How the Hogan HPI works
The HPI is built on the five-factor model of personality and focuses on the bright side: how you come across to others day to day. You answer 206 short, plainly worded statements about yourself, and Hogan says it takes 15 to 20 minutes.
In September 2018 Hogan began using a four-point answer scale for the HPI, strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree, in place of the original true or false. Guides written before then may describe a different answer format.
Your answers produce seven primary scales and 42 subscales, each reported as a percentile. Reports can also include six occupational scales: Service Orientation, Stress Tolerance, Reliability, Clerical Potential, Sales Potential and Managerial Potential. Hogan says the HPI is used from entry-level hiring to leadership development.
How to answer the HPI
There is no right answer to find, so aim for a profile that matches you:
- Answer for how you are at work on a normal day, not on your best or worst one.
- Go with your first reaction and keep a steady pace. Weighing every statement pushes you towards how you would like to come across.
- Use agree and strongly agree for different strengths of feeling. Answering everything at the ends makes every scale look extreme.
- Do not try to guess the profile the employer wants. Scores are compared with what the role needs, and a profile that is not yours can fit you to the wrong job.
Tips for the real HPI
- Find 20 quiet minutes and finish in one sitting.
- Take it in your strongest language. The HPI is available in more than 40.
- Be ready to give interview examples that fit how you described yourself.
- If you are also sent the HDS, read about it before you start it. It asks about behaviour under pressure and reads differently from the HPI.
Practise the HPI on CogniPrep
Our HPI practice has 56 statements of our own across the seven scales, one at a time, with Disagree and Agree buttons, no clock and no going back. That is shorter than the real 206, and the real HPI now uses a four-point scale. At the end you see a 0 to 100 score for each of the seven scales, with notes on your strongest and lowest. There is no pass mark and no Hogan report.