Learning what motivates your employees will have a direct impact on your business's bottom line. If your employees are not motivated, they will lack satisfaction in their job and will eventually move on. Making an employee motivation questionnaire can be used to foster constructive and open discussions about how to better motivate employees.

Open a blank document in the word processing software of your choice. Decide how you want to quantify the data you will be getting from the employees. Consider using multiple-choice answers or a ranking system of 1 to 10 in which 1 is bad and 10 is the best. The way you choose to measure the data will determine your wording of the questions.

Make two subheadings. Label one "Current" and the second one "Future." You will not be distributing the questionnaire with these two subheadings. These are simply categories you will be separating your questions into.

Make a list of 15 to 20 questions under the subheading of "Current" that inquire about how the employee feels about their work tasks, the authority given to them by management, and what they prefer for rewards--cash, public recognition or extra time off. Do the same under the subheading "Future" but gear those questions more toward what changes they would like to see in their job duties and should include questions about personal development, training and personal goals. Example questions could include "How satisfied are you with the feedback your manager gives to you about your job duties?" or "Out of the following options, which would you rather receive for job recognition?" You want to have 30 to 40 questions total.

Deploy the questionnaire to a test group of subjects via either paper or web-based application to ensure your questions are understood by employees. Ask for feedback to make sure questions are clear and don't seem too biased.

Deploy the questionnaires and give the employees a one-week period to complete the questionnaire. Calculate the results of your findings.