How to Motivate Your Employees

Abraham Maslow devised a Hierarchy of Needs through which he tried to communicate the human's basic concerns and desires. He focused on some of the most intellectual people of his day to base his research. The Maslow Hierarchy of Needs incorporates five different levels: Physiological, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self Actualization. All of the lower levels must be reached before a human can experience the higher levels.

A human being's basic concern is his physiological needs. For survival people should eat, breathe, quench their thirst, procreate and use the bathroom. Without all these they cannot live. The employee's basic needs and comforts should be looked after by the leader to make them use their complete potential. If the work place is extremely cold an employee cannot work fast and efficiently like working in more comfortable work place.

The hierarchy defines safety as the second level. Humans need to feel safe. This includes physical safety as well as financial security. Employers benefit by ensuring that employees feel a sense of security. If they are concerned about imminent layoffs, employees may have trouble concentrating or feel less motivated to work hard. They may even find another job to take, or even take some form of vengeful action to get back at the company.

The third level deals with a person's desire to be loved and feel like they belong. It is important for employers to help his employees establish friendships with one another. By doing so, he can create an environment in which the employees enjoy working in. The employer can do so by scheduling events or pairing like minded individuals on tasks in which they can bond.

The fourth level is all about a person's self esteem or self worth. All of us desire to belong; the sense of belongingness is very important for every individual. By being a member of a group, there is a capacity for us to experience feeling of accomplishments and faith in ones capabilities. Planning for a company recreation and events like sports fest can help bridge the gap and thus create a sense of camaraderie between employees. In addition to this it will give them a chance to unwind and at the same time boost their confidence level.

The final level according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is self-actualization. Reaching this level means achieving maturity. We can achieve this level once we have attained all the lower levels that have been discussed. The ability to deal with problems and create solutions for this problem is very important for it also deals with our feeling of morality and our values.

Abraham Maslow devised a Hierarchy of needs and came up with five different levels namely: Physiological, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self Actualization. And he according to him, all of the lower levels must be attained in order to experience the higher levels. By formulating these different categories he was able to relate it with human's basic concerns and desires. But his primary focus was on the most intellectual people at his time to base his research.

Daiv Russell is a management and marketing consultant with Envision Web Marketing. Read more Management Articles, learn about Abraham Harold Maslow and the Maslow theory.

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