them as a replaceable Resource.

Oversimplification

Just looking at a pyramid and randomly choosing words to fulfill all layers of said pyramid isn’t enough.

An HR professional also has to have a basic understanding on how to use employee relations and communications to receive information on where the organization is lacking.

An HR professional also needs to have an understanding on how the pyramid is supposed to support and empower the employees in aligning themselves with the general business strategy, it’s values and mission – not just on a personal level.

And it is important for HR professionals to remember; as much as we want to support every single individual who is part of our workforce into reaching their full potential, we may never lose focus on how our initiatives are supposed to support and empower the entire workforce – all at the same time.

But understanding the basic idea behind Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a good foundation for all HR professionals to build their work an, as all employees who have ever reached out and requested support or reported on detrimental situation in the workplace, are essentially pointing out where the pyramid is lacking in structural integrity.

And Finally

The fifth and final tier is something all employers say that they strive for, for their employees.

All employers say they want their “employees to reach their full potential”.

It’s even included in their policies and job descriptions when advertising open positions.

However, until employers understand that the final tier cannot be reached unless the first four have been properly handled, even discussing this tier will be a waste of time.

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Slides

• • Employees’ Hierarchy of Needs