Meet Employees’ Needs To Boost Profits, Says Study

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What do you think is preventing you from being more productive and satisfied at your work? A recent survey conducted by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) attempted to answer this basic question. The researchers surveyed around 19,000 employees at various levels in organisations across different industries. Let’s check out the findings.....

So What Did The Research Find?

The study discovered that most people tend to perform more sustainably and effectively and feel better when 4 basic needs were satisfied, which include-

• Renewal (Physical)
• Value (Emotional)
• Focus (Mental)
• Purpose (Spiritual)

However this shouldn’t come as a surprise as all of us tend to work better when we feel more stimulated, appreciated, determined and purposeful. It is certain that the encouragement and opportunity to occasionally rest and restore your energy levels during work serves as the perfect remedy for work pressure and even overload which you feel in your daily lives.

When you feel appreciated and valued, it generates a much stronger level of security and trust at your workplace. This enables you to focus on using your energy in creating value instead of spending energy in searching and protecting your value. Let’s face it, in today’s world focussing your attention on the task at hand is a serious challenge. But as you will be able to focus better on your job, you can get more quality work done at much lesser time. Furthermore, when you feel that your work contributes significantly to a larger purpose and is able to make a difference, it becomes a unique source of enthusiasm and professional motivation.

How Does It Influence Your Performance?

The researchers believe the most surprising aspect of the findings is that how positively and greatly these 4 basic needs are correlated with different variables which impact your performance. In a blog post, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) stated “It would be statistically significant if meeting a given need correlated with a rise of even one or two percentage points in a performance variable such as engagement, or retention. Instead, we found that meeting even one of the four core needs had a dramatic impact on every performance variable we studied.”

For instance, when an employee realised that any one of his needs has been satisfied, he reported almost 30 per cent rise in his focus; almost 50 per cent increase in level of engagement; and almost 63 per cent higher probability of staying in the organisation. It was also observed that with every additional need which got met, the cumulative positive impact also increased in a straight dose effect.

So when all the 4 basic needs were met, the impact on level of engagement escalated to 125 per cent from 50 per cent. The researchers at HBR believe that the engagement is positively correlated with productivity and profitability. A meta-analysis of around 263 studies of almost 192 businesses showed that companies with engaged workers were 22 per cent more profitable than others.

The HBR blog post concluded “In practical terms, it’s possible to start making a considerable improvement without a lot of effort or expense, addressing one core need at a time.”

What Do You Think?

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Employers do not need to make any financial investments to encourage and value their employees. However employers should be willing to think beyond the age-old presumption that “performance is best measured by the number of hours employees puts in.” Businesses need to consider the value their employees create, irrespective of how they decide to do work.

Do you think that meeting these basic needs can improve your performance? Or is there something else that needs to be addressed? Share your own opinions below in the comments.

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