Why do people need jobs? – understanding your employees:

Sometimes I deal with employees on topics like vocation building or purpose finding and goal setting. They reveal tome that in their current role they feel like they are only there to get a salary. When I start people on my programs, and they give me hints as to what their obstacles are for achieving their dreams. They would list the following the most often in their top two: 1. Lack of knowledge or 2. Financial constraints. Less often I would hear answers such as relationship issues, personal problems or lack of communication skills.

This is interesting because Maslow Hierarchy of needs confirms this observation to a large degree. Most people work to get their basic needs met. Maslow states that all humans have the following needs (in this order):

1. Physical survival needs like sleep, nutrition and general wellness.

2. Safety and security needs like shelter, a secure roll and certain routines or structures we can rely on.

3. Social needs like friends, families, comrades and positive relationships.

4. Self-Esteem needs like achievements, advancements, confidence and things leading to growth and development.

5. Self-actualization needs like the ability to solve our own problems, create things and inspire others.

This means that having a job gives us a place to fulfill the basics of needs, but when people seem unmotivated, I hear that the basics are barely fulfilled ant that normally the level 3 to 5 needs are not at all part of the picture in their work. Often leaders and manager wonder why their employees are unmotivated and I think here we have one possible answer. They are not capable of self-actualizing because some of their more basic needs are not being met. Before employees can become motivated, they need to be in a space where they can be motivated. If they are burned out, stressed, have low self esteem etc. they may lack the drive of even basic self-care. Therefore, companies that takes care of their employees via training methods that improves emotional intelligence, self-esteem, that are prevention methods for burn out, stress management and low self-esteem, for example. Out performs their competitors by 147% per profit share than companies who don’t.

If your company needs help to improve their employee’s ability to meet their own needs from very basic to level 3 to 5, we can help with our Employee Motivational Enhancement Program. Contact: info@ameliorate.co.za for more.

Keep Improving

The Ameliorate Team

#basicneeds; #working; #motivation; #self-development; #humanneeds