How to Address Human Needs for Optimal Performance

We can create healthy and supportive environments at work by prioritizing a human-centric experience and designing work processes and environments that consider the physical and psychological needs of employees. But what exactly might a human-centric experience entail? The main focus should be human needs and consists of 3 key components: 1. Flexible work: Employees should have autonomy over their work location and schedule to achieve work-life balance. Data from Gartner shows that offering flexible work increases the likelihood of employee retention, reduces fatigue, and improves performance by up to 1.7 times. 2. Intentional Collaboration: The ideal arrangement is to have a mix of both asynchronous collaboration and in-person or virtual meetings. It’s best to not solely rely on everyone being at the same place at the same time. 3. Empathy-Based Management: Management should advocate for a more compassionate and understanding approach towards employees, replacing the old-school "oversight-based" supervision. When empathy is incorporated into the company's culture, it can enhance performance, build trust, and boost employee engagement.

Carrots and sticks. These are the tools leaders often go to when trying to align employee behavior with organizational goals. I'm not saying they don't work. But they largely impact what psychologists refer to as extrinsic motivation. The challenge? They tend to be a short-term solution. Our research at Fractional Insights reveals a critical blindspot: About 3 in 4 employees report at least one significant gap between a need they have and whether their organizational practices meet those needs. The human needs breakdown: • 95% seek security (only 47% report practices addressing it) • 92% seek significance (only 38% report practices addressing it) • 90% seek growth (only 42% report practices addressing it) To sustainably drive performance, you need to address our deepest human needs and motives—to tap into intrinsic motivation. Explore our full Angst Report to learn the five critical drivers that reduce workplace angst by up to 6X. https://lnkd.in/e74scB8i What's the biggest gap you see between what employees need and what organizations provide? #WorkplaceMotivation #HumanNeeds #EmployeeExperience #LeadershipStrategy #OrganizationalPsychology

I used to think efficiency = productivity. But I was wrong. Too much efficiency actually reduces your productivity... ... when it comes at the expense of humanness. When we feel connected to each other as human beings, we perform at our best. We get more done, are better at solving problems, and have greater resilience. So if you want to be more productive, trade efficiency for humanness. Instead of jumping into the meeting agenda, take a moment to connect with your team members as human beings, asking them about their day or sharing a moment of gratitude and asking if they have something they want to share. Instead of optimizing your email for shortness, add something that helps the recipient feel like it was written by a human being who cares about them. When you’re working with a colleague, think about how you could practice a bit of kindness and get to know something about them as a human being. Humanness beats efficiency every time. #leadership #productivity #humanconnection