Probably, you either know Azerbaijan as an Islamic country, a country famous for its oil and gas projects, or you just know nothing about Azerbaijan. No matter the case, we are going to talk about a different topic today. You also probably know Maslow`s Needs Pyramid. However, besides your knowledge of it, how much do you benefit from it? You can utilize it in motivation, work satisfaction, commitment, HR and other management practices. Let`s take a look at this pyramid in a modern way considering the Azerbaijani business culture and experience along the way.

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The reason why all needs comprise a pyramidal shape is that it accounts for their sequence and explains their position amongst the endless needs of humanity. One of the main goals of HR professionals is to help people get their undertaken responsibilities done with great satisfaction and enthusiasm. In the language of business, this is called motivation. The way to keeping employees` motivation high is by meeting their needs. It goes without saying that we may use other motivation theories such as Herzberg`s Double Factor, Adam Stacy`s Equity theories as well as Maslow`s Pyramid. However, today, we are going to discuss Maslow`s Needs Pyramid, our example being the needs of Azerbaijani workers, also considering cultural, social, economical and personal differences.

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Physiological needs. Mind you, one of the main metrics showing the development level of a country is its percentage of mid- income population. A Human being must meet his physiological need first regardless of how long other needs wait. If they do not receive sufficient amount of money or other essential needs such as food, it will never matter how much respect you have for them, or how well you treat or approach them at the workplace. If employees are unable to provide enough food for their kids or pay off monthly rent -in other words, unable to make their family members happy- you cannot expect them to be happy and engaged to your organization. To provide these needs for them, what should you do?

  1. Pay fair salary to fair work. While determining the salary, consider the minimum living standards and compare to salaries of similar positions in the market.
  2. Besides the salary, you may give them extra benefits such as food aid (particularly food manufacturers).
  3. By providing free transportation service, you will help them save money.

Security needs. Health and Safety at workplaces is the biggest downside of Azerbaijan business experience. After meeting fundamental needs, a person begins to worry about his mental and physical safety. If unsafe working factors exist in an organization, it will affect all its processes. People require health checkups, medication, and a workplace without sexual harassment in order to feel secure about their life. Moreover, there are also people who wish to secure their second life (after death) by performing religious routines and prayers. To provide these needs for them, what should you do?

  1. Help your employees with their expenditure on health or cooperate with hospitals and pharmacies for employee health checkups and medicines.
  2. Apply Health and Safety precautions or ISO 18001 requirements in the organization. Minimize health and safety risks at the workplace.
  3. Do a survey among your employees and make sure that there aren’t any mobbing cases.
  4. Set a particular area within organization to perform religious rituals.
  5. Last but not least, educate your employees about safety.

Social needs. We discussed the sequence and infinity of human needs. Our workers can jump to self-esteem needs (promotion, career), thus cancelling these social needs. This is the reality of Azerbaijan. Some people prefer to gain status or be promoted rather than build social relationships. Fortunately, due to the increasing number of educated young staff, people now are becoming more interested in the social side of jobs. Humans are social creatures that desire to stay in touch with other human beings, socialize with them, maintain sincere and honest relationships, and feel respected. To provide these needs for them, what should you do?

  1. Create informal relationships and an inspirational environment in your organization which can enable your workers to feel relaxed and think without stress.
  2. Introduce ethical behavior rules as well as discipline regulations.
  3. Shorten the hierarchical distance between managers and workers so that workers can get in touch with their managers in an easy and sincere way.
  4. Make the managers mentors for long-term plans. Encourage them to arrange visits to workers` houses and organize celebrations on special days of workers.

Self-esteem needs. These needs emerge in time, in case of both those who are eager to spend a great deal of money -sometimes via corrupted ways- to promote to the position, as well as those who work in the public sector strive for a better retirement after 20-30 years. These people agree to work in return of low wages for 30 years until their retirement without thinking of ways to live well during these 30 years, because they are blinded by the greed of higher position and status. However, it is a good sign that recently, young generations who care about career development opportunities look for these features in job offerings. To provide these needs for them, what should you do?

  1. Career planning for organization and individuals. Adjust individuals` career goals to harmonize with goals of organization.
  2. Assess employees` performance regularly and give them fair promotions according to this assessment.
  3. Set achievable goals for your workers. During appraisal, consider these goals at first
  4. Redesign the jobs. Empower them with new authorities and responsibilities.

Self-realization needs. Mostly, you may witness these needs in vision-oriented people who gained enough experience and money throughout their lives and realized their dreams and plans. At the same time, these people are likely to assist others to build their own life. Sometimes, people are not able to reach this stage, simply because they are not interested to realize their dreams and to assist others. Luxury expenses are favorite ones among these people. What ways are recommended for high motivation in this phase?

  1. Set up an assessment centre which receives creative thoughts and rewards them.
  2. Rotate experienced and expert employees to mentorship positions.
  3. Provide participation of these types of employees in decision-making processes of organization.

The most effective way to implement all these changes would be to conduct a survey for your employees and then find out provision percentages of each need. If you do these researches regularly and for each department separately, it would be more reliable and valid in terms of accuracy and functionality.

By: Mubariz Shahbazli

EDITOR: Mennat-Allah Yasser Zohny