PEAK Employee Needs: Looking through the Diversity Lens
Organizations have more diverse talent than ever due to increasing globalization, demographic shifts and multiculturalism. Research shows that when a diverse team is managed well they produce higher quality ideas than a team with homogenous talent. Talent diversity in teams can be a competitive advantage for organizations.
Although the relevance of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is universal, how employees might want those needs fulfilled may differ. Some of those differences can be attributed to individual preferences and others to cultural or socialized preferences.
We invite you to consider the questions below while remembering that these are broad questions that are meant to facilitate a conversation. The purpose is not to stereotype or put people into boxes, but to encourage you to use a wide-angle lens in thinking about your employee population.
The best thing to do is to encourage managers to get to know their employees and what is important to them as individuals. Exploring these questions may make for a more meaningful manager-employee conversation.
- How might the need for compensation, benefits/perks and job security vary by generation, culture, country of origin, gender, and sexual orientation?
- How might the need for affiliation with the organization or colleagues (and/or how it is fostered) differ by generation, culture, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation?
- How might the need for recognition (and/or the way it is delivered) differ by generation, culture, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation?
- How might the need for meaning (and how and where it is found) vary by generation, culture, country of origin, gender, and sexual orientation?
Tags: diversity, employee engagement, employee needs, inspired workplaces, peak seminars