“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it’s all about.” Joseph Campbell 

Whatever philosophical debates that statement might open up, it certainly could be argued that in a modern work context people have lost any sense of the “rapture associated with being alive.” At a time when working conditions are arguably better than at any time in recorded history, employee disengagement is an increasing problem. 

This may be partly because this is likely the first time that employee engagement has ever been deemed important enough to even warrant measuring. Yet disengagement is said to cost billions. Even then, however, it is the trend that is the major concern. It is clearly a problem we need to solve. So how do we begin?

Let us for a moment forget the questions that have plagued philosophers and thinkers for centuries, and the complexity of human nature, and just accept Maslow’s theory that the higher up the hierarchy of needs one moves the greater the chance for happiness at work and the  “rapture” that may be equated with it.  

If that is true, then logic dictates the inverse must also be true: the more one moves down the hierarchy of needs the less propensity there is for happiness. So the same logic would suggest it makes more sense for employers to look to meet the higher needs of their people, rather than their more basic needs. Ergo!

Any organisation looking to engage its people should prioritise its response in the reverse order to Maslow’s hierarchy. This is why the concept of valuing people is so important: it creates the mindset to do just that, in a way that nothing else does!

To find out more about why please download the FREE executive summary of my white paper, "Lighting the Fuse" from my website.