Our Motivation test helps to ensure that your candidate is a good match based on their job preferences.
Mis-hires cost companies both time and resources. A candidate who looked perfect on paper may not work out because what they want from a job does not align with what you were offering them. The motivation test will help you to measure a candidate’s suitability for a position, based on your company’s needs and the candidate’s preferences. This test is available on Pay-as-you-go, Scale, and Business plans.
Approx. reading time 5 minutes
In this article
Purpose of the motivation test
While an employee’s skill level is important, their motivation is affected by their own work preferences; possibly playing an even more important role in their overall job success.
Skill can be taught, but motivation comes from innate preferences that don’t tend to change much over time. In their Job Characteristics Model, organizational psychologists Oldham and Hackman proposed that a job itself – rather than an employee’s personality – has the greatest influence on motivation.
Employees are most motivated when they experience their work as meaningful and see themselves as responsible for the results and outcomes of that work. At the same time, the factors that impact that motivation are different for each person — a work setting that motivates one person may not motivate another.
Our Motivation survey builds on this research, identifying candidates who will be most motivated in the job that you’re hiring for. identify candidates who will be most motivated by the job you’re hiring for.
How the test measures motivation
To customize the test to the job role for which you are hiring, we ask you a series of questions related to the key elements that impact job motivation to create a robust profile of the role. Candidates receive a parallel version of the survey that asks what they seek in a job, including the work activities they most enjoy.
We then map the results of each candidate against your specifications to help you understand how well your candidates' preferences align with what you are offering.
Taking the Motivation survey
After adding the Motivation test to an assessment, click Finish to go to the assessment overview page. From here, you will be able to set your answers for the test.
The survey contains around 40 questions spread over 3 sections. We recommend allowing yourself around 20 minutes to complete all 3 sections.
This section contains the following subsections — click ahead for convenience if you wish.
- Set the answers yourself
- Invite someone else to set the answers
- Job-specific questions
- Additional characteristics
- Regularly performed activities
- Male/female symbols
- Reusing answers
Set the answers yourself
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Click the green button labeled Take the survey, found in the white at the top of the page. A new page will pop up with more information. |
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Follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll be redirected to a new tab that gives a description of the survey and what you need to do next.  |
Invite someone else to set the answers
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Click the white bar labeled Motivation test survey, found at the top of the page. This will expand the bar, presenting you with more information |
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Click the green link labeled Invite them here. |
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Enter the credentials of the desired colleague. A popup will appear, prompting you for the name and email address of your coworker. Enter their details. |
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Click the Send invitation button. Your teammate will receive an email with a link to take the survey.
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| Tip: You can invite anybody to take the survey for you. They do not have to be a registered user of your account. |
Job-specific questions
The first section relates to the specific job role, and covers the following areas:
- Skill variety: how often employees will use different skills throughout their workday
- Task identity: will the employee have complete ownership of their duties or be playing a part in a larger-scale project?
- Task significance: the impact an employee's work will have on others
- Autonomy: how independent and self-directed does the employee need to be?
- Feedback: how much and how often will it be given?
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The question is displayed on the left of the test window. Take your time to read and understand the question, you don’t have a time limit. |
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Select one answer from the options on the right side of the window. Choose the answer which most closely matches the requirements of the job role. To deselect an answer, click it again. |
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Click Next to move to the next question, or Previous to go back to the last one. |
Every question must have an answer selected. You cannot move to the next question without selecting an answer.
Additional characteristics
The second section asks questions about other aspects of the job outside of their day-to-day duties. Things such as benefits or opportunities for development may motivate certain individuals. These questions are a mix of single-answer and multi-answer multiple choice.
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The question is displayed on the left of the test window. Take your time to read and understand the question, you don’t have a time limit. |
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Select one answer from the options on the right side of the window. Choose the answer which most closely matches the requirements of the job role. To deselect an answer, click it again. |
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Click Next to move to the next question, or Previous to go back to the last one. |
| Note: Every question must have an answer selected. You cannot move to the next question without selecting an answer. |
Regularly performed activities
For the final section, you will be shown a list of activities that may be performed as part of the role. You will rate each activity based on its importance to your specific job role.
| Tip: For best results, only assign a rating of 5 to the most important activities. Assign a low score to all others. |
This will provide you with greater differentiation between candidate results, allowing you to identify the best matches from your pool of candidates.
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The list of activities is displayed on the left of the page, along with alternative terms for each. |
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Select your rating for each activity on the right of the page. Each one should be rated between 1 and 5, with 5 being the most important. |
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Click Finish after providing ratings for all activities, or you can move back to the Previous section. |
Male/female symbols
Gender-coded language might prevent certain candidates from identifying with a role. To reduce bias, we’ve highlighted words that are gender-coded language by placing male
and female
symbols next to those words. These are words that are typically associated with a specific gender.
Try to balance the number of masculine and feminine words when identifying the most important activities for your job role. This will help you avoid accidentally favoring one group of individuals over another.
Reusing answers
It is not possible to reuse answers from previous motivation tests. Due to the fact that every job role will have different motivational factors, and that these factors could well change over time, answers must be selected every time the test is added to an assessment.
| Tip: If you are likely to reuse the same answers in future tests, you could record your responses for future reference. |
Interpreting the results
Your candidate’s results are displayed as colored circles on the results screen — with all sections having their own ball. Clicking on a section provides a further breakdown, with each area having a circle of its own. This allows you to see which specific areas may motivate your candidate the most.
The balls will be colored depending upon how closely the candidate's answers matched yours:
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Teal means the candidate is a strong match . Their answers are closely aligned with yours. This indicates that they are likely to be happy and motivated by the answers you provided for this specific area. |
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Gold means the candidate is a moderate match . While there is some overlap between your answers and theirs, there are also areas of difference. |
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Red indicates a poor match between your answer and a candidates. The candidate answered the question very differently than you did, meaning their motivation in that area may not align with yours. |
Example
Emily fills out the motivation survey stating the following regarding pay:
- Much variety in the job
- The job requires usage of a number of high-level skills - Mostly accurate
- The job allows the candidate to use a number of complex or high-level skills - Mostly accurate
When the candidate completes the survey, they answer that they want:
- A small amount of variety
- A low number of high-level skills required
- A low number of high-level skills allowed
In this scenario, the skill variety bubbled under the Job characteristics heading would be Red because there is no overlap in answers.
Job activities results
Results for job activities are displayed differently — using a bar rather than a ball. To put it simply, the more filled the bar is, the closer aligned yours and your candidate’s answers are.
Common questions
How can I change the answers I have provided?
Once the survey has been completed, the answers cannot be changed.
Who should answer the survey?
The person with the most insight into the role is the best person to set the answers. This is usually the direct line manager that your new hire will be reporting to or a person currently working in this role.
Can multiple people answer the survey?
Only one person can answer the survey. While you can send invitations to multiple people, our system will only accept the first completed submission.
Note: Your answers are not submitted until you have pressed Finish on the final page. This means you can leave the page altogether and return to it later on. You could arrange to meet your colleagues to complete the survey together!
Why aren't there pre-generated answers?
Every company and job has different needs. Because of this, we cannot provide generic answers. To receive the most accurate information, you need to complete the survey yourself.