Gauge Work Motivation Through Employee Questionnaires

Understanding the state of a company or business depends on the satisfaction and motivation of each employee, from the CEO to the office intern. Taking stock of each employee’s work motivation annually or semi-annually is an important step to take, especially for larger businesses. It is possible to gauge work motivation through employee questionnaires and this is a great tool available to employers today.

When using a survey, there are a few key questions to ask employees. Some may choose to build their own survey, while other companies may want to use one that is already available. There are many excellent online questionnaires available, making it easy for anyone to take advantage of this handy tool.

Usually, a rating scale with numbers from 1-10 is best for employees. This gives each employee a range of options to choose from. Avoid surveys which have ambiguous responses or ones that do not offer enough responses in order to gain practical information. Many surveys also have spaces for employee comments and specific complaints or suggestions. While rating scales are a good way to gauge aspects of job motivation, having a space for employees to write their thoughts in their own words is a good idea.

Generally, an employee survey which measures job motivation asks employees how happy they are with their job overall. This gives a broad overview of job satisfaction. Further questions should be more specific and ask about benefits and pay levels. While these questions may not seem directly related to job motivation, they actually do an excellent job of determining how motivated employees are to succeed and do well in their position.

Other important measures in these surveys are the overall morale in the company. Even happy employees motivated to work well will see a decrease in productivity if their fellow workers are unhappy. Other measures are satisfaction about job responsibilities. This question asks whether employees find value in their daily tasks and if they think that their work is actually important. It’s also important to determine attitudes towards department and company managers. Supervisors and bosses make up an important part of job motivation and should be tested. Finally, an online survey should ask employees how their current job ranks against previous positions. Many employees are reasonably happy and motivated in all areas of work, but a survey which shows lower rankings for current positions may be indicative of a problem or low motivation.

When trying to gauge employee motivation, online surveys are always the best option. They are easy to email to employees and the responses can also be gathered easily. Many of these online survey companies also have tools which allow employees to use analysis tools and receive a great deal of information. This in turn, can help employers make changes which will help to increase employee motivation.

These are some of the key aspects of an effective online survey used to gauge employee motivation. Employers and companies who are interested in increasing job performance can use this tool to understand motivation and increase it as well.