Translating Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to reimagine employee engagement

The past few years of 3M operations have been marked with constant change. There was the global ramp-up to get enough of the company’s N95 respirators to those who desperately needed them. There was the company leaving Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, and all the internal efforts required to detach yourself from an operation. The company has also worked to decrease its global footprint and restructure its global supply chain.

In 2022, 3M announced that it would spin off its healthcare business—a quarter of the company worth $10 billion—leaving its comms team tasked with untangling it from the rest of 3M’s corporate operations. That two-year effort was met with extreme growth for the company, ongoing litigation and more, ultimately resulting in 2023’s largest corporate restructuring and layoffs in the company’s history.

The company also instituted a flexible work initiative for non-production employees, Work Your Way, allowing them to partner with their manager o identify where, when and how they work best.