12 of March, 2025

The group interviews are key for personnel selection. With these, the candidates demonstrate their abilities and the capacity to cope with adverse situations. These situations can be hypothetical or real.

With a group interview, in HR you can find the specific characteristics required for the vacant job position.

But it’s not just that. It is also a great opportunity to explore teamwork capacity, empathy, and communication and leadership skills.

In this way, you as a recruiter gain better guidance on how each applicant reacts.

What group interviews consist of

The group interviews are a new strategy by HR departments that is being successfully implemented. The traditional, individual interview is a thing of the past.

A group interview will always be with two or more candidates. And it will collect information on experiences and skills that the candidates for the position have noted in their curriculum vitae.

Using this technique you will achieve a first screening. As this type of group interview is the prior step to conducting a more personal, individual interview. In it, an performance evaluation is carried out and interaction with other people is observed.

Recruiter’s duties

In summary, as a recruiter, you must:

Find out the social skills of the candidates.
Analyze individual behavior within a group.
Identify knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Examine communication skills.
And probe all relevant aspects of the applicants, such as interest in the company and its project.

In the end, it’s also about being able to analyze and evaluate candidates individually. This way, you will have more criterion for a correct choice when it comes to filling the vacant position.

There are different HR tactics to conduct group interviews. But they always deal with problems and related situations that occur every day at work.

Some other occasions also introduce creative and improvisational themes, depending on the skills required by the vacancy.

Advantages of group interviews

The group interviews expand the possibility of finding the available professionals.

Although it is true that this type of interview presents more potential setbacks. Especially when having to carry out techniques for a large diversity of profiles.

It is important for your company to have a previous planning. This way you will avoid potential setbacks before and during the interview.

7 advantages of group interviews

The advantages that group interviews offer for companies are reflected in various aspects:

Lower costs in resources and time for your company. Several selection processes are managed in a single exercise. Thus, the job position will be filled more quickly.
It allows you to know, under the same situation and at the same time,the different aptitudes that each candidate in the group presents in relation to the group.
As an interviewer, you will check the skills that the candidates reflect in their CV.
It helps you detect the differential talent of the candidate, which goes beyond the mere execution of the workday.
With the group interview, and through different techniques, the interviewee can reveal his weaknesses.
As a recruiter, you will be able to compare the candidates with each other. Everything to determine with less error which of them is most suitable for the position.
You can identify skills that are not reflected in the applicant’s CV. Or that are missed in an individualized interview.

Disadvantages of group interviews

The disadvantages of group interviews can be covered if conducted with preparation. For which having a powerful talent management software would be essential.

1. Lack of interest

The lack of the candidate’s participation in the proposed tactic, implies not obtaining the desired information. This may happen due to a lack of interest, or because of shyness. As a recruiter, you will have to offer strategies that encourage intervention.

2. Not investing time

According to the experts, quality in the information provided by each interviewee is obtained towards the end. Especially if the test is a conversation.

Following the logic, the applicant in the last part is when he has already lost the initial nervousness and is more communicative.

Also, not having enough time involves not being able to know certain individual skills of an applicant.

3. Confusion of candidates

On occasion, the interviewer may end up confusing the candidates. Or he does not identify them when conducting the analysis of the group’s test.

4. Too many candidates

When there are too many profiles to manage, the same group pressure can create some kind of blockage for the interviewer.

And under these circumstances, he won’t be able to be objective in his analysis and opinion.

Most common evaluations in group interviews in HR

Your HR department does not always carry out the same type of group interviews. They will vary depending on the skills required by the job to be filled and the company’s intentions.

In addition, we can distinguish between the detection of communicative and strategic skills.

Evaluation of communicative skills

So, to evaluate communicative skills in group interviews, you have several options.

1. Open-ended responses

The most common is asking the group questions that don’t offer true or false answers.

The speed, originality, and rationale or reason behind the response are valued.

2. Panel interviews

With panel interviews, the interviewer aims to find out how each candidate performs under pressure.

This technique consists of answering questions or acting as if he/she were already an active member of some department in the organization.

It also serves to highlight empathy and assertiveness, along with a multidisciplinary approach to issues and information shared with other departments.

3. Forum setup

Through the forum setup, teamwork will be evaluated. Focusing on decision-making, and what persuasion and leadership skills each aspirant for the position demonstrates.

The test consists of proposing a topic to be developed jointly. With the team of aspirants demonstrating the agreements and collective decision-making.

Evaluation of strategic skills

To evaluate strategy skills, you can also choose between several models.

1. Roundtable

The roundtable is based on presenting a problem to the candidates. The team will have to come up with the best solution to the problem. And for this, they will have to present different possible solutions.

With this, the interviewer can measure negotiation skills, and even leadership, displayed by the candidates.

2. Role playing

The role playing is a tactic or game similar to the panel strategy, particularly in the displayed skills.

It focuses above all on high qualifications and how one perform in a hypothetical but possible situation.

Each candidate assumes a real role within a simulated situation but possible, empathizing with the rest of the candidates to resolve the conflict.

Manage your group interviews agilely

How to unify all the documentation that generates a personnel selection process?

Our HR software is designed to simplify each of your daily tasks. Including the attraction and talent acquisition through group or individual interviews.

Follow our resources section to learn more about Sesame HR.

Professional with over 20 years of extensive experience in various areas of Human Resources (Recruitment, Training, Occupational Risk Prevention, and Personnel Management). Experience in the Management Department: Broad understanding of the company and HR.

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cristinamartin

HR Content Specialist

Pros and cons of group interviews in human resources