Clear communication is arguably a key factor in the 360 degree process. Make sure the messaging is very clear around what the 360 process is for, how data will be used, who will see it and how the participants benefit from taking part. If a team member finds a piece of 360 degree feedbackunfair or unclear, managers might suggest they reach out to the feedback giver for clarification or even set up a meeting between the three of them to discuss it openly. Managers should encourage their team members to prepare open-ended questions ahead of time. There is still a place for performance reviews in the workplace. Where 360 degree feedbackis a tool for development, performance appraisals are tools for reward, and they can sit alongside each other quite comfortably. 360 degree feedbackgives many opportunities for stomach-wrenching realisations. Your job is not to prevent these but it is to prepare and support people through the process from first sight to full acceptance. In fact your job, working with the process of “managing resistance”, is to make it easy for people to truly see these insights and feel the consequences – to help them get off the “river-bank of upset” and back into the river of transformation. The process of 360-degree feedback is aimed at improving managerial effectiveness. At this stage of the feedback process, information has been gathered and fed back, and adjustments are made. This is where the feedback process completes its cycle. This is the end of the process for managers if they have had the opportunity to identify areas for development and have taken steps to adjust their behavior accordingly. If 360-degree feedback has been used for development over time, people can be identified who have shown the ability to work with this feedback and to develop in areas where improvement is needed. If we want to reward and retain people who have the ability to learn and adapt to change and feedback, the identification and reward of successful development over time is probably more important than rewarding the kind or number of strengths an individual displays at a single point in time.



While a large part of the 360-degree review process can be automated by software, sharing the results of the surveys with employees should be done in person (or, if that’s not possible, via a video conferencing tool) and not shared with the employee beforehand. Some organizations have made the mistake of taking standardized surveys valid for developmental feedback only and using them for performance management. A valid survey used in an invalid process is likely to produce invalid results. Standardized surveys are not valid for performance management because they are not tied to specific performance requirements for the organization. How regularly you need to conduct 360-degree feedback reviews, you decide for yourself, depending on the defined goals. We recommend conducting the review at least once a year. Since on average at least 6 reviewers give feedback to reviewees, it may be too time-consuming to conduct such a review more often than once a quarter. You may think someone is a great manager until you see their overall low ratings – or of course you might conclude that there is something very wrong with your 360 degree feedbackinstrument! You are right, of course, to question the efficacy of your survey if the data consistently gives you different messages from the other data-sets you have. There could well be something wrong. Looking into 360 degree feedback system can be a time consuming process.

Be A Mirror

Put simply, 360 feedback (also known as multi-rater feedback) is a feedback system where employees are rated by different members of their organization, across different levels of seniority, on certain competencies or behaviors. Feedback is gathered from an employee's colleagues, direct reports, manager(s) and sometimes even their clients. The goal is to gain a well-rounded view of employee performance by revealing areas of strength and any weaknesses from different perspectives. A 360-degree feedback system can be used as part of a more extensive performance management system. It is not advised, though, as this can erode trust between employees over time. On occasion, 360-degree feedback may be implemented within a single department. The department manager may hire a consultant to help with the process, or the survey may be designed and administered by employees who determine the performance dimensions to be rated, collect the data, and hire temporary employees to collate the data and generate the reports. The objective of the 360-degree feedback process differs from company to company however the main objective of a 360-degree performance review used to evaluate the performance of the employee in a holistic manner expert in this field often claim that a properly and effectively implemented 360-degree feedback process makes the employee more comfortable with the organization and lead to their overall development along with boosting their performance. We recommend a strengths-based approach to development where the primary focus is on an individual’s natural strengths rather than areas that do not come most naturally. Focusing coaching on only developmental areas will give only incremental results while focusing on people’s natural talents can provide exponential growth. Keeping up with the latest developments regarding 360 appraisal is a pre-cursor to Increased employee motivation and building the link between performance and rewards.

A 360 process can help to establish a level of comfort with the idea of giving and receiving feedback so that this becomes the norm. A way that 360 reviews can help managers is that they give them outside insights into how their direct reports are performing (e.g. feedback from other departments), which can give them a broader view of their employees’ performance. Again, this will provide them with the insights they need to better manage and develop their teams. If you plan to organize 360 reviews reviews 3-4 times a year or more often, we recommend making questionnaires with no more than 30-40 questions (4-7 competencies). If you plan to launch a review once a year, you can add 40-60 questions or even more if you want to get a more complete picture. If you are one of the recipients in a 360 review, try to seperate data from interpretation. The point here is that by separating data and interpretation, you understand more where the feedback comes from and where it goes. Whether you agree or disagree with the feedback, a better understanding will always help. When a 360 degree feedbackproject is initiated, by top leadership, a manager, human resources, or an employee, a user design team smoothes the way. A design team composed of six to fifteen employees from various organization levels and functions shares the responsibility for designing, implementing, and assessing the 360 degree feedbackprocess, and it ensures employee involvement and assists with communication. The specificity/anonymity conundrum takes another turn when the idea of 360 feedback software is involved.

Analysis And Decision Making

If you have a white collared job at a medium or large company chances are you have participated in 360 degree surveys in the past, either as a focus, or maybe by giving feedback on one of your managers. According to Forbes over 85% of the Fortune 500 use the 360 degree feedbackprocess as a cornerstone of their overall leadership development process. Important trends and transformations are taking place in our organizational landscape, and they have profound implications for the way we work and manage our work. In this context, we can better understand and, indeed, appreciate why 360-degree feedback systems have become so popular. We need to look at the larger context of the organization and its overall processes of development as a development system and then see how well integrated the 360-degree feedback process is. That is, what are the different policies, practices, and tools that the organization is already using for purposes of development? For example, competency models, succession planning, management development programs, performance management tools, and coaching may already be part of an organization's development strategy. Then, we need to ask how well they play together in an integrated way and how linked they are to the organization's business goals and strategies. For small groups of 360 degree reviewees (up to 30), we recommend limiting a 360-degree feedback review by one or two weeks. Reviews with a large number of reviewees may take 3-4 weeks, sometimes longer. However, we do not recommend stretching your review too much, as this may lead to such issues as less relevance of feedback (outdated or influenced by other reviewers). 360 degree feedbackcan be used to feed into an employee’s personal development plan and help formulate new goals and objectives for them to work on in the future. This will enable direct, honest, and actionable feedback to be provided to your employee, and as a result, help guide them to improve professionally. People need to feel in control of their destiny - that is why a clear understanding of 360 degree feedback is important to any forward thinking organisation.

Naturally, if a new assessment process is more accurate and fairer, users will want it to be extended to support performance appraisal and pay policies. When managers recognize the 360 degree assessments provide reliable information, they will begin using the results to support selection, placement, and succession planning. 360 degree feedbackserves as an integrator to human resources decision processes because higher-quality assessment information naturally replaces lower-quality information. In many organizations it would be foolish to suddenly mandate more sharing of 360-degree assessment information about individuals. A number of these organizations are still command-andcontrol environments where decisions are made at the top of the hierarchy and passed down with the expectation that employees will implement and not ask questions. Engaging a wide segment of the organization in collective learning would be a foreign concept. When we only have the perspective of leaders and managers, we only see half the story. Co-workers highlight problems underlying poor teamwork in the company. Maybe environmental factors, such as inadequate communication channels, are hampering collaboration? 360 degree feedbackprovides a solution for assessing behaviors associated with soft skills and employee competencies but may not be the best source for measuring results. Unlike competencies, which are displayed to a wide range of coworkers, actual results may be known only to the supervisor. Therefore, blending the 360 degree assessment of performance on competencies with the supervisor's judgment of results provides an effective model reflecting both how work gets done and what gets done. Without the right training or understanding of the purpose behind 360 surveys, these reviews can backfire and actually have a negative effect on employee productivity and workplace culture. Analysis and decision making become easier when an understanding of what is 360 degree feedback is woven into the organisational fabric.

You Can Be An Agent Of Transformation

360-degree feedback has a range of benefits. Employees feel more comfortable in an open and transparent work environment. It reduces imposter syndrome and related workplace insecurities and can boost employee engagement by seeking input from all levels or the organization. Sharing 360 degree questions in advance can have the dual benefit of giving people time to prepare their answers in advance, and also providing reassurance that everyone will be asked the same questions in the interviews. Although many advocates recommend sharing the behavior feedback with the supervisor, so that he or she can serve as a performance coach, this policy creates a dilemma: The supervisor cannot use the information for coaching at one time and then simply "forget" it later when making appraisal and pay decisions. Many organizations face an ethical, and potentially legal, challenge when they collect and report multisource assessment information under the auspices of developmental-only feedback and then encourage employees to share the feedback with their supervisor. One can uncover further particulars regarding 360 assessment instruments in this Wikipedia article.

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