Psychologist Abraham Maslow argued that individuals need to satisfy basic needs – warmth, safety and security. This same theory can be applied to how an organisation engages with its staff.

I first posted about this theory in 2015 and amazingly my post reached over 250,000 views using a variety of platforms. Post-lockdown, as we all start to return to work slowly and carefully, understanding this hierarchy will never be more important.

Since 2002, I’ve been helping organisations to understand where their people are on Maslow’s scale. For many people the basic needs of a job are that the salary allows them to pay bills and live a lifestyle they want. This is survival.

Next is stability and what we commonly call job security. Most people fear the thought of losing their job and the prospect of becoming unemployed.

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

If someone works purely to put food on the table and a roof over their head, then they are only satisfying their basic needs.

People leaders recognise the importance of attracting great talent. The next level is belonging where employees feel they are part of something bigger, they’re valued and their contribution is valuable to the business. This can only be achieved by instilling beliefs from the top-down – and this derives from our purpose and the culture we embed within our business. This is the level at which people switch into higher gear and become motivated to do more, to help more and to achieve more for themselves and the business.

If you make your employees feel their contribution is important and they are integral to the business, believe in the company’s values and goals then that’s when you reach the high engagement holy grail.

So how do you take engagement even further? When employees have opportunities this is meeting their self-actualisation needs and will enable them to be highly successful, inspiring others along the way.

So how do you determine where on the ‘needs’ spectrum your employees actually are?

Anthem’s Navigate The Nonsense Survey, launched in July 2020, has been created to accurately plot where individuals and teams currently are as we return to work – are people working for your money, or are they working for you with blood, sweat and tears? This then creates a roadmap for recovery as we steer our restart with care.