Frequently Asked Questions – 360 Assessments FAQ
What other names are there for 360 degree feedback?
Who participates in a 360 assessment?
What do organisations measure when using 360 assessments?
What is the purpose 360 degree feedback?
What are the potential uses for 360 degree feedback?
What are the advantages of 360 degree feedback?
How often should 360 degree feedback be performed?
How confidential and fair will the process be?
Why should I participate in this process?
What is a 360 assessment?
A 360 assessment is a process of gathering information from others regarding the behaviours, competencies or personality attributes of an individual within the workplace. It is also referred to as 360 degree feedback, essentially the term covers any evaluation process involving feedback from multiple sources.
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Are there other names for 360 assessments?
A 360 assessment is also known as multi-rater feedback, multi-source feedback, multi-source assessment, 360 degree feedback, 360 degree appraisal, 360 degree evaluation and 360 degree survey.
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Who participates in a 360 assessment?
The 360 assessment is a process of collecting feedback from:
- Self
- Line manager
- Peers/colleagues
- Internal / external customers
- Direct reports / subordinates
These are referred to as the relationship categories and the individuals making up these categories are the participants in the process.
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What do organisations measure when using 360 assessments?
- Leadership characteristics
- Behaviours and competencies associated with job performance and success
- Compliance or alignment with organisational values
- Key performance indicators (KPI’s)
- Any other personal characteristics important to building a successful organisation
Since 360 measurement is based on perceptions, it is generally best applied to qualitative measurement as opposed to hard quantitative measures.
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What is the purpose 360 degree feedback?
The goal of 360 degree feedback is to enhance awareness of one’s strengths and identify potential developmental opportunities to increase personal and team effectiveness. Multi-rater feedback may also be used for performance evaluation, however, there is on-going debate regarding the value of 360 assessments in performance evaluations with valid arguments being made by both those for and against the use of 360s in this regard. Our experience has shown us that 360 assessments are most effective when used for developmental purposes.
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What are the potential uses for 360 degree feedback?
- Self-development
- Executive development
- Supervisory and management training
- Team building
- Performance management
- Leadership development
- Training needs assessment
- Talent identification/Succession planning
- Personnel selection
What are the advantages of 360 degree feedback?
To the individual:
- Helps individuals gain a realistic view of how others perceive them;
- Encourages self-development;
- Can uncover hidden lights and blind spots;
- Provides clarity about one’s strengths and insight about potential areas for improvement and development;
- Focuses on observed behaviours that can be modified;
- Feedback coming from a number of different people eliminates bias and is more likely to be accepted;
- Inspires people to take ownership of their own learning and development;
- Helps increase understanding of the behaviours required to improve individual effectiveness;
- Provides for a confidential process to obtain feedback from others who work closely with the individual;
- Clarifies supervisory and managerial expectations.
To the team:
- Increases communication between team members;
- Initiates individual and team change;
- Fosters higher levels of trust and better communication as individuals identify the causes of breakdowns;
- Helps people understand how their behaviour influences both their own personal effectiveness and how they impact the smooth running of the organisation;
- Supports teamwork by involving team members in the development process;
- Increases team effectiveness.
To the organization:
- Provides graphic, numerical and open-ended information to be used for developmental purposes in the form of a summary feedback report;
- Promotes an open culture where giving and receiving feedback is an accepted norm;
- Encourages maturity and responsibility and creates an environment in which people accept criticism as a means toward improvement and give criticism in a constructive and forthright manner;
- Helps increase understanding of the behaviours required to improve organisational effectiveness;
- Reinforces organisational culture by linking survey items to organisational leadership competencies and company values;
- Enables better career development planning and implementation for employees;
- Improves customer service by having customers contribute to the evaluation process;
- Helps with training needs analysis.
How often should 360 degree feedback be performed?
360 assessment are most effective when conducted on a regular basis so that the impact can be felt and measured and improvement can be continuous. It is best to allow for a period of at least 6 months before a follow up assessment is carried out. This allows sufficient time to make improvements based on feedback received. For optimum effect, a period of no longer than 18 months should pass before a re-run of any particular 360 assessment.
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What are raters and ratees?
A ratee – sometimes referred to as a candidate – is an individual who is being assessed in the 360 process. The ratee receives feedback from the assessment at the end of the process.
A rater – sometimes referred to as an evaluator – is a participant who has been identified to evaluate a particular ratee. The rater is the person that completes the assessment questionnaire for rates that they have been identified to evaluate. Raters do not receive feedback unless they are also ratees themselves.
It is advisable to allow the ratees to identify the people that they feel can perform a fair evaluation on them. The process for doing this is referred to as the Nomination process.
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How confidential and fair will the process be?
As a professional external service provider Origin can administer the process and all reports will then be generated confidentially outside of your organisation. The 360 process is an extremely unbiased and confidential process. Ratees are provided with the opportunity to nominate the people that will rate them and these nominations can be reviewed and validated by the ratee’s line manager. This results in buy-in by both the ratee and their line manager and ensures a fair process with valid feedback being provided to all candidates.
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Why should I participate in this process?
You will receive valuable feedback from many different sources and considering the diversity of these opinions, it is beneficial for you to participate fully in this process for career development purposes. There are many advantages to participating in the 360 degree Assessment Process:
- By rating another employee (be it your Line Manager, Peer/Colleague, Internal Customer or Subordinate/Direct Report), you are either acknowledging that employee for their good behaviour or are assisting them to make improvements in their character / behaviour.
- You are assisting the organisation understand the dynamics that enhance / hinder exceptional organisational performance and contribute to improvements.
- You will receive an individualised 360 degree Assessment report reflecting both your individual ratings as well as the overall average of the group.
- Line management is given an objective view of behavioural trends of employees and this enables them to:
- Have an informed discussion with you;
- Make better decisions regarding various aspects of your future and development plans; and
- Obtain objective inputs for your performance review.
- The process is totally confidential:The outcome of the process may enable a meaningful/objective performance and development discussion.
- No one in the organisation will have sight of the scores you gave to another person; and
- Your 360 degree assessment report is provided directly to you.
