What Is the Hudson Assessment?

The Hudson Assessment was developed by Hudson, a company that aids other companies in the recruitment and professional advancement processes.  Hudson provides professional recruitment services, talent management, and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). Examples of companies that use the Hudson Assessment are Visa, Irish Life, and Essentra Talent Partnership.  The Hudson Assessment is given at an assessment center.  It is a psychometric assessment that contains several parts.  There are numerical, verbal, and abstract reasoning aptitude tests, as well as workplace scenarios, role-playing, and group exercise components.

Types of Tests

Reasoning Tests The Hudson Reasoning Ability Test is a set of three tests – numerical, verbal, and abstract reasoning.  Each test is available for operational workers, junior managers, middle managers, and senior managers.  When used together, the tests assess your speed and accuracy, overall ability to plan, and your technical, spatial, and analytical insight.   You will receive an overall score and three sub-scores which reflect your work style and strengths.

The psychometric assessment portion of the Hudson Assessment is broken down below:

Numerical aptitude tests assess your ability to work with numbers quickly and accurately.  The Hudson Assessment numerical aptitude test assesses your ability to draw conclusions from professional tables and graphs.  It is designed to assess your understanding of tables of statistical and numerical data, and also to assess your ability to make logical deductions.

Verbal aptitude tests assess your ability to understand written information.  The verbal aptitude test on the Hudson Assessment is broken down into intermediate and difficult sections.  It assesses your ability to interpret and draw conclusions from work related texts.

Abstract Reasoning aptitude tests assess your ability to understand abstract concepts as well as your general problem-solving skills.  Employers use them as an indication of your ability to reason and make good decisions based on work-related information. 

The Hudson Assessment abstract reasoning test assesses your ability to detect operating principles in abstract information and to apply these principles to new information.  It also measures your overall potential as a candidate for the segment of the workforce to which you are applying.

Personality/Motivational Questionnaires

As with other personality and/or motivational questionnaires, the Business Attitudes Questionnaire portion of the Hudson Assessment has questions that will measure your personality traits and/or motivational drivers.  This information helps recruiters and hiring managers to know whether or not you will be a good fit for their position and organization.  After investing significant time and money in the recruiting process, and thereafter, the training process, organizations want to hire people who have the greatest chance of staying with them for the long-term.

Business Attitudes Questionnaire

This is the Hudson Assessment’s personality test.  Its purpose is to predict how you will behave in the workplace.   The Hudson Assessment Business Attitudes Questionnaire is not timed, but you are encouraged to move quickly through the questions.  The Hudson Assessment Business Attitudes Questionnaire looks at twenty-five different dimensions of personality.  You will read a number of statements, and you will rate each one on a scale of A to E based on whether you totally disagree to totally agree with each statement. After completing the Hudson Assessment Business Attitudes Questionnaire, you will be given a report on how you scored in the five personality traits measured on the assessment – emotional stability, extraversion, openness, altruism, and conscientiousness.

Simulation Exercises

The simulation exercises on the Hudson Assessment give potential employers or managers information about how you will perform on the job.  This is more information to help find you the best fit within your career and/or company.  The simulation exercises are as follows:

In-tray Exercise: This is a written exercise that asks you to solve problems and make decisions based on letters and memos you might come across during your work day.

Interactive Exercises or Role Plays:  There are several forms these might take.

Analysis and Presentation – You will be observed as you analyze data, find problems, and then present solutions to your supervisors.  The supervisor might be someone who is playing a role or someone from the company who is assessing you.

Management Exercise – This is a face-to-face discussion on a work-related topic with another role player who may be your colleague, supervisor, or direct report. 

Commercial Exercise – In this test, someone from the Hudson Assessment or management will observe how you analyze a range of data relating to a commercial problem and how you interact with the client.

Group Exercise – You will be observed interacting with other participants during a group discussion.

Competency Based Interview – This is a structured, in-depth interview to gather information on specific competencies you may have by presenting you with specific situations or examples from a typical workday.  The person interviewing you will be taking notes about the way you respond to the given situations.

How to Prepare

You can prepare for the reasoning tests by taking practice tests to familiarize yourself with the types of questions and formats that will be on the exam.  The more practice tests you take, the more comfortable and confident you will be on the day of the Hudson Assessment.  Preparation for the others Hudson Assessments is less concrete.  You can familiarize yourself with the type of questions and scenarios that will be addressed in the other assessments.  Knowing your character traits and personality qualities will help you choose between similar sounding traits and/or assessing the same trait in different ways throughout the Business Attitudes Questionnaire.  

The most important thing to remember when going through the personality traits and the interactive exercises are to be true to yourself.  Don’t try to be the person you wish you were, or you think the company wants to hire.  Doing so could cause you to end up in a job you find to be frustrating, or worse yet for the company to decide they don’t want you in that role.  Being true to who you are will lead to a position you find satisfying and rewarding for the long term.