Management Articles

Importance of Recognizing and Addressing Personal Needs

Getting the best from every employee is more important today than at any time in the industrialized past. Labor costs can be as high as 70% of a service business total overhead so making sure that these human assets produce as efficiently and effectively as any piece of industrial machinery can be the difference between making a profit or going out of business.

One proven method of assessing the needs and drivers of individuals is the Birkman Method. This personality assessment provides an insight that can help individuals understand their motivations and needs and, when used in a work environment with others participating in the assessment, assist with team building.

Developed as far back as the 1950`s, the Birkman Method has evolved over time to be one of the leading empirically based psychological profiling tools used today. Based on a simple 45 minute questionnaire, The Birkman Method is able to derive a profile for an individual giving a predictive assessment of how an individual will behave given a specific situation. Feedback comes in five broad areas: Usual Behavior, Underlying needs, Stress behaviors, Interests and Organizational focus. In addition to identifying areas where an individual will be most effective, the method also gives feedback on stress behaviors and how these can be avoided.

Equipped with this comprehensive feedback both the individual and management can develop a series of plans for career development, team integration and effectiveness and workspace planning. This latter aspect is particularly useful when looking at office relocation or refurbishment when getting both the proximity and relationships between co-workers to the fore.

But it can also be important to look at the collective needs from a group of employees so as to get the best possible design to maximize satisfaction and work output. This can determine whether the additional investment in individual offices, for example, would be valued over open plan formats. There may be a group of individuals where quietness and the ability to concentrate may be more important that social interaction and vice versa.

It is, perhaps, the desire to avoid conflict and stress situations that can be so destructive to productivity where the Birkman Method feedback helps most with office design and layout. Ensuring that employees' underlying needs are met over a period of time can have significant returns in terms of productivity and staff motivation and satisfaction.

For over 60 years the Birkman Method has served to provide an insight to individual needs and motivations meaning that planning office space has become less subjective and more objective.

So whether your business needs office space in Victoria London or Leeds it could be a worthwhile investment having staff participate in the Birkman Method, or another psychological profiling tool, to help with the final choice of both location and layout. It could be money well spent and avoid costly mistakes in the medium term.