The needs of the workforce are constantly evolving, and in the post-pandemic world, workers are prioritizing their needs to an even greater degree than before. Employers need to step up and understand those needs in order to attract and retain the top talent they desire.
An easy way to break down the essential needs of the workforce and how they interact is using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a comprehensive theory where our most essential needs as human beings compound one another in order to reach fulfillment. We cannot be self-actualized without having our physiological and safety needs met, and the same goes for your employees and applicants.
Some of the needs identified in Maslow’s Hierarchy include:
- Physiological needs
- Safety
- Belongingness and Love
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Actualization and Creativity
To help better understand what the needs of the workforce look like, MAU pulled together a cross-functional team from across the organization to design a “Flexible Work Survey” that could be distributed to a subset of candidates from MAU’s Applicant Tracking System*, totaling just under 194,000 potential participants. The team developed a series of questions based on researched trends in the market and the issues being presented by MAU’s clients, in the hopes of uncovering what exactly workers prioritized when it came to their work today, and why.
Note: Since a majority of MAU’s clients fall within the manufacturing industry, the distribution group was heavily skewed to a workforce that is familiar with and/or have been open to working within a manufacturing or industrial environment.
To be competitive in both attracting new and retaining existing talent, it is incumbent upon employers to begin to explore ways they can address the changing dynamics of today’s workforce. After reviewing the data gathered in MAU’s Flexible Work Survey and comparing it to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it’s clear that the workforce feels their basic needs are being unmet, so they are unable to ascend to those higher-level needs.
To see how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be applied to your workforce, check out this infographic!