“Abraham Maslow[‘s]…pyramid or triangle of human needs is likely the most famous image in management studies… [even if Bridgman et al consider it] is a misconception.”1 The “powerful visual image of a pyramid of needs has been one of the most cognitively contagious ideas in the behavioural sciences.”2 Your author has caught the contagion and plans to use it for developing a Pyramid of Organisational Needs.
I frequently get asked by HR leaders taking up CHRO reins in a new environment how they should prioritise or sequence their ‘big-chunk’ attention while planning their organisation’s HR strategy. Every sensible, newly installed CHRO knows, of course, that there are three labours s/he must undertake before there is any question of tackling more strategic issues. Unless there is a long-planned and orderly succession (and sometimes even then) there is a simmering or boiling set of potatoes to be juggled, some of which may even have been the reason for the appointment. These need at least to be managed, preferably with a longer-healing recipe in place as well. Simultaneously, if the entrant is new to the organisation, s/he must build networks, collaborative relations and plant the seeds of friendship with (internal) customers, colleagues, teams, union leaders and a growing cross-section of employees in a variety of jobs and levels. Without too much breath-catching time, s/he must also demonstrate progress with the CEO’s BIBI (Bee In Bonnet Ideas). These three are the real probation checks, whether such a trial period is formally prescribed or not. Having cleared these, longer-term organisational needs can be addressed and those are the focus of this column.
Our Pyramid of Organisational Needs (like Maslow’s), has five tiers. We too expect lower levels to be reasonably satisfied before progressing higher. Let us start with the two foundational tiers at the bottom.
Foundations of fairness
Both foundational tiers focus on fairness. While this section is reasonably self-contained, there is a more detailed piece on Fairness that interested readers may reference.3
The lowest tier of the pyramid is Survival. Unless people have a significantly durable tenure within the organisation, all other people-organisation needs become moot and irrelevant. The obvious threat to people’s continuation of late, even among otherwise model employers, is emplocide.4 This is an ancient phlebotomic (bloodletting) cure, whose corporate version is today administered with the aid of expensive modern leeches (Hirudo consultalis) and is intended to lead to enhanced shareholder value nirvana. Until s/he can put a stop to this atavistic, industrial scale reversion to the bad old days of ‘hire and fire’, there is not much else that should occupy the CHRO’s agenda. The way that most organisations make such savage cuts feasible is by anaesthetizing themselves with some form of the contractualization narcotic.5 Hence, weaning the body corporate away from this addiction, through a healthy diet of belongingness, quality and productivity, must go hand in hand with the hemostasis. The future anticipation face of the Survival tier calls for strategizing how to prevent the depredations in people strength which uncontrolled AI implementations may cause, while still gaining from its other advantages.6 It will be too late after the investment horses have bolted to shut the barnyard doors of sensible planning and direction. Finally, there is the mindset change HR must undergo to become the promoter, preparer and preserver of durable employment. “[W]hat HR should be doing at the top table is to demand that a fair share of the company’s growth should be supported by durable jobs in return for which HR would take on the responsibility of delivering people with the requisite productivity, skill and consequential cost-effectiveness.” 7 This mindset and the resultant availability of a relatively sustained and loyal workforce are, in my opinion, pre-requisites for all the fancier feats of people development HR desires to pull off.
The next higher tier is still in the fairness domain but moves beyond bare existence in the organisation to issues of Equity. These can take many forms but three of them (relating to Diversity, Distribution and Due Process) are particularly tricky because they have ‘Lite’ versions which are convenient for check-box ticking and conference lecturing while leaving the heavy lifting undone. Necessary as these ‘Lite’ steps are, they are far from sufficient.
Diversity determines how much of the totality of the talent, seemingly abundant in our country, we permit ourselves to tap. Diversity ‘Lite’ limits itself by deploying its best forces to garrison territory (such as gender equality) over which the big battles have already been fought. While these gains must be consolidated and enlarged, fresh troops must conquer diversity domains where the record is patchy (such as the induction of SC/STs and religious minorities in private sector corporates8) to non-existent (as in the case of Neurodiversity 9). Until we bring diversity to diversity, we shall be resting on laurels borrowed from the past. Whichever group we target, it is not sufficient to reach an overall match of percentages in the employee strength with those obtaining in the general population. Levels and functions matter. Business leader, CXO and mission-critical function populations must reflect these ratios too.
Our next focus is Distribution i.e. how gains and pains are shared. As an example, we shall look at Pay Parities, where quantification is least questionable. Pay Parity ‘Lite’ looks at external comparisons and is a pre-requisite for attracting and retaining talent. Commendable as is the scene of an intrepid HR practitioner fighting for employees – HR included – to be at the 75th percentile, that can’t be the entire play. The real challenge is far more serious with regard to internal parities. I had last written about this challenge in early 2018.10 Since then, CEO (and CXO) payments and wealth generating opportunities have broken all previous records. 11 Perhaps even more worryingly, larger and larger swathers of the durable employment population have been prematurely harvested to make way for contractual sowing. This precariat’s payments rarely rise above a third or half of those for whom they have been substituted.
Due Process (or, rather, the lack of it) before termination is the next portal of inequity. Level is no protector for individuals in such predicaments. As Becket found to his cost, the temptation to skip all process becomes all the greater the higher in the hierarchy the irritating individual. While cases of fraud, sexual harassment and the like, need no pleading other than an insistence that Due Process is followed impartially, expeditiously and (preferably) publicly, decapitation for Dissent deserves a digression. Dissent ‘Lite’ finds expression in company credos, people policies, as well as in prefactory statements to meetings and strategic retreats. People who take these invitations to frankness seriously and express their reservations about the leadership’s track record or style are normally not at the table for the next meeting. I am not suggesting CEOs are being insincere when they encourage people to speak freely. Neither was Mao when he encouraged a hundred flowers to bloom.12 That didn’t aid the longevity of those whose criticisms finally raised his ire. It is easy to overlook the ‘loudspeak’ of those who usually toe the line. The fairness test for impartial dealing lies in excusing people who step out without particular concern for the CEO’s corns. Quite apart from the moral angle, warnings that come from the mouths of less-than-polite speakers can prevent organisational disasters. Not heeding them can be catastrophic. We have instances right from the time Troy was torched because it ignored Laocoön’s warnings to be wary of gift-bearing Greeks (for which outspokenness he paid with his life 13) to the recent loss of Boeing airliners, their doors, their reputation and their CEO, after being warned about its declining quality standards, apparently to no avail.
Sun Tzu’s aphorism, ‘In war, prepare for peace; in peace, prepare for war’, holds a vital message for CHROs. You cannot wait for untoward events to happen before you start preparing for them. Strategizing for fairness is no exception. A CHRO who tries to dissuade a despot from a decapitation or any other unfair decision once the former has made up his mind is heading for headlessness himself. Hence the importance of getting a sign-off on a Fair organisation Code long before war clouds gather and preferably during the honeymoon period. What such a code could cover has been detailed elsewhere.14 Three elements bear emphasis here. The process of code development needs to be participative, with members from all levels and categories of employees helping substitute for the veil of ignorance Rawls would have us draw during such formulations.15 The consensus code must be publicly disseminated under the CEO’s imprimatur. Lastly, it should be confirmed by periodic fairness audits, preferably conducted by agencies external to the organisation.
Those ‘unherd’ are sweeter
Having rooted our pyramid in a firm foundation of fairness we can now let our imaginations run riot in designing the HR Strategy and key people Processes (which this tier will focus on) to deliver long-term competitive advantage for the organisation. An organisation’s Mission, Values and Strategy become the raw material for its HR strategy. They also define the boundaries within which the HR strategist is relatively free to choose Architectures, Processes and Individuals that will best achieve the goals of the organisation and of its people. Just as the business has to find an offering that appeals to its customers, HR must shape an Attraction-Motivation-Development System (doesn’t AtMoDev Tantra sound less hackneyed and foreign than Eco-system?) that outcompetes other people pullers – be they corporates or alternative career providers.
Of course, peeping into the Jainses yard to see what their AtMoDev Tantra offers can be a starting point but it may well turn into a distraction as well. If one can be forgiven for punning with immortal verse, as the title to this section does, strategic compositions that are not played by the rest of the herd are the winners.16 By definition, there cannot be a recipe for such innovations but we can provide a taste of the bland offerings from run-of-mill cooks and the zingier versions that are possible for a couple of emblematic HR processes.
Take recruitment. Conventional wisdom would have us piggy-back on the selection process of elite institutions or preferred education routes.17 The problem, of course, is that everyone and his uncle has had the same blinding insight. This explains the ridiculous battles for day zero placement slots when time pressures make interviews a farce and candidates’ choice between offers a game of Ukrainian roulette (all options are equally unpalatable or unknowable). Here is a contrarian alternative that has worked splendidly for me. “Provided only youngsters with the thirst and capability to learn have been selected, the greater the gap they have to bridge before they are fully ready, the more permanently do they acquire a bent to learn and master new competencies throughout their careers.… I have seen degree holders in Statistics, Physics and Psychology perform brilliantly in jobs that were traditionally the preserve of engineers. Many of them have capitalized on the stretching and growing muscles they built at their career thresholds and gone on to become highly successful business leaders and entrepreneurs.”18
A similar case of herd-think plays out in being unwilling to risk critical positions to the best young talent from within. Whereas earlier the beneficiaries of the denial were hoary-headed seniors, whose brains had begun atrophy while awaiting their turn, the more recent craze is for untried glamour stars from the outside.19 Fast-tracking internal talent is a slow process to institutionalize but it yields matchless culture-fits who are fired to achieve great things.20
Heights of happiness and influence
“All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.” 21 The penultimate tier of our pyramid is fittingly reserved for enhancing the aggregate, sustained happiness of the people working for the organisation. A previous column lays out a tentative blue print for this ambitious goal.22 As the title to that column suggests, HR should primarily be evaluated on this metric and its contents should make it abundantly clear that we are not recommending soporific, spiritual or self-satisfaction-inducing interventions. Anesthetics can be temporary pain relievers during surgery. Only a hospice would prescribe them as the sole treatment. The pre-requisite to raising aggregate happiness (other than the fairness foundations we have already covered) is to redesign jobs for making them challenging, exciting and packed with learning. 23 Second only to enriched jobs (and sometimes capable of substituting a shortfall in job delight) for making people happy at work, are leaders who inspire and build teams eager to make a difference. Beyond the bonds of personal loyalty, such leaders are at their most effective when there is a larger purpose to which they can direct their teams. Happiness, in such circumstances, is an amalgam of having fun while learning on the job, under a leader who can guide (as well as guffaw) and progressing a purpose that is socially relevant.
Potent agency, the ability to influence decisions that matter and participate in making them forms the apex tier of our Pyramid of organisational Needs. It has three strong recommendations. It brings about a ‘eudaemonic’ form of happiness that is otherwise difficult to achieve. Consequently, it is the most efficacious way to unbind and use the full potential of the talent commanded by an organisation. It is also the most morally meaningful path to managing cooperative, commercial human effort in the future. Just as Political Democracy, with all its pains and frustrations, has established itself as the standard for organizing nations, Corporate Democracy will become the future path for commercial enterprises.24 The way may be thorny and the interim frustum may be frustrating but there really can be no other need that can take its place at the pinnacle of the pyramid.
Testing times
I was somewhat disingenuous in announcing this column solely as a planning guide for newly incumbent CHROs wishing to leave a mark that will be remembered. There are other uses the Pyramid of organisation Needs can serve while it is being actioned and thereafter.
CEOs and Boards are generally uncertain about the parameters for evaluating the long-term impact of a CHRO. 25 Frequently, they leave the evaluation paraments to be determined by the CHRO (wouldn’t students love exams in which they set question papers?) or use some short-term shareholder-pleasing yardstick, like emplocide. Our pyramid provides a robust alternative,
At the time of selection wily CHRO-hopefuls can channel the limited-duration discussion even more effectively than an on-the-job, performance assessment. 26 To keep the interview focused on matters that matter, the CEO-selector should shelter within the organisation Need Pyramid to the extent possible.
Remains the matter of HR Award evaluations. 27 Face tissue suppliers regularly have stockouts because of the amount of egg that has to be wiped off award jury faces when winners are discovered to have exploitative people practices that missed the auditors’ eyes or simply presented a short-lived HR fashion with animation and chutzpah. As a preventive, jury members can read this column thrice before entering into their deliberations. Notes:
Todd Bridgman, Stephen Cummings and John Ballard, Who Built Maslow’s Pyramid? A History of the Creation of Management Studies’ Most Famous Symbol and Its Implications for Management Education, Academy of Management Learning and Education, April 2018,
Douglas. Kenrick, Vladas Griskevicius, Steven Neuberg and Mark Schaller, Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations, Perspectives on Psychological Science., 5(3): 292-314, May 2010.
Visty Banaji, Fairness is Fundamental, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 479-487, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, Countering the merchants of emplocide, People Matters, 10 February 2023, (https://www.peoplematters.in/article/employee-relations/countering-the-merchants-of-emplocide-36862
Visty Banaji, Udta Udyog, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 251-254, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, Will AI transform HR Into IRA?, People Matters, 1 June 2023, (https://www.peoplematters.in/article/technology/will-ai-transform-hr-into-ira-38035).
Visty Banaji, HR’s Business Should Be Happiness Raising, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 488-496, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, There is an Elephant in the Room, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 163-169, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, Diversity Delivers Dividends, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 503-510, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, But Who Will Guard the Guardians, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 260-266, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Samriddhi Srivastava, While employees face layoffs, these CEOs enjoyed salary increases: Who made the list?, People Matters, 17 March 2023, (https://www.peoplematters.in/article/leadership/while-employees-face-layoffs-these-ceos-enjoyed-salary-increases-who-made-the-list-37212).
Andrew Walder, China Under Mao – A Revolution Derailed, Harvard University Press, 2015.
There following gruesome description is from Virgil, (Trans: Frederick Ahl), Aenid, Oxford World’s Classics, 2008.
“the serpents
Pluck him away and constrict him in monstrous spirals; already
Two coils squeeze the man’s waist; and their scaly backs, interlacing,
Noose two more round his throat. “
Visty Banaji, Fairness is Fundamental, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 479-487, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Revised Edition, Harvard University Press, 2020.
The lines mutilated here come from John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats, Modern Library, 2001.
” Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter;”
Visty Banaji, Entrance exams have failed: The solution is simple, People Matters, 9 August 2024, (https://www.peoplematters.in/article/assessments/entrance-exams-have-failed-the-solution-is-simple-42328).
Visty Banaji, People Are Made of Steel – Stretch Them, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 33-37, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, Guns for (Corporate) Hire, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 19-25, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, Fast Track to Organizational Transformation, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 38-44, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Blaise Pascal, Pensees, Penguin Classics, 1995.
Visty Banaji, HR’s Business Should Be Happiness Raising, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 488-496, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, ‘If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do’, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 237-244, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, A Company Of People, By People and For People, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 534-541, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, Is Your Board Bored By HR?, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 338-343, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, “Help! The CHRO I Picked is a Lemon”, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on the Feats, Failures and Future of HR, Pages 111-118, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.
Visty Banaji, The (Funny) Business of HR Awards, Angry Birds, Angrier Bees – Reflections on theFailures and Future of HR, Pages 393-399, AuthorsUpfront, 2023.