Many organizations conduct 360 assessments with their employees, but how the process is handled can determine whether employees see the exercise as a gift for their personal development or a huge waste of time. The value of the 360 feedback process is that it involves employees in their own development planning. Often times our main source of on-the-job feedback comes from our direct supervisor. Because 360 degree feedback collects information from not only supervisors, but direct reports, peers and cross-functional partners, it can provide a clearer picture of the opportunities employees have to improve professionally. If you are administering a 360 process for your organization, here are a few tips to help make it a positive experience for employees:
- Encourage employees to select a balanced set of raters who will provide honest and constructive feedback based on personal experiences with the employee
- Inform the raters that the purpose of the process is for personal development purposes and not for performance evaluation. Research shows that if raters think that salary or promotion decisions will be linked to the feedback they give, then their feedback is liable to be overly positive
- Be careful about cross cultural issues. In some Asian and Hispanic cultures, providing feedback, particularly to a superior, is pretty much taboo. This impacts both raters and the person being rated
- Reassure raters that their feedback will be anonymous (the only exception being the manager)
- Always try and have a coach available to discuss the feedback results – sometimes it can be difficult for the participant to interpret the results by themselves
- If you are doing a batch of 360s at the same time, think about the raters who might have to evaluate multiple people. This can result in “rater fatigue”
- Always link the results of the 360 assessments to the employees development plan which should be discussed with their supervisor
Managed well, the 360 process can be a powerful tool for self improvement. Managed poorly it can be seen as an irrelevant waste of time or worse, a de-motivator or destroyer of self confidence.
This post courtesy of Ben Nash
