How to Unlock the Advantages of the Panel Interview

It will come as no surprise that every company wants to fill open roles with the best candidates—yours included. But to secure the best candidate for a job, it’s essential to develop a hiring process tailored to the specific role and its demands. One hiring tool you might want to use is the panel interview, a method that involves multiple people asking a candidate questions rather than a one-to-one interview.

Panel interviews offer a powerful solution to common hiring challenges, particularly for leaders who lack confidence in their interviewing skills. With 78% of leaders saying they lack confidence in making the right hiring decision, the panel interview can shine. By bringing together multiple perspectives and expertise, panel interviews enhance the quality of the hiring process, leading to more informed and assured decisions.

On the other hand, when HR teams help leaders develop new hiring and interviewing skills, such as mastering the panel interview format, the outcome is a more effective hiring process. This ultimately ensures the best candidates are identified and selected.

Ahead, we’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of panel interviewing, including answers to your most-asked questions. We’ll also cover best practices, benefits, and pitfalls.

Defining a Panel Interview

The hallmark of panel interviewing is an interview conducted by two or more interviewers. The panel often consists of the hiring manager, relevant team members, and an HR representative.

In a panel interview, the candidate usually goes through a single interview. This differs from an experience where a candidate has multiple one-on-one interviews. And like all types of interviewing, the panel’s goal is to make the best hire based on information gathered from the interview and the panel’s judgment.

Panel interviewing also looks different than other types of interviews, like group interviews, that involve more than two participants. Panel interviewing typically has one candidate and two or more interviewers. Group interviews invert that approach: multiple job candidates and one or more interviewers.

While efficient, group interviews often lead to a poor candidate experience, as candidates feel undervalued and unheard. Furthermore, they lead to limited usable data for each candidate, as each person has minimal time to answer questions. In addition, they may be reluctant to share information among competitors for the role.

For example, imagine a group interview with one extrovert candidate and two introvert candidates. Who do you think will dominate the conversation? Panel interviewing, on the other hand, allows multiple interviewers to gather data on one candidate. It can also be used for roles from entry-level to managerial to executive.

4 Advantages of Panel Interviews 

So, when it comes to choosing an interview format, why might a company lean toward the panel interview? Here are four advantages to consider:

1. You'll gain multiple perspectives.

Panel interviews allow multiple interviewers to assess a candidate’s competencies and motivational fit in just one job interview. Hiring managers can easily get a balanced perspective from a mix of panel members who bring different experiences, thoughts, and beliefs to the table.

2. You can minimize the impact of hiring bias.

With interviewers using the same structured interview guides and hearing the same responses, they can compare the data collected in their data integration session in an “apples to apples” manner. (The data integration session is part of the behavioral interviewing process. It’s a structured meeting after the interview where each interviewer explains their evaluations to the other interviewers, who have an opportunity to identify and counter any biases.)

3. You'll reduce the time to hire.

Panel interviewing reduces the need to schedule multiple one-on-one interviews. It also allows the interviewers to integrate their collected data immediately after the interview.

4. You can give candidates a “peek behind the curtain.”

With panel interviewing, the candidate gets a cross-functional view of the organization and its employees. The candidate can check out how the interviewers interact with each other and how they might fit into the team. Plus, panel interviewing highlights collaboration as an important value in the organization.

Do Panel Interviews Have Disadvantages?

While panel interviews offer many benefits, there are some things you may give up when using this interviewing approach. Here are some downsides to consider:

1. Candidate experience can be more stressful.

Interviews are rarely a stress-free experience. However, compared to one-on-one interviews, panel interviewing can be particularly stressful—even intimidating—for candidates. The added stress can affect their behavior and even compromise their responses. Additionally, it’s harder to make personal connections in a group, especially in a virtual interview. Candidates also might be less likely to ask probing questions to a group of interviewers.

2. Follow-up questions can be rushed.

Any experienced interviewer knows that one of the biggest tools an interviewer has is the follow-up interview question. And with a behavioral interviewing system like DDI’s Targeted Selection®, follow-up questions are often needed to gather a complete STAR (behavioral example). However, with a panel of interviewers, some follow-up questions might be rushed or unasked. The opposite can be true as well. If other interviewers derail the interview by delving too deeply into follow-up questions, the panel can run out of time to cover all the competencies well.

3. Louder voices can dominate.

Loud, extraverted, or higher-ranking interviewers can wield undue influence over an interview and data integration discussion, reducing the possibility of a fair judgment. Imagine how it feels from the candidate's perspective, especially in virtual interviews, when domineering panel members talk over other interviewers.

4. There’s only one opportunity to collect data.

In the panel interview, the candidate participates in a single interview with a group of interviewers who ask a single set of questions. The panel members have one opportunity to collect one set of data. With multiple individual interviews, each interviewer asks different questions, so there’s more opportunity to collect unique candidate information.

5. New interviewers are at a disadvantage.

For new interviewers, panel interviewing can be intimidating, especially when interviewing with more experienced hiring managers. These newer interviewers might rely on their more experienced counterparts to lead the interview. Plus, they don’t get to develop their one-on-one interviewing skills.

5 Common Pitfalls During a Panel Interview

While panel interviews have inherent pros and cons, they can be a great option for streamlining the hiring process. As companies increasingly use them—both virtual and in person—the success depends on execution. Yet, they often make mistakes that waste time. Even more seriously, hiring managers don’t get the information they need to make accurate and fair hiring decisions.

Many of these common problems also appear in non-panel interviews. However, the negative impact is multiplied with a panel because there’s only one opportunity to get it right.

1. Assuming a panel already knows how to interview.

Some organizations assume that interviewing is an easy skill that comes naturally to leaders, so interviewer training isn’t a high priority. Even when interviewers are well-trained, it’s easy to forget that most of them interview occasionally, and their skills get rusty. One inexperienced panel member can derail the entire process.

2. Taking a “they’ll know it when they see it” approach.

When we don’t clarify the selection criteria upfront, each interviewer can arrive with a different vision of the “ideal candidate” and the ingredients needed for success. The panel doesn’t know what they’re looking for.

3. Let the panel “wing it.”

Without role clarity and an agreed-upon agenda, the session becomes a free-for-all. The risk is even higher in a virtual interview, especially if technology doesn’t cooperate. The discussion gets off track, and precious interview time is wasted. With no plan for who is covering what, interviewers are bound to leave without information on all the important skill areas. When it’s time to evaluate the data, they don’t have a complete picture of the candidate to make a good hiring decision.

4. The panel interview is used as a “stress test.”

Some organizations view the panel interview as a great opportunity to observe the candidate under pressure. Though it is often stressful, it’s not the best way to gather this type of candidate information. The panel is a very specific high-pressure situation that might not be job-related. Most people won’t encounter this situation on the job. Plus, when the interview feels like an interrogation, the quality of candidate responses, not to mention the candidate’s experience, suffers.

5. Interviewers ask the “wrong” questions.

The panel has one opportunity to gather the best information in a very short meeting. When interviewers aren’t given structured behavioral interview questions, they receive poor-quality information. If left to their own devices, they often ask theoretical questions that focus on whether the candidate knows what to do rather than what the candidate actually has done. Interviewers then end up with data that won’t predict the candidate’s success in the open position because they lack evidence of the candidate's past behavior and results.

These pitfalls tell us exactly what not to do if we want to reap the benefits of this popular hiring tool. At the heart of these issues lies a lack of planning and communication when setting up the panel interviewing process. Don’t worry; we’ll address best practices to avoid these pitfalls next.

5 Best Practices for a Panel Interview

As you can see, not every interview panel will make the best hiring decision or leave the candidate with the best impression. The good news is that there are simple steps you can take to avoid the risks and leverage the potential benefits of a panel. You can easily adapt a panel interview to fit into a structured behavioral interviewing system, like Targeted Selection, that equips leaders with the skills and the tools to hire the best candidates AND create a positive candidate experience.

Based on our research and experience, we know the most critical components of an effective interview system. These components are even more important when planning a panel interview to ensure a rigorous selection process while expediting the hiring time.

1. Train and refresh interviewers.

Panel members need both competence and confidence to manage the interview process, gather quality data, and evaluate multiple candidates objectively. Since most interviews are now virtual, the panel also must be comfortable with the technology. And they need to do all of this while making a positive impression on the candidate. Strong interaction skills are particularly important for a panel interview to help the candidate feel at ease and respond openly. Interviewers need training, practice opportunities, and refresher training.

2. Identify clear criteria for job success.

Panel members need to agree beforehand on the most important knowledge, experience, competencies, and personal attributes. They should define clear, reliable standards so they gather the most relevant information and compare each candidate to the same “ideal.”

3. Provide a structured interview guide.

Deliver a repeatable, consistent interview approach to provide a level playing field across candidates. The entire panel should meet beforehand to review the candidate’s resume and define everyone’s role. Assign a lead interviewer to keep the discussion on track (and manage any technology glitches). Structure both the interview and the post-interview discussions to ensure competencies, knowledge, experience, and personal attributes are covered across interviewers.

4. Focus on the candidate’s past behavior.

The interview guides should include planned behavioral questions seeking past experiences, actions, and results. Panel members can then ask targeted follow-up questions to gather behavioral examples. Data evaluation discussions focus on past behavior as the best predictor of future performance.

5. Leverage multiple interviewer perspectives.

Panel interviews offer an opportunity to include diverse perspectives that can counterbalance unconscious bias in the hiring process. In addition to the hiring manager and HR representative, panels can include future direct reports or peers. Since panel members listen to the same candidate responses, they can share their perceptions immediately after the interview.

It’s also best practice to structure data evaluation discussions to encourage active panel participation and get a balanced view of the candidate. Encourage the panel to focus on behavioral data and check each other’s evaluations to avoid implicit biases.

Ruth Moskowitz, Ph.D., is a senior consultant at DDI. She’s most inspired when helping the sales force, consultants, and clients hire and develop better leaders for a better future using DDI’s competency-based solutions. Nature, music, family, yoga, and travel are her favorite energizers.

Laura-Nelle Hurst is a project manager on DDI's Global Field Enablement team, working with solutions, including behavioral interviewing and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is a classically trained mezzo-soprano, but these days, she focuses on singing lullabies to her toddler.