Maslow's hierarchy of needs for employees

4 March 2025

Some time ago, I left a company that I would genuinely have loved to work for until the end of my career. I left for the silliest and saddest of reasons: they ran their promotions by headcount per rank, and until someone with the title exactly one higher than mine left the company, I could not be promoted according to company policy. In the mean time, I was at the salary cap for my position and my income was being eroded by inflation. Eventually, I had no choice but to leave.

The company had been somewhat obsessed with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and in the immediate wake of leaving, I wrote down my unfiltered thoughts on an “employee’s hierarchy of needs”. I think the results are interesting, although I might re-adjust which levels some of the entries go to if I wrote it again today.

Important in the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy is the hierarchy part. In the classic Maslow pyramid, the base of the pyramid starts with food, water, warmth and sleep. The peak of the pyramid has artistic self-expression. People don’t care how much moody jazz they’re allowed to play if they don’t have food security. Instead, they have more pressing things to concern themselves with, like figuring out where their next meal will come from.

As you read the following list, bear in mind that ticking off everything on Level 2 and above doesn’t matter if you’ve got problems on level 1. You’ve gotta be doing a good job on level X before your employees will care about anything on level X+1. No amount of free coffee and good office vibes will offset having to live in a cramped apartment because the company is paying 30% under market rate.

Anyway, here it is, with some explanations where appropriate:

Level 1:

If you’re not succeeding at these, you are literally shoving your employees out the door

Of these, I think most are self-explanatory. Mechanical safe working environment means things like “boxes aren’t stacked precariously over working areas” and “the fire extinguishers are tested”. People will proactively work to leave unsafe working environments. They will also proactively leave if they think the company is going to do layoffs soon anyway, if they’re being underpaid or if they’re being asked to do lots of out of hours work and not getting paid lots of money for it for it.

Level 2:

If you don’t want your employees telling their professional contacts to look elsewhere, you need to be ticking everything on this list

No managers that bully, gaslight or lie. Blame-free culture. If you don’t provide people with a career progression path that is clear, reliably executed and not a hoop-jumping exercise, then you cannot possibly hope to be more than a bus stop on their career.

Level 3:

If you want people to tell their friend you’re the best job they’ve ever had, look to fulfil these

Good lunch choices might be some kind of on-site cafeteria if your company is large enough, or it might mean having your office in a good location with lots of choice. It might mean letting your employees work from home so they have access to their own kitchen and fridge.

The commute, including work from home, could almost be on level 2. 45 minutes commute a day is a full working day of extra time per week, people value this a lot.

At this point, you’re mostly just setting yourself apart from your competition. Levels 1 and 2 cover things that will cause problems for your hiring and retention. In many ways, they are table stakes for any company that considers itself better than a half-arsed mom-and-pop enterprise. If you’ve achieved levels 1 and 2, you are a functional business, but at the bare minimum level. Ticking things on level 3 will start to set you apart from other businesses on your level.

Level 4:

Going above and beyond

These things are all very much nice-to-haves. Your employees are unlikely to ask you for these things if you ask them what you could be doing better. However, if you’ve achieved all of 1, 2 and 3, and you’re still looking for improvements then good on ya!

Real training is a luxury that most companies absolutely refuse to drop so much as a penny on. Ongoing education is very important for your employees careers, and they will value being sent to industry conventions as attendees rather than booth staff. If the company is willing to fund university-grade study, that will be noticed and remembered. Most companies are terrified that if they educate their employees, their employees will use that education to get jobs elsewhere. You need not fear this, if you are hitting levels 1, 2 and 3.

Stock options are nice, although they are no substitute for actually paying people. Supporting your employees in blogging or presenting their achievements and research so that it is a positive experience will give them a sense of pride that is missing from probably 80% of all jobs in the world.

Level 5:

The gold plating

Very few people can hope to work at a place that achieves all of levels 1 and 2, most of levels 3 and 4, and also lets them save the whales or rescue starving orphans or whatever. Even better if they can save the whales working at a world-renowned company that everyone else wants to work at.

Really the only organisation that comes to mind that operates at this level is NASA.

So that’s the hierarchy. The most important parts are levels 1 and 2. It’s fine to be a bit spotty on the other levels, but I firmly believe that you should be aiming to have a working environment that is both safe and tolerable, which is basically what levels 1 and 2 mean to me.