Employee Needs

The healthy, well‐functioning laboratory requires the satisfaction of employees' needs, both basic and higher‐level, if they are to reach their highest performance and the laboratory is to retain their knowledge and skills. With a predicted crisis in the laboratory workforce and the increasing need for good technical, problem‐solving, and financial skills, it is critical for laboratory and hospital administrators to successfully recruit, train, and retain skilled workers. The author believes that an understanding of the expectations, hungers, and needs of employees can guide leaders in this process. This chapter explains the theories of human needs. Abraham Maslow's name is inextricably linked to the study of human needs. His seminal works presented a hierarchy of needs represented as a pyramid with four levels of “deficiency needs” and a final top level of “growth needs”. The chapter explains how to apply these theories to the laboratory workplace. The laboratory must provide a safe workplace to meet the protection and security needs of employees. The cognitive needs of employees in the workplace are best met by providing opportunities to improve their knowledge. Finally, the chapter determines if generational differences in employee needs exist. Four social generations are described and general characteristics are attributed to each group.