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PortugalRecruitment and Selection
How to conduct massive interviews
A mass interview will help you streamline your recruitment processes. To find out how, keep reading. We'll tell you all about it on the blog!
Marcos Lopez
HR Consultant
14 of March, 2025
The mass interview is the new formula that companies use when selecting workers. Their human resources departments have seen in this type of meetings a more effective way of selecting staff.
Professionals who perform this task appreciate qualities in these meetings that would otherwise go unnoticed.
If you do not know what mass interviews consist of, we are going to explain everything you need to know about these meetings. We will start by defining them and then we will talk about their advantages and how they are done.
What is a mass interview?
As its name suggests, a mass interview is one that is done to several people at the same time. In this case, it would be candidates for a job. And it can be part of the high-volume recruitment process.
On the one hand, there’s you as a member of the human resources department or executive, who are the recruiter. And on the other, two or more people who aspire to get the job that is being offered.
In these meetings, the recruiter must propose dynamics to work on. But then he/she will act almost like a moderator.
As for the former, the interviewees are to showcase their skills in certain work scenarios. For example, they are placed in situations where they must show their empathy or their ability to make decisions.
Thus, you can observe how they interact with other people and also appreciate how they might perform as a team.
Advantages of mass interviews
Given all that we are explaining, you will see that the mass interview has several advantages. We have already mentioned a few, but let’s summarize them all so that you have a clear understanding:
- Time-saving. The most obvious advantage is that it allows for a lot of time to be saved. Staff recruitment is usually tedious and lengthy. And HR managers have other functions to perform. Therefore, the faster they develop this selection process, the better.
- Comparison of candidates. The group interview also provides the possibility of comparing the qualities of applicants live. This is more effective than doing it by reviewing their resumes or by other methods. Also, it’s much faster.
- Complete analysis of the candidate’s virtues. This type of interview allows those who aim to achieve the job to be put in real work situations. Through these situations, you can see how candidates can perform and interact with others. This gives you a more complete vision.
Given all this, you might think that mass interviews are all advantages. Indeed, they have many, but they are not all benefits.
They also have some disadvantages. And it’s important to know them in order to solve them. The main disadvantages of mass interviews are the following:
- As they are done in a group, sometimes there is not enough time to get to know each job applicant well.
- If there are many candidates, it can be difficult to identify each candidate individually afterwards.
- An applicant might dominate the interview very well, but might not have the best qualities for the job. There are individuals with social skills who, on the other hand, lack the necessary traits to perform the job in question.
How to conduct a mass interview
We have already explained what a mass interview is and its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it’s time to show you the different steps that recruiters should follow in them.
Whether you are one of them or even if you are going to face an interview of this type, it will be useful to know them. The most important ones are as follows.
1. Preparation of the interview
Human resources managers create their questions before facing the group interview. Among the most common questions that are asked in the mass interview are the following:
- How would you define yourself?
- Why do you want this job in our company?
- How good are you at working in a team?
- What can you bring to our company?
- What are your goals?
If you are the human resources manager, you should make a list with these questions and others. It is also important that you time their responses.
In this way, you will check if the responses given are too long or too short.
2. Conducting the interview
If you are the interviewer, it is advisable that, at the start of the mass interview, you call all the candidates by their name. You should also allow all of them to intervene. Therefore, it is essential that you control the time well so that everyone can participate.
You should also register their answers in real-time. With this, you will have a record of how long each one has taken to respond. In this way, you will get an idea of their fluency in doing so. You will also see their ability to synthesize and their eloquence.
On the other hand, you should also keep in mind some tips to have a successful meeting. The most important ones are:
- Fairly evaluate the candidates. Be objective when evaluating each candidate. This will help you better appreciate their skills and distinguish them from other applicants.
- Maintain active listening. It is necessary that you pay attention to what they respond. You can also intervene so that they see you are listening to what they say.
- Try to lead the conversation. This means that you set the pace and moderate effectively. However, it doesn’t mean you should cut off their interventions or prevent candidates from explaining themselves. On the contrary, value their participation. This way, they will show themselves in a more natural way.
In conclusion, the mass interview is being the most used resource by companies among the methods of recruiting workers. If you’re in charge of the meeting or one of the executives in charge of the process, you should prepare for it well.
It is also important that you control its development. In this way, you will achieve the result you are looking for.
In any case, if you want to better manage the human resources of your company, continue reading about the Sesame HR human resources software, which will make it easier.
Need help?
I'm Marcos López, HR consultant at Sesame HR. Book a meeting with my team to help you.