Are your employees getting what they need out of your office?

Individual needs and your space

Meeting your employees’ needs in your office can help them (and your business) thrive. Let’s start with the basics. 

In motivational theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a five-tier model for prioritizing the +needs of individuals. 

1. Physiological – The need for food, shelter, and other elements for basic survival.
2. Safety – The need to feel safe within your environment. This also refers to emotional and physical safety.
3. Social – The need for love, friendship, and a sense of belonging.
4. Esteem – The need for self-respect, status, and recognition from others.
5. Self-actualization – The need to reach one’s full potential.

These needs map nicely when considering individual employee needs in your office. 

1. Physiological – The need for food, shelter, and other elements for basic survival.
   • Reward – Compensation for the work
   • Resources – Having the right tools and training
2. Safety – The need to feel safe within your environment. This also refers to emotional and physical safety.
   • Vision – Security in knowing where the company is headed long-term
   • Growth – Programs and paths for growth and career advancement
   • Self-Development – Opportunities to be coached, challenged and inspired
   • Strengths – Mapping roles and responsibilities to strengths for ultimate fulfillment of potential
3. Social – The need for love, friendship, and a sense of belonging.
   • Teamwork – Having a culture that supports and encourages teamwork
4. Esteem – The need for self-respect, status, and recognition from others.
   • Loyalty – Leadership that “has your back” as they expect you to have theirs
   • Connection – Competent leaders who genuinely care and are supportive of employee success
   • Value – Sincere appreciation and recognition of each employee as an individual
5. Self-actualization – The need to reach one’s full potential.
   • Purpose – Creating opportunities for meaningful contribution to the big-picture goals

Meeting individual needs in your office space

Space is a big part of meeting the needs of individuals in your office! They connect to every basic human need, and if you’re serious about supporting your people, space should be a key consideration. Here’s how Maslow’s Hieracy can be applied to your individual employee’s needs in your space: 

1. Physiological – The need for food, shelter, and other elements for basic survival.
   • Space based resources: Conference tables, the right zones for collaboration, individual work, relaxation 
2. Safety – The need to feel safe within your environment. This also refers to emotional and physical safety.
   • Physical safety in a space: health and safety
   • Emotional safety: having the right space to do you work where employees can show up as their best selves
3. Social – The need for love, friendship, and a sense of belonging.
   • A physical space that supports teamwork! 
4. Esteem – The need for self-respect, status, and recognition from others.
   • Having decision-makers understand the work you’re doing and respond with a space that connects with that work 
5. Self-actualization – The need to reach one’s full potential.
   • An individual that’s doing their best work in the space where they show up to work. 

The self-actualized office: meeting individual needs through your space:

It’s clear that space is a key part of meeting individual employee needs and motivating them, and to ensure your space is doing it for your people in a changing work environment, you need best in class data. InnerSpace can help you do this:

1. Make the decision to do an evidence-based analysis of your spatial needs with the best, most robust data available 
2. Call InnerSpace
3. Start generating spatial utilization insights with no hardware installs
4. Use the data to make decisions based on employee usage and needs
5. Create a self-actualized office where your employees thrive 

Ready to create a self-actualized office that motivates your people? We’re here to make it happen with best-in-class spatial utilization insights, no installs required. Ready to learn more? Here’s how InnerSpace can support your employees’ office experience.

Sources: 

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/needs-of-employees

https://www.betterup.com/blog/supporting-employees 

https://livingtolead.com/11-essential-needs-of-employees/