SHL Motivational Questionnaire - Complete Guide and Prep [2024]

The SHL Motivational Questionnaire (also referred to as SHL MQ or MQM5) is a 150-question self-report personality test, designed to assess what motivates you at work. It will usually complement cognitive SHL tests or the SHL Personality Test (OPQ32).

In the test, you will be presented with approximately 150 short statements and need to rank how they affect your motivation at work.

The test is untimed, but you should expect it to take around 25 minutes.

Here’s what the test questions generally look like. Further below we discuss how to answer this question.

• Tip #1: During the SHL Motivational Questionnaire you can go back and change your last response, but no further than that!
• Tip #2: During the test, you will be able to track the percentage of questions you have completed, but you will not know how many questions you have already answered, or how many there are in the test in general.

Here are two SHL Motivational Questionnaire sample questions, adapted from an actual SHL MQ test:

While the SHL Motivational Questionnaire initially seems a pretty simple and straightforward task, it is a sophisticated assessment that uses a variety of techniques to ensure your consistency, balance, and motivational fit for the job you want.

Here are several key points to consider when preparing for the SHL Motivational Questionnaire.

The best answers on the SHL Motivational Questionnaire highly depend on the job you want.

As you’ve seen in the sample questions above, answers will greatly differ between a management position candidate and a team member candidate. The same goes for technical, administrative, customer service, sales, etc.

To ace the SHL MQ test, you must first get an understanding of the desired motivational factors for the job you are after.

As I have previously mentioned, the SHL MQM5 analyzes 18 motivational factors.

So, after you know what factors you need to emphasize, the next step to ace this test is being able to quickly and accurately identify which statement relates to which factor.

The SHL Motivational Questionnaire wants to make sure you are being authentic, so it will assess your answers' consistency. So, make sure your answers align with one another. Don’t come off as a dominant leader in some statements and a humble team member in others.

If the test interface senses you are being repetitive in your answers, a notification will pop up!

This ability is quite difficult to master, but with careful attention and a good understanding of the motivational factors, it will get easier.

Although some traits are more important than others in your overall profile, you usually don't want to score very low in any particular factor/s.

It gives an impression of the kind of employee employers often do not “take a risk with”.

The SHL MQ Test instructions provide several tips for succeeding in the assessment.

Some of them are good. Others, not as much.

Below we analyze these tips and whether you should follow them.

That tip is true for any pre-employment behavioral assessment, including the SHL MQ.

Your employer is interested ONLY in what motivates you AT WORK. When taking the test, detach yourself from unrelated past experiences and focus on your work-related behavior and feelings.

As I always say – if there are no right and wrong answers, why are you taking this test in the first place?

The answer is that there ARE right and wrong answers, only that those aren’t constant, and they depend on the job you are after.

Remember – in the SHL Motivational Questionnaire, any response to any particular question is meaningless. Your aim is to create a whole, consistent, and balanced profile that suits your job.

Time is not a major factor in the SHL Motivational Questionnaire, and therefore the test is untimed.

However, you are encouraged to take answers quickly, and stalling too much on questions may indicate that you are not being authentic.

So how to balance these two?

Prepare.

By being familiar in advance with the SHL Motivational Questionnaire (MQM5) 18 motivational factors, you will be able to quickly identify which factor relates to what statement.

That way, your answers will be both quick AND in line with your desired job’s profile.

Regardless of whether you have decided to prepare for your SHL Motivational Questionnaire or not, it is important that you keep track of your previous answers during the actual test (due to all of the reasons we have already mentioned).

Preparing in advance will greatly develop this ability.

Remember – on the actual assessment, you will only be able to go back and change your previous answer.

Need more practice? Take the sample SHL test.