3 Career resilience when your employer makes changes

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

One way to assess your current workplace environment is to consider your needs and whether they are being met.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology consisting of a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as levels within a pyramid. Watch this short video to find out more:

If we apply this model specifically to the workplace (see Figure 6), we can better understand the needs an employer must meet in order for us to achieve our true potential. If any of those needs aren’t met, that can have an impact on career resilience.

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Figure 6

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This diagram shows a variation on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as applied to the workplace. This is a five-tiered pyramid. The levels, from bottom to top, are: Physiological needs, e.g. the right facilities, appropriate technology; Safety needs, e.g. health and safety in the workplace, job security; Social needs, e.g. team, colleagues, friends; Esteem needs, e.g. respect from colleagues, status; Self-actualization.

Figure 6

One of Maslow’s tiers focuses on safety. That might apply to physical safety, health and safety or perhaps security. Redundancy is a situation that certainly affects our personal sense of security as well as our economic security, and you’ll explore this in the next section.