Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and it's Application in Human Resource Management

Introduction

This motivation theory was introduced by psychologist Abraham Maslow in a 1943 paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation” and his book “Motivation and Personality” in 1954. The theory's premise is that people in the workplace are motivated by how they meet and fulfil the fundamental/basic human needs. It suggests that motivation progresses hierarchically from tangible to intangible necessities. From a HRM perspective, the theory helps people professionals understand employee motivations, psychoanalytically and behaviourally, to assist in making policies, people practices, and strategic decisions that improve employee happiness and push them to their full potential to become self-actualised. This theory can help organisations create good working conditions where work motivation mediates employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

Figure 1.

Evaluation of hierarchical structure

Maslow’s theory has five levels in which human needs can be satisfied to make individuals feel fulfilled to maximise their contribution in the workplace. These five levels are:

1. Physiological needs: This is the stage where employees desire their basic human needs to be met. From Maslow’s model, the classic needs include food, shelter, water, and rest. This is the bottom-most level of the pyramid meaning it is critical because they are existing needs employees require for survival. In HRM, employers should ensure employees have fair salaries and wages to meet their basic living needs, create a healthy working environment by achieving good working conditions by the CIPD Good Work Index 2023, and prioritise employees’ rest through work-life balance-related programs like flexible working arrangements to allow employees have time for out-of-work interests and personal time.
2. Security and Safety Needs: This is the second level of needs where employees want to have control and order in their personal and professional lives. HR practices should prioritise creating stable employment for workers through compliance with contractual arrangements and communicating with workers in case of changes so that they can re-examine or adjust their job expectations. Additionally, it is pivotal to have a health and safety policy to guarantee the commitment to employee wellbeing and compliance with established occupational safety standards. Employers can also do this by having clear health and insurance, family and paid leaves, and retirement plans.
3. Social needs: These are love and belonging-related needs such as love and acceptance in the workplace, relationships at work (friendships and community groups for CSR), family relationships, and romantic attachments. Employers can ensure HRM establishes strategic practices to promote collaboration and inclusion at work through trust-building and team-building events (departmental competitions and social events), a positive and supportive organisational culture, open communication systems for feedback and voice. This builds trust and motivates employees because they feel part of a respectful and supportive community.
4. Esteem needs: This is the fourth set of human needs which can be categorised into two types of esteem needs namely elements that nurture respect between workers (meet ego needs such as feeling self-confidence and pride about one's role or contribution and capacity) and respect people give themselves (self-esteem which illuminates our dignity, sense of value, and mastery to our work). Importantly, organisations can use the theory to guide HR practices like recognition programs (celebrate employee anniversaries and publicly acknowledge their contribution), develop a culture that values everyone (respect), offer opportunities to participate in professional activities and growth (career development-CPD programs) and empower people (autonomy) to motivate people and ensure they feel satisfied (no individual or team/group feels inferior) and responsible to their roles.
5. Self-actualisation needs: Maslow explained that this is where people want to exploit their talents, skills capabilities, and potentialities fully. In HRM, this is through approaches like making work constructively challenging such as offering people the opportunity to participate in challenging projects in their career path, making the workplace conducive for innovation and creative initiatives, continuous growth and improvement (advanced training), and allowing them to lead mentorship/coaching programs.

Application in Human Resource Management

The above levels of needs can be critically applied in wide-ranging areas of human resource management both for strategic and holistic purposes and requirements. These may include:

1. Establishing open feedback channels for performance management: This is where HR promotes and advocates for employee voice and ensures communication is two-way to provide regular feedback about HR analytics (performance, policy assessment, and solicit employee suggestions/views). This can harmonise performance expectations and share information to guide and motivate people to improve.
2. Employee engagement: This is where approaches aim to positively impact the employer brand and increase retention. Organisations can use reward and recognition to show appreciation for employee contribution and celebrate accomplishments, establish supportive leadership for better working lives, and enhance team collaboration and psychological contract to nurture commitment, loyalty, and a sense of belonging. HR tailors engagement practices based on an employee's level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
3. Resourcing decisions: The resourcing decisions should align with the changing world of work. In HRM, the theory is helpful to effectively recruit, select, and hire staff. Maslow emphasises a non-toxic work culture; thus, it can guide employers in establishing diverse and inclusive strategies when hiring to broaden talent pools and make the workplace safe for everyone. Additionally, the people practice professionals can utilise it to structure competitive salaries and benefits through employee value propositions to motivate potential candidates to join and retain the workforce.
4. Training and development: The model can guide leadership and management development initiatives to meet esteem and self-actualisation needs such as advanced training, offering sponsored higher education programs, and CPD to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
5. Work-life balance: HR can structure work arrangements to meet flexible needs by ensuring job designs are balanced for professional and personal lives.

Examples of case studies

Google: Google aligns with the theory my prioritising employees’ physiological and self-actualisation needs. Examples of amenities for employees include flexible medical and health plans, fitness centres (on-site) for wellness and mental and physical health, meals and cafeterias, health and safety programs, education programs, and competitive pay and benefits. These are holistic employee programs that reflect Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs at every level.

Microsoft: The organisation is acknowledged for continually supporting employees' esteem and self-actualisation needs. Example of esteem needs includes rewards and recognition and creating a workplace culture where diversity and inclusion are primary. Self-actualisation needs to be met including extensive employee professional growth programs such for leadership and management and investing in partnerships with learning institutions where employees can access educational resources.

Salesforce: The organisation is keen on different levels such as providing competitive pay, employee well-being through on-site facilities and health and safety programs, job security, relationships at work, diversity and inclusion, rewards and recognition programs, and employee-led innovative projects.

Critiques and Limitations

While the impacts of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, such as improving employee happiness, workplace culture, and supporting resourcing decisions, are the obvious, popular representation of it as a motivation theory, its criticisms cannot be overlooked. Studies outline that needs do not necessarily follow the idealised hierarchical order. This is due to a lack of adequate evidence of the need ranks and the real-world experiences which shows a limitation in the understanding of how dynamic employee needs can be. Employees or people generally have different perceptions of needs and how they rank them including the correlation to their geographical locations, culture, and religion, among other factors. Secondly, the theory is oversimplified in its application but challenging to measure or test empirically. This is based on the limitations of the original work of Maslow due to the use of small samples. This can explain the potential of the theory's logic and inspiration to the historical setting of its author and the population he used (the Northern Blackfoot tribe).

Conclusion

The place of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in pioneering motivation theories is foundational and continues to reveal or suggest potential applications in HRM and life.  Its implementation is beneficial to both employers and employees because it addresses needs holistically. It is a useful framework to guide people practice professionals in identifying different needs and developing measures to intervene to fulfil employee needs and achieve organisational goals. In HRM, the theory is critical for employee motivation and engagement and important in employee satisfaction, happiness, and establishing a good workplace culture, especially in a changing world of work.

FAQs

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

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