Is Your Organization Habitable By Humans?
The immense popularity of the comic strip "Dilbert," "The Office" television series, and movies like "Office Space" reflect an undercurrent of cynicism that is present in many of the organizations we all work in. Creating a workplace that is "habitable by humans" - so to speak - is one aspect of HCM and even Talent Management that is seldom addressed. Within much of the work we here at Knowledge Infusion do, the HCM and Talent Management disciplines are most often seen through the lense of how talent can best be used to meet organizational goals. But if your organization is barely habitable by humans, how will you attract and retain high quality talent to help you achieve your business goals?
To help us undersand how to make our organizations "habitable by humans" we need look no further than Psychology 101. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs serves as an excellent template to measure whether our organizations are habitable by humans. It can serve as a Human Habitability Model for organizations. We can determine just how "habitable by humans" organizations are by taking a pop psychology approach to Maslow's groundbreaking work:
Making Your Organization Habitable By Humans: Maslow Revisited
1. Physiological needs: Food, Shelter, Comfort
These are the most basic human needs. In most modern organizations these needs translate into compensation.
Are you paying your employees a living wage?
Are you paying market based compensation rates?
Is your total rewards package competitive?
Is compensation fairly distributed?
2. Safety Needs: Security, Order
Are expectations and goals clearly defined for your workforce?
Are reasonable boundaries respected and honored?
Is your workplace a meritocracy, where individual or group achievement is recognized or rewarded?
3. Need to Belong
Does your organization have structures or systems in place that allow people to interact, exchange ideas, collaborate?
If you are a virtual organization, do you have a virtual "water cooler" so people can share the daily chit-chat and other interaction required by humans?
Do you have a culture or talent management brand that binds your workforce to an overarching concept of what the values of your organization are? Does this "brand" permeate all corners of your organization?
4. Esteem Needs
Do you allow physical or virtual space within your organization where people can express their "individual brand" and share with others in the organization?
Do you have processes in place to identify people's strengths and allow them to thrive within those areas rather than developing areas of weakness?
Is respect for individual viewpoints implicit in your culture?
5. Self Actualization
Is self-direction and career exploration encouraged within your talent management brand?
Are individual differences and authenticity celebrated and encouraged in your culture?
Is your organization structure flexible enough to allow individuals to set their own paths?
Do you facilitate opportunities for people to engage in charitable activities?
Our experience at Knowledge Infusion has been that most organizations spend the majority of their effort shoring up level one - which is the most basic of human needs. The downside of focusing so much attention on compensation is you'll attract and retain only the most cynical employees.
While Talent Management technology is not the magic ingredient in making organizations more habitable, it's interesting to note how many of the more advanced levels can be enabled by these technologies. Technology can help organizations set, align and track goals; create collaborative spaces; reward employees based on merit; assess employees and guide them in career exploration; and help create and market an internal and external "talent brand."
