Hogan Assessment 2026: HPI, HDS, MVPI and HBRI Explained

A Hogan assessment is one or more workplace questionnaires from Hogan Assessment Systems that employers use in hiring and, even more often, in leadership development. The core set is three personality inventories: the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) for everyday behaviour, the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) for behaviour under pressure, and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) for what drives you. Each takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Some employers add the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI), a short reasoning test of about 24 items. This guide explains every scale, how the results are used, and how to prepare without trying to game anything.

Key facts

Other points: Hogan states the inventories are available in more than 40 languages and scored instantly. Employers usually buy a report built from one or more inventories, not the raw scores, and an employer does not see your answer to any single item.

What each Hogan assessment measures

Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

The HPI is based on the five-factor model of personality and describes your reputation: how others tend to see you at work on a normal day. Hogan's subscale guide says you answer "True" if a statement describes you and "False" if it does not, and results are shown as percentiles against the general workforce.

A low score is not a fail. Low Sociability, for example, describes someone who is comfortable working alone, which suits many roles.

Hogan Development Survey (HDS)

The HDS measures what Hogan calls the "dark side" of personality: tendencies that show up when you are tired, stressed or not watching yourself, and that can derail a career. Here a higher score means a higher risk that the pattern shows under strain.

Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI)

The MVPI describes what you want from work and which environment suits you. It does not describe how you behave. The ten scales are Recognition, Power, Hedonism, Altruistic, Affiliation, Tradition, Security, Commerce, Aesthetics and Science. Each runs between two poles; Hogan's example is Recognition, from preferring to share credit to valuing public acknowledgement. Employers use it to judge fit with a team's or organisation's culture.

Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI)

The HBRI is the only Hogan instrument with right answers. Hogan describes it as measuring the ability to evaluate data, make decisions, solve problems and avoid repeating past mistakes, through two kinds of problem solving: qualitative (data visualisation, logic and verbal information) and quantitative (mathematical and spatial information). Prep sites put it at about 24 items. Hogan gives a 25- to 30-minute average completion time and says the HBRI was not originally built to be timed but now has a 30-minute timed version, so it can be either; check your invitation. Hogan's Q&A refers to tactical, strategic and critical thinking scores.

How employers use Hogan results

• Selection. The HPI is the most common hiring tool of the three. Employers compare your profile with the scales that matter for the role, often based on validation research for that job family. Hogan's white paper calls the HPI "the foundation for countless validated selection" processes.
• Leadership and high-potential programmes. The HDS is used mostly for development: to flag derailers early so a leader can manage them. Some employers also use it in senior hiring.
• Culture and motivation fit. The MVPI shows whether what you value matches the job and the organisation.
• Feedback. In development settings you often get a debrief from a coach. Hogan notes that subscale results are most useful "when delivered by a certified feedback provider or coach". In hiring, feedback depends on the employer.
• Item design. Hogan says its items are written at a 4th-grade reading level and are "purposefully written to seem ambiguous and unrelated to work". The aim is to make socially desirable answering harder, so many statements will feel unrelated to the job.

Example statements (original, for orientation)

These statements are written for this guide in a Hogan-like style. They are not Hogan items and the content area named is a description of the topic, not Hogan's scoring key. Personality items have no right answer, so the "worked answer" here is the approach, not a choice.

1. "I rarely feel tense before an important meeting." (True / False) Content area: emotional steadiness (the topic of Adjustment). Approach: think of a typical month, not your best or worst day. If you usually feel nervous but cope well, "False" is the accurate answer; the questionnaire looks at the whole pattern, not one statement.

2. "I like to be the one who decides what the group does." (True / False) Content area: leadership drive (the topic of Ambition). Approach: answer for work. Many people like to lead in some settings and not others; go with what you do most often.

3. "When a plan changes at the last minute, I find it hard to let go of the original version." Content area: a pressure tendency (topics such as Diligent or Cautious). Approach: this is where people are tempted to look flawless. Under pressure everyone has some tendencies, and a profile with none at all looks unrealistic. Answer as you actually react.

4. "Earning a high income is one of the most important things a job can offer me." (Agree / Uncertain / Disagree) Content area: values (the topic of Commerce). Approach: values items are about preference, not virtue. "Uncertain" is fine when it is true, but if you use it for most statements, the profile says little about you.

HBRI-style reasoning practice (original items)

These items are original and show the two kinds of reasoning Hogan describes. They are not HBRI items.

1. Quantitative: revenue after a price change

A café sells three products per week:

The owner cuts the catering box price by 10 %, and catering unit sales rise by 30 %. Other products are unchanged. Which product now brings in the most weekly revenue?

(A) Sandwich (B) Salad (C) Catering box (D) Sandwich and catering box are tied

Answer: (C). Current revenue: sandwich 400 × €5 = €2,000; salad 250 × €9 = €2,250; catering 100 × €20 = €2,000. After the change: catering 130 units × €18 = €2,340, which beats the salad's €2,250. Note the trap: before the change the salad leads, and sandwich and catering are tied.

2. Qualitative: sequencing tasks

A project has four tasks. A takes 3 days, B takes 2 days and can only start when A is finished, C takes 4 days and can run at the same time as A and B, and D takes 1 day and can only start when both B and C are finished. What is the shortest time to finish the whole project?

(A) 5 days (B) 6 days (C) 7 days (D) 10 days

Answer: (B). A then B takes 3 + 2 = 5 days. C runs in parallel and finishes after 4 days. D can start when the later of the two is done (day 5) and takes 1 day: 6 days. (D) adds everything up as if nothing ran in parallel.

3. Qualitative: learning from past mistakes

A team's last two product launches were both late. Each time, design and build finished on schedule, but testing took six weeks instead of the planned three, because serious defects were found late and needed redesign. Which change most directly addresses the cause?

(A) Hire more designers. (B) Start testing on early prototypes, so defects are found while the design can still change. (C) Keep the plan and set a firm three-week limit for testing. (D) Move the launch date earlier to create pressure.

Answer: (B). The data locate the delay in late discovery of defects. (A) targets a phase that was on time, (C) cuts testing without removing the defects, and (D) adds pressure without changing the cause.

Traps and how to avoid them

• Trying to look perfect. Hogan's own advice is that faking "seems to backfire much more than you might expect", because the questionnaire reads your pattern of responses across many items. A profile that is extreme everywhere is easy to spot and rarely matches any job.
• Reading items as job questions. Many statements look unrelated to work by design. Answer what they ask.
• Swinging between extremes. Hogan says strong answers are fine when they are true. Use them for what is clearly true of you, not as a strategy.
• Treating the HDS like the HPI. On the HDS a high score is a risk flag, not a strength, so there is nothing to "max out".
• Rushing the HBRI. Multi-step items (a price change after a comparison, parallel tasks) punish answers based on the first number you see. Write down intermediate results.
• Skipping the instructions on scale format. Sources describe different response formats for the same inventory. Follow what your screen shows.

How to prepare honestly for a Hogan assessment

You cannot study for a personality inventory the way you study for a maths test, and you should not try to fake it. What helps:

If you take Hogan as part of a development programme, ask for the debrief. Hearing how a coach reads your profile is the most useful part.

Sources

• Hogan Assessments, Hogan Personality Inventory (7 primary scales, 42 subscales, 15 to 20 minutes, 40+ languages, 1,000+ studies): https://www.hoganassessments.com/assessment/hogan-personality-inventory/
• Hogan Assessments, Hogan Development Survey (11 scales, 33 subscales, scale names, 15 to 20 minutes)
• Hogan Assessments, Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (10 scales, five item themes each, 15 to 20 minutes)
• Hogan Assessments, Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (qualitative and quantitative reasoning, 25 to 30 minutes on average): https://www.hoganassessments.com/assessment/hogan-business-reasoning-inventory/
• Hogan Assessments, HBRI Q&A (not originally timed, 30-minute timed version, tactical/strategic/critical thinking scores): https://www.hoganassessments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/HBRI20QA_FINAL.pdf
• Hogan Assessments, "Interpreting HPI Subscales" (206 items, True/False, percentiles, certified feedback provider)
• Hogan Assessments white paper, 2013, hosted by GMAC (response formats, 4th-grade reading level, items written to seem unrelated to work, item-level responses not available to end users, faking research): https://gmac.com/~/media/files/gmac/reflect-training/hogan-assessments-white-paper
• Hogan Assessments blog, "How to take a personality test" (honesty, faking backfires, don't overthink)
• JobTestPrep, Hogan HPI/HDS/MVPI/HBRI overview (third-party: 206/168/200 items, about 24 HBRI items, agree-scale sample items, HBRI timed or untimed): https://www.jobtestprep.com/hogan-hpi

Scritto da

Adrian, Specialista

MSc Psicologia, 7 anni di test fatti.

Ultimo aggiornamento: Oct 1, 2026