Sometimes Two (or more) Heads are Better Than One

The group interview or team hiring means that the job candidate is interviewed by more than one person at the same time and often this group is comprised of the very people that they will be working with, including subordinates.

This type of interview demonstrates something significant of the company's philosophy and that is that everyone in the company is important. The current employees'  input is taken into account and so they have a stake in the new employee's success. The new employee knows up front that he has a whole group of people supporting him before he steps through the door for the first time.

Sometimes, because there are so many people involved, this type of interview can take a long time.  If the job candidate is already nervous, this could increase the anxiety factor.  

If there were serious concerns about the new hire on the part of the potential coworkers, and the boss ignored these concerns,  tension could increase in the workplace.

Ultimately, it is the boss who makes the final decision and so hopefully he or she would listen to any concerns the interview participants might have about the job candidate and take that into account when making a final decision.

This type of interview has the potential to provide the company and the candidate with the best fit and researchers are seeing an increase in this type of interview.