It is crucial for organizations to understand their employees, and their grievances to create a happy and an employee friendly culture. Every employee will have different needs depending on where they are in their personal and professional life. This becomes critical in case of blue-collar employees who earn lower wages and toil physically for the company. Organizations can apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and understand where their employees fit and what their needs are.
As per Maslow’s Hierarchy, there are five levels of human needs. Let’s see what kind of employees fit where.
1. Self-actualization: These are veterans of the industry, leaders who have decades of experience and have gained a lot of achievements and wisdom. They can impart this wisdom to their subordinates through mentoring.
2. Esteem: Middle management employees can be considered to be at this level. They have performed consistently well and donned multiple hats but are one step away from a leadership role. Companies can support these needs by giving them the position they deserve, at the helm.
3. Love and belonging: These can be employees who have consistently performed in the organization, have decent operational experience, and need recognition for their contribution along with a place in the decision-making process.
4. Safety needs: This level can be for young employees who have increasing responsibilities and need to ensure job security.
5. Physiological needs: These can be employees at the lowest level, freshers who have just started working and need to fulfill basic survival needs.
When it comes to blue-collar workers, they can be considered swinging somewhere between physiological needs to love and belonging, having the need to do strategic and purpose led work. Depending on the type of work, the level of experience, and the organization they work for, their needs can differ. Some blue-collar employees might have their basic needs like home and food covered, they are on the lookout for more purposeful work and inclusion in the decision-making process. Some blue-collar employees might not even be making enough wages to cover their daily essentials and struggle to make ends meet. Additionally, some of them would also be feeling insecure in their jobs.
Human Resources should consider the needs of blue-collar employees just the way they do for white-collar workers. Job security, motivation to work, purposeful work, financial incentives, all these factors should also be considered for better productivity and efficiency.
FatakPay’s vision is to reduce the financial stress in the lives of blue-collar employees. We provide these workers with virtual credit facilities without the formalities and documents needed to obtain credit from a bank. This credit access helps them pay for their basic needs when they run out of money without having to wait until the next salary comes in. This credit is given to them interest free. Since they lack the means to obtain credit from banks and large financial institutions, Fatakpay bridges this gap and gives them credit access when they run out of cash. This reduces their financial burden and enhances their productivity and efficiency.
