Motivation test: Pre-employment screening assessment to hire top candidates
Summary of the Motivation test
Rooted in Oldham & Hackman’s Job Characteristics Model, this online Motivation test measures the extent to which your candidates’ expectations align with your job offer, based on a customized survey that you and the candidate both fill out.
Use the Motivation test to hire
All job roles. This test helps you determine how well aligned a candidate's preferences are with the job you are offering, its benefits, and key elements of the workplace. A strong match is correlated to better performance and longer retention.
You can use this test for free when you sign up for a free plan.
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About the Motivation test
While an employee’s skill level is important for success, their job preferences and motivation can play an even more important role in their success in the role. Skills can be taught, but motivation and preferences are innate characteristics that don't generally change significantly over time. That's why it's crucial to evaluate not only whether your candidates have the right skills for the job but also if their preferences and overall motivators align with what the role has to offer.
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, see themselves as responsible for its outcomes, and know the results of their work. At the same time, a set of key “moderators” – factors that may increase or decrease an individual employee’s motivation – can impact results.
Building on this research, which has been validated by numerous academic studies over the years, we have created our job preferences test to help you identify candidates who will be most motivated by the job you’re hiring for. This screening test profiles key job characteristics, moderators, extrinsic factors, and job activities that are known to have an impact on motivation. What motivates one candidate may not motivate another, and this test also takes individual candidate preferences into account.
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 the degree to which your candidates' preferences align with what you are offering, allowing you to identify candidates that best align with the characteristics of the role.
The test is made by a subject-matter expert
Otto V.
Otto worked at Bain & Company for 13 years and served as a Partner in Bain's Amsterdam office. He specializes in customer strategy and marketing, growth strategies, and change management. He supported mainly retail banks, telecom companies, and agrifood businesses. Otto has been involved in recruiting throughout his career and led Bain's Associate Recruiting department for a number of years. He is one of TestGorilla's co-founders, focusing on test development, product, and technology.
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What is a Motivation test? How will it help you?
An online Motivation test is a pre-employment skills assessment that helps you evaluate how well aligned a job applicant’s preferences are with the role you are offering, its benefits, and key elements of the workplace.
Hiring applicants with the drive and commitment that matches your organization isn’t simple, especially when you have many skilled applicants hoping to join your team. But use this Motivation test, and you’ll notice who has the drive necessary to benefit your organization.
You may have previously found it hard to keep time-to-hire metrics low when searching for a motivated new hire. But this is no longer a concern: The experts at TestGorilla acknowledge the many challenges when hiring an applicant and have built this test with such challenges in mind.
Motivated employees offer a huge bonus in terms of productivity and passion for completing tasks. Unlike technical skills that can be learned through training, an innate drive to succeed isn’t something you can teach. Candidates driven by specific motivators that match your role are rare gems who will shine best when assigned challenging tasks. Motivated candidates will approach their projects with a relish and strive for exceptional results.
However, challenges await you searching for motivated applicants. If you’re screening resumes, many of the hundreds of applicants may claim to be motivated, and some may sell themselves more strongly than others but may lack the motivation to complete your tasks. So what is the best approach for recruiting the most driven candidates?
Our Motivation test is based on Oldham & Hackman’s Job Characteristics model to identify the applicants whose motivation matches your role requirements. With this Motivation test, you can assess applicants faster and more effectively than when screening hundreds of resumes. You’ll also avoid unconscious bias – a common pitfall in resume screening – when making a critical hiring decision.
Learn whether your applicants have vital characteristics that match your role
Find out whether your applicants have the following characteristics, which indicate their motivation aligns with the demands and responsibilities of your role:
• In-depth fascination with the work they will complete: Employees are most driven when they view their job as meaningful, so it is essential to understand how they see their work. Assess whether your applicants have an in-depth fascination with their work and whether this fascination matches the tasks you’ll offer them.
• Moderators that impact motivation and results: Moderators – factors that may increase or decrease an individual employee’s motivation – can affect the motivation of your applicants and lead to top results. Our Motivation test will assess how your candidates’ motivation increases or decreases depending on their job preferences, the motivators of your role, and key job characteristics.
• Constant motivation based on intrinsic factors: Since motivation comes primarily from within, you need to know whether your applicants consider themselves responsible for the outcomes of their projects. This motivation test will assess the extent to which applicants take ownership of their duties.
• Steady motivation based on the candidates’ preferences: Candidates’ motivation may depend on their personal preferences, which our Motivation test also assesses. You can use the test to discover the factors that impact your candidates’ motivation.
Objectivity isn’t always easy to achieve when assessing applicants’ motivation. But our tests offer statistical data to help you see the level of expertise your applicants demonstrate. By building a Motivation assessment for employees, you can invite applicants to demonstrate their drive and easily compare results with your open role by checking the percentages.
Hire motivated applicants with TestGorilla’s Motivation test
Our Motivation test for employees is a first-class hiring tool to simplify and improve your recruitment process. Gain the following benefits with our Motivation assessment:
• Use a test backed by research and expertise: The Motivation test is based on the Oldham & Hackman Job Characteristics model. It is supported by industry experts and research, helping you accurately determine which candidates’ motivation best matches your role. Use it to find applicants driven to succeed.
• Integrate a test that acknowledges individual candidate preferences: Accurate assessment of your candidates’ motivation requires a relative method that takes individual preferences into account. This Motivation assessment for employees is an excellent option that considers and acknowledges your candidates’ differences. You’ve got the option of adding custom questions to dig deeper into the factors affecting candidates’ motivation in a work environment.
• Receive mapped, automated results: The pre-employment motivation test will provide mapped, automated results that reflect how your candidates’ motivation aligns with your open role. The automated results save you time and effort, meaning you’ll be able to reduce time-to-hire metrics
• No longer do you need to face complicated hiring processes: Use this Motivation test to simplify your recruitment, professionalize your candidate assessment, and find the right individual for your open role.
Join the thousands of hiring departments, including Bain & Company, using TestGorilla. Let our pros help you out. Choose the Motivation test to hire top talent.
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