Need to take the Hogan Personality Inventory exam? This psychometric exam is one of the most popular and well-respected tests graduates are likely to encounter during pre-employment interviews.
Hogan’s personality tests are designed to identify promising candidates and weed out potentially destructive ones. By learning about the test’s format and preparing before you leave for the assessment centre, you’ll drastically increase your chances of success.
What Does the Hogan Personality Inventory Involve?
The Hogan Personality Inventory test only lasts 15-20 minutes, and the questions are all multiple choice questions, many of which are true/false. You’ll most likely take this assessment online at the assessment centre. That way, your scores will be sent immediately to your prospective employer, who will be able to view an automatically generated report. Make sure to take a look at some of the free sample questions listed below to get a better idea of what to expect.
What Is the Bright Side?
Hogan professionals make a very clear distinction between the bright and dark sides of personality. The bright side refers to the qualities attributed to someone when he’s in control. The bright side personality shows through when the person is happy and successful. By contrast, the dark side of someone’s personality might peak through when he’s under a great deal of stress either personally or professionally or even when he’s tired, hungry, or otherwise agitated. Because everyone has both a bright and dark side to their personality, Hogan makes sure to test both of them. However, the HPI is most commonly used because it tests for worker’s potential to grow.
What Kind of Personality Traits Will Be Evaluated?
The Hogan Personality Inventory Assessment for pre-employment tests seven main traits including adjustment, ambition, sociability, interpersonal sensitivity, prudence, inquisitiveness, and learning approach. The HPI also tests for six occupational scales: service orientation, stress tolerance, reliability, clerical potential, sales potential, and managerial potential.
As with all personality exams, these traits are neutral, and candidates generally want to avoid both very high and very low scores. After all, while all employees need ambition if they plan to advance, overly ambitious individuals are forceful and aggressive. A business owner surely doesn’t want his employees to grow complacent, but he knows that if his workers are too ambitious, they won’t cooperate with each other when he needs them all.
Why Measure the Bright Side?
The bright side will tell you about an employee’s potential for growth. According to Hogan and his team, personality is the single most important metric for achievement. Even more than experience, skills, and training, an individual’s habits will determine whether his endeavours succeed.
By contrast, you’d want to evaluate someone’s dark side if you were worried that their capacity for failure. A candidate in a managerial position has a lot of power, and a company might want to assess how he acts under stress. If an applicant reacts negatively to pressure, he could cause a lot of damage.
What Is the Five-Factor Model of Personality?
The Hogan Personality Inventory Test is based off of the Five-Factor Model of Personality developed by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa in the mid-twentieth century. This personality model claims that psychologists can accurately describe individual personalities using personality traits grouped into five convenient categories. These categories are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, otherwise known as O.C.E.A.N. By measuring these five qualities, psychologists at Hogan claim that you can create a general profile that can predict an employee’s behaviour in the workplace in months and years to come.
Take a look at some free sample questions below listed under each personality trait to see what you might expect at the assessment centre.
Answer True/False:
Openness:
-I always have new, innovative ideas.
-I love travelling to foreign places.
-I find a routine stifling.
Conscientiousness:
-I work very hard toward my goals.
-I am detail-oriented.
Extraversion:
-I love spending time around other people.
-I feel awkward when I have to be on my own.
-I look forward to large social gatherings.
Agreeableness:
-If a friend comes to me looking for help, I do all I can to assist.
-I sometimes put others’ needs above my own.
-It’s difficult for me to stand up for myself and my opinions.
Neuroticism:
-I experience extreme emotional highs and lows.
-Inconveniences irritate me greatly.
-I often feel stressed.
How to Prepare for the Hogan Personality Inventory Assessment?
If you’ve never taken a personality assessment before, you’ll probably be in for a surprise. You’ll want to make sure to familiarise yourself with the kinds of questions you’ll be asked during the exam. Don’t assume that the test is just a questionnaire. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Believe it or not, there are right and wrong answers on this test. By studying the traits evaluated by the exam and reviewing practice questions ahead of time, you’ll learn how to present yourself honestly and professionally to your prospective employers.
Last Thoughts
While the Hogan Personality Inventory test probably won’t determine your employment status alone, it is a significant factor in the hiring process. Take it lightly at your own risk. This personality assessment is typically used as a pre-interview screening tool, so you’ll want to make sure you take a look at some free sample questions and thoroughly understand the material before heading to the assessment centre.
Not only does it help the HR team filter out unlikely candidates, but it also helps to identify promising ones. While perhaps marginal in the larger picture, a good grade on the Hogan might ultimately mean the difference between interviewing or not if you and another applicant are neck and neck.
