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146 Boost Your Hiring IQ

Team and Panel Interviewing

Team or panel interviewing takes a great deal of coordination. If your
company has an HR department, it will often coordinate the logistics of
the interviews and provide each interviewer with a copy of the résumé
or other documents needed.
If you are the coordinator of the interview and it is to be a panel in-
terview, you will need to prepare questions and then provide each mem-
ber of the panel with the questions along with a copy of the résumé or
any other information that they will need.
The usual practice in a panel or group interview is for each panel
member to ask a different question so that the other members of the
panel can observe and take notes.
After the interview it will be necessary to somehow coordinate the in-
formation and get a consensus, either through a meeting or through a
central person who becomes the coordinator.
It will be easier for everyone concerned if one person handles the rat-
ings and coordinates any follow-up discussion, particularly when there
is a disagreement about whether to make this person an offer or not.

The Close
In a competitive job market where the best candidates are being courted,
the interviewer will have to work at selling the company; its reputation,
mission, stability, and general benefits. Whether the HR department
takes care of this part of the interview or whether it is up to you, the
candidate should leave the interview with a sales pitch about the com-
pany, the position, and the good reasons for working at your company.
You will want to discuss your company’s philosophy or mission state-
ment. Candidates will also be interested in what makes your company
special or unique. Assuming that they have done due diligence ahead of
the interview, they will now be interested in the internal information
about the department, team, or company.

“Do You Have Any Questions?”
At some point in the interview you will want to elicit questions from
the candidate. Some hiring managers think that what the candidate asks
or doesn’t ask can provide the most telling information.
For instance, if all candidates ask about are the vacation days and sick
benefits, you could get the idea that their interest is in time away from
the job. This could be a possible red flag.