Barna Group’s TruMotivate promises to help Christians, young people find true calling

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, September 03, 2021

Evangelical Christian polling firm Barna Group launched a new assessment tool Wednesday called TruMotivate that promises to help students and young adults find their true calling in life as recent studies show nearly half of Americans are now rethinking the kind of job they want to do amid the pandemic.

“TruMotivate is an online, self-report assessment of core motivation that identifies the five motivations that represent an individual’s strongest natural drives. Unlike a skill or personality assessment, TruMotivate reveals what you love to do, not just what you’re good at,” a release about the product explained. “TruMotivate gets to the heart of the why, revealing why you do what you do.”

Data from Prudential’s Pulse of the American Worker survey conducted by Morning Consult in May, show that some 48% of Americans are rethinking the kind of work they want to do after the pandemic and if they could retrain, 53% of people would switch to a new industry.

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Some 24% of workers plan to leave their jobs once the pandemic is over, citing compensation, work and life balance challenges and limited growth opportunities among the top reasons behind their plans. Workers, according to the survey, are looking for job stability, good work and life balance, good pay, comprehensive benefits and career advancement opportunities.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more people than ever to rethink their jobs,” Pastor Tim Yee, author of Finding Your TruCenter, said in a statement. “During a time when people are thinking more about the why behind what they do, this small group guide will allow people of faith to connect their questions of why to the context of Scripture and their results from TruMotivate.”

A recent Bankrate survey also found that most Americans are now rethinking what they want out of their careers, and some 55% say they are likely to look for new employment in the next 12 months.

“After spending the last year or more stuck in their homes, a good number of American workers now expect to be on the move, searching for new employment,” Mark Hamrick, Bankrate senior economic analyst and Washington bureau chief said in their report. “Pandemic-inspired changes, including the ability to work remotely and/or from home, have transformed mindsets and expectations for many workers.”

In their survey of more than 30,000 global workers, called The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work – Are We Ready?, Microsoft also found that some 54% of Generation Z workers and 41% of the entire global workforce could resign.

University of Texas sociology professor Jennifer Glass, who is an expert on work and family issues, telecommuting and new labor practices explained in a recent interview that it’s not just the young who the pandemic has driven to hand in their resignations but older workers too.

“We are on the cusp of one of the largest retirements in the history of the United States, the retirement of the baby boomers. We knew that this cohort in particular was probably going to work longer because they don’t have as much savings, and I think a lot of economists in particular were thinking that we would not see this massive retirement all at once because of that factor,” Glass said.

But COVID-19 changed everything.

“A lot of people were home full time. A lot of people had saved a lot and realized that they could get by on less. But more than that I think they realized they liked being home, they liked having an easier schedule, and they didn’t want to go back to work. It’s sort of like postponed fertility or postponed marriage — well, there’s also postponed retirement. That was true for me. I started thinking seriously about my own retirement plans during COVID,” she explained.

According to TruMotivate, their assessment is different from other personality assessment tools like the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, Enneagram, and StrengthsFinder because it “reveals why you do what you do, as opposed to what you’re good at.”

Their product can help Christians through a six-week “Finding Your TruCenter” Bible study which explores “readers’ personal motivations through their TruMotivate results and alongside Scripture. It serves individuals in all stages of life — from college students to experienced professionals and retirees — to identify their unique motivations and empower them in their work or volunteer activities.”

“We’ve seen in past studies the correlation between the resilience of one’s faith and the clarity of their sense of purpose in their work. Barna research shows that Christians who find purpose and meaning in their work are more than twice as likely as other Christians to say they are very satisfied with their lives,” Brooke Hempell, chief growth officer of TruMotivate and senior research fellow at Barna, noted in a statement. “When we see purpose in our work, we thrive in all areas of life. TruMotivate — and TruCenter — helps you identify that God-given purpose.”