Unlocking Thriving at Work with The Motives Met Human Need Assessment™

Thriving at work isn’t all about purpose. The golden ticket isn’t growth or belonging. Work-life harmony? Not the magic fix. Appreciation? Important, but not the whole picture. Our research at Motives Met shattered many myths and cut through the noise of all the competing advice to uncover something game-changing: There are 28 psychological, emotional, and social human needs—what we call “motives”—at the heart of our ability to thrive. These 28 motives fall into 10 overarching motive domains forming our comprehensive Motives Circumplex framework™ for well-being at work.

Yet here’s the reality: Our research found only 16% of people are actually thriving at work. Sixteen. Percent. That’s not just a problem—it’s a wake-up call. We know that when people are well at work, they perform well at work. The data proves the benefits time and time again. It leads to stronger connections. Higher retention. Greater happiness. Less burnout. Better performance. It’s a win-win-win-win. We dove deep into our own research to understand why ill-being is still leading the way and how we can make well-being the way of the future. 

Meet the Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™ 

“Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them.” —Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.  

We created our Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™ to tackle the biggest obstacles. One of the toughest ones? Well-being is personal, not universal. Our data revealed that all motives matter, they don’t matter equally to each person or team. Thriving isn’t one-size-fits-all, what fuels your fulfillment and motivation might not be what fuels mine. One person may need FUN, FLEXIBILITY, and a CHALLENGE while another may be motivated by INNOVATION, SELF-ESTEEM, and PASSION. And that’s where things fall apart—confusion, judgment, and misunderstandings about what actually drives health, happiness, and success at work.

Out of these 28 motives, we all have our own personal blend of: Must-haves, nice-to-haves, and I-don’t-care-about-its.

There is no universal hierarchy of needs. It’s identifying what each person’s hierarchy is in this season of their work life because thriving at work happens when each person’s most important motives are met. 

Taking the online assessment, in just 15 minutes, employees uncover:

• The top five motives → driving them to be well and perform well at work.
• Their secondary motives → adding more depth to what fuels their fulfillment. 
• Their unique circumplex → where their top needs fall on the “motive map.” 
• A personalized report → packed with information, reflection questions, and exercises to create their motive story and action plan. 

A suite of resources → The assessment comes with valuable resources and a Motive Leaders Hub so individuals, teams, and leaders can turn insights into action.

Fueling Human-Centered Leadership

What sets great leaders apart is shifting from “one-size-fits-none” to human-centered leadership. The assessment shines a spotlight on employees’ values, their needs that may be suffering, and their motivational drivers. It allows you to coach, inspire, support, and lead each person based on the unique human needs that drive them. An inclusive people-first culture means putting people’s needs first—and that’s exactly what the Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™ helps you do. Too often, certain motives—like ACHIEVEMENT or PURPOSE can be put on a pedestal while other motives can be overlooked or judged. FUN is thought of as frivolous or WORK-LIFE HARMONY a luxury, not a necessity. The assessment helps workplaces break free from these biases and create a culture that embraces motive diversity.

Our assessment empowers individuals and teams to co-create thriving cultures where you meet these motives together. It’s a powerful leadership tool, but building a great culture isn’t just on you as a leader, it’s about sharing the responsibility. This assessment creates a teamwide movement—one that inspires people to make a positive impact, fosters shared accountability, and fuels a collective effort to protect and strengthen the human needs that drive human workplaces people don’t want to leave.

The 5-Step Motives Pathway to Overcome the Big Obstacles

“What stands in the way, becomes the way.” – Marcus Aurelius 

We built this assessment to overcome the real problems that hold us back from thriving. In our best-selling book Work Life Well-Lived, we call them the 10 Dream Killers that threaten the work world we all desire and deserve. 

It’s a struggle to navigate roadblocks like:

-> No shared mindset of what “thriving” even means. (How can your team or organization reach the goal of thriving together if you don’t have clarity of what the goal is?)

-> Conversations about what matters most at work? They are missing. And that silence costs us big time. 

-> Tension between needs. Some motives naturally conflict, making it more difficult to find alignment and creating friction in relationships if not managed effectively.

-> We don’t always know what we need—let alone what others need. We can all have blindspots on what’s most important to us, 58% of people find it challenging to identify what they need most to thrive at work. And expecting leaders to intuitively know what fuels each employee? That’s a recipe for guesswork and missed opportunities.

-> Managers and leaders lack the tools. Without the right support, it’s difficult to lead with motives in mind and keep these needs healthy at work. 

-> We’re stuck in reactive mode. The busyness of work makes it easy to fall into a passive, reactive approach to well-being, rather than a proactive or preventative one. But prevention is always better than needing a cure.

-> Remote work has made human connection harder. And without meaningful connection, collaboration, engagement, and trust suffer.

The Human Needs Assessment™ and accompanying resources unlock the 5-step motives pathway for teams and leaders to walk together to understand, be mindful of, evaluate, communicate, and meet motives to overcome the obstacles getting in the way.

1. Understand motives—cultivating a shared mindset and unified goal.
2. Be mindful of motives and how you impact them.
3. Evaluate if motives are thriving or suffering and why.
4. Communicate to engage in meaningful motive conversations.
5. Meet motives by creating an action plan. 

Major Wins—For You & Your Team

There are major benefits to leveraging the assessment. Seriously, the list is long—but here are a few highlights:

• A secret weapon for leaders? Absolutely! You gain the clarity to lead in a new way with confidence and greater impact.

   

• Greater psychological safety, compassion, and emotional intelligence? Check. It invites brave open space to talk about our human motives and the emotions that drive them.

   

• Long-term loyalty? Guaranteed. Our research proves employees whose motives are well met are twice as likely to stay in the short-term AND for the long haul.

   

• Better communication? Yes! You have a simple effective way to talk about motives. Having motive conversations is also your best stay interview strategy (so you won’t have to have the exit interviews).

   

• Meaningful connection? Feedback from teams is that the assessment is fun, sparks new insights about one another, invites vulnerability, and makes people feel seen. Think of it as the ultimate team bonding experience minus the awkward icebreakers and trust falls.

   

• A built-in SWOT analysis? You bet. You get to celebrate where motives are strong, work through weaknesses, and identify new opportunities. 

And maybe the biggest win? Teams consistently tell us that they feel you care about their health and happiness at work, and want to get to know them as not just their work selves, but human selves. 

Ready to Start Thriving? 

The Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™ is more than just an assessment—it’s a catalyst to be a leader people truly want to work for. It’s a mindset shift and new way of working that will help you create your best workplace where everyone wins.

Ready to dive in? Send us a message at theteam@motivesmet.com or simply fill out the form on this page with your email and we will send you more information!