The Group Interview

"Don't Sabotage Your Hiring Process"

The group interview , sometimes called a panel, is not a very effective method of getting quality data from a candidate. This goes against the grain of what you have probably heard the rest of the article will explain.

One candidate in front of multiple managers has two very bad consequences.

Increased Stress

First, the candidate is placed under tremendous stress. Facing a panel is always more stressful than a one on one conversation. There is no good reason to raise the stress level of the candidate. Higher stress levels reduce the quality of data.

Even if the person is going to present or sell to groups as part of the job, a group interview does not reproduce the real work environment. In the real world, a person is prepared to present or sell to a group or panel. In an interview, the person has no idea what the "real rules" are. You force the person to guess the best response or behavior.

Hard To Organize and Control

Second, it is very difficult to coordinate the inquiries coming from the panel. Who is going to ask which questions? In what order? Who is going to follow up? When is it OK to interrupt? These are just a few of the difficulties associated with the process.

It has been my experience that most panels spend more time with these "housekeeping" issues than gathering good data.

My recommendation is to avoid group interviews.

A Better Process

Your goal remains the same: "Get enough quality data to predict if the person will be successful on your job". Having multiple people participate in the process IS a good idea.

The first step is to decide who is going to be on your interview team. Only include people who add value and whose opinion you respect. This means the interview team is strategically built. Don't just use whoever happens to be in the office that day.

Second, assign each person a specific focus. Give them specific job requirements to explore. Choose the assignments by expertise. Have the manager responsible for customer support cover customer support skills, etc. Without a specific focus, even the best interviewer cannot do a good job.

Finally, set up a series of one on one meetings. The most comfortable environment is two people alone in a room having a productive conversation. The candidate can meet consecutively with each of the team members. No two meetings are exactly the same because each interviewer has a slightly different focus.

One side note, the types of questions each of the interviewers ask should be similar but tailored to the specific focus they have been assigned. See the best interview questions article for a complete discussion.

In conclusion, group interviews are not the best way to get the information necessary to make a quality hiring decision. Build your team and assign each person a specific focus. Have them interview in a series of one on one, face to face meetings.

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