Once these needs are fulfilled, people are motivated by safety needs. You can provide fulfillment of these needs for your employees by ensuring strict adherence to occupational safety rules and offering them some degree of job security.

Many of the benefits that companies offer, such as savings plans, stock purchase plans and profit sharing programs, also fulfill the safety needs of employees. Even outplacement services to assist employees who were made redundant can address the safety needs: these services ease the pain of the layoff.

As this need is fulfilled, people progress up the pyramid to be motivated by social needs or belongingness. These reflect the need for affiliation, socialization and the need to have friends. Your company’s social events provide opportunities for socialization. Corporate sponsorship of community events also provides an opportunity for employees to make friends while giving something back to the community.

As these needs are satiated, people are motivated by esteem needs. These needs involve gaining approval and status. You can help your employees fulfill these needs with recognition rewards such as plaques, trophies, and certificates.

And finally, the need for self-actualization – the need to reach your full potential – drives people’s behavior. In the words of the Armed Forces, this is «being all that you can be». Developing skills for your employees helps them to reach self-actualization. While the first four needs can be fulfilled, the need for self-actualization cannot be satiated. Once you move toward your potential, you raise the bar and strive for more.

Douglas McGregor proposed that managers use one of two different assumptions concerning people. His theory is called the Theory X and Theory Y view of managers, which reflects these two different sets of assumptions.

The Theory X view is the negative set of assumptions. The Theory X manager believes that people are lazy and must be forced to work because it does not come naturally to them.

The Theory Y holds that people will look for responsibility and that work comes naturally to people. This is seen as the positive assumption about people.

Generally, Theory Y manager will have more motivated employees. Sometimes, the Theory X manager can achieve results when used in the appropriate situations. But today’s workforce, as a rule, seeks more challenging jobs and an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process. This is closer to the assumptions of the Theory Y manager.

David McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory is also referred to as the Acquired Needs Theory. According to the theory developed in the 1970s, needs are developed or learned over time. McClelland suggested that there are three needs – for achievement, power, and affiliation – that are important to the workforce. While all three are present in everyone, one need is dominant.

People who have a dominant need for achievement are proactively seeking ways to improve the way things are done, like challenges and excel in competitive environment. An employee who has a dominant need for achievement should be provided with challenging jobs with lots of feedback on his or her progress.

The need for power is the need to control others. Those with a dominant need for power like to be in charge and enjoy jobs with status. You should allow such employees to participate in decisions that impact them and give them some control over their jobs.