Group Interview Meaning

By definition, a group interview is one that involves more than two people. It may imply that multiple applicants get interviewed simultaneously (referred to as the candidate group interview) or that one applicant is interviewed by more than one departmental head simultaneously.

There are a number of ways to interview candidates. One such way the organizations use is group interviewing where they interview a group of candidates together or interview one candidate by more than one interviewer.

It is imperative for a HR manager and an employer to know all about group interviews.

Group interview is one of the most effective interview techniques. You can either use it to interview many candidates together or when more than one person wants to interview a single candidate.

Group interviews are most of the times held in a professional setup, for example, a conference room.

Now that you do have the group interview meaning, let us in the next section, take a look at its importance!

Advantages of Group Interview

There are many but let’s have a look at the top advantages of group interviews:

• Candidate Comparison: If there''s one job opening, surely you would not interview just one candidate. With so many coming your way, comparing it with all would never be easy. That''s when a group interview comes into the picture. You bring all shortlisted candidates under one roof to give you that golden opportunity to compare each other and, at the same time, show off their potential and skills. One of the best things about group interviews is that the company hiring can reduce its time for the whole process. It could be because there are so many good candidates or that they need to fill the position quickly.
• Evaluate Confidence: Confidence is a must-have skill in every profession. Now who isn''t confident when they are having an interaction with just one individual? But as it goes, only a 100% confident person knows how to stay cool during group interviews. Therefore, a group interview even helps you differentiate between a confident and non-confident individual.

Group Interview Tips For HR Managers

Being an HR manager/interviewer taking a group interview, you need to comply with the following group interview tips:

• Inform Candidates in Advance: Do you not want your candidates to perform well in the interview just so you can fill the post sooner? If your answer is yes, you should always inform your candidates in advance about the method. It will help them be ready.
• Be Prepared: Before initiating the group interview, take along all the interviewers who will be on the panel. Be absolutely sure that questions are ready, all members of the panel are familiar with the criteria to be used in the evaluation of the candidates, and who will ask which questions.
• Panel Introduction: Ask the panel members to introduce themselves by name and designation to the candidates. This will set a more relaxed conversation from here on.
• Quick Discussion: Immediately after the interview concludes, engage in a discussion with the panel regarding the candidates'' overall impression. It will facilitate the assessment and selection of candidates, making the process more efficient and faster.

FAQs

1. Why employers use group interviews? This will allow the firm to determine what kinds of behaviours indicate that the individual will perform well on the job before the organization has invested time and money in the hiring process.

2. What is a panel interview? A panel interview is one in which two or more people conduct an interview with a job candidate at the same time. These might be potential supervisors, managers, team members, human resource individuals, and other people within an organization''s decision chain.

3. How to go about group interviews? HR Managers invite candidates, inform candidates that the interviews will be in a group, prepare interviewers, and inform all the details of the candidates, gather the interviewers and candidates in one place, brief them on the questions, which are ready for each candidate, and evaluate the candidates immediately after another round.

Conclusion

That''s everything you must know about group interviews. If used in the right way, group interviews are the best tool to evaluate and hire the right candidates for your organization.