The 360º Feedback Process
What is 360º Feedback?
A 360° feedback process is a type of employee review process whereby subordinates, peers, managers, cross-functional peers, senior leaders, and/or customers provide performance and behavioural feedback to the reviewee. A 360° feedback process is intended to provide specific, detailed feedback on the reviewee’s current observable skill set. Common areas assessed by this type of review include: leadership, communication, collaboration, teamwork, problem-solving, organization skills, efficiency, motivation, creativity, project management, time management, and adoption of the organization’s values and support of its desired culture.
Because of the ability to obtain information from a variety of relevant sources, this type of review provides a more comprehensive assessment of employee job performance than a standard performance appraisal completed only by the reviewee’s direct manager.
Standard Performance Appraisal vs. 360º Performance Review
A standard performance appraisal is typically used by managers in deciding whether the reviewee is eligible for a raise, bonus, or a promotion. These reviews typically occur annually and tend to focus on whether the reviewee is meeting the overall expectations of employment. Many HR experts advise against using 360° feedback for the purposes of raises, bonuses, or promotions as it is felt this could foster competition among employees that could skew results instead of fostering a positive workplace environment. Rather, 360 feedback should be used to provide direction for a developmental plan for the reviewee. Reviewees will also feel more receptive to the feedback when they know it’s intended to encourage their growth.
What are the Pros & Cons of the 360º Review?
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Provide better, more accurate, more well-rounded, and more diverse feedback and a range of insights about the reviewee
Helps identify development for both the reviewee and the organization.
(a) When you see feedback coming from multiple sources, this makes for a stronger case that the issue is something the reviewee needs to work on.
(b) At the organization level, the assessment may highlight challenges across multiple employees, indicating a potential organizational issue.360° feedback processes make managers better:
(a) Provides a safe place for employee feedback. Also, the anonymity results in more candid responses.
(b) Can help inform a reviewee’s holistic understanding of their impact on individuals in their workplaces.
(c) It can also give the reviewee insights into how others perceive the employees the reviewee is responsible for.A variety of perspectives means that the reviewee tends to be more trusting of the feedback they’ve received.
Cons
Need the right participants and methods to be effective
(a) A wide range of raters is needed to ensure the results will not be skewed.
(b) It is important that you don’t include only those who will provide a good rating or those who will only be negative. Balance is important in obtaining a well-rounded outcome.The process is more involved. It requires more effort and takes more time to complete.
Those involved in providing feedback may feel disengaged if nothing comes from their efforts/comments.
360° feedback processes can sometimes focus too heavily on weaknesses. To address this, the questions compiled should be done carefully and delivered thoughtfully to obtain the full spectrum of feedback.
What is the 360º Process?
The goal of the 360° feedback process is to provide positive, measurable, long-term growth and development for the reviewee.
The use of this process for more than 40 years has resulted in the identification of best practices to ensure an effective feedback process:
(1) Clarify the purpose of the feedback process for every member of the organization
It is not unusual for reviewees (and the reviewers) to be anxious about how the data from a 360° feedback process will be used. The organization will need to ensure that the parties understand how the information will be used. This process, as noted above, is to assist with the development of the reviewee as a part of the organization. This is not a performance appraisal or part of a promotion or salary review.
Some of the outcomes of a 360° feedback process may be:
Increased awareness of the reviewee’s performance and work-related behaviours
Increased awareness of co-workers’ expectations of reviewees
A greater alignment of performance expectations between reviewees and others
Improved informal communication and feedback
Improved performance
Completing a 360° feedback process is time consuming and it is important for everyone who participates to understand what they might expect in return.
(2) Clarify rater anonymity, accountability, and selection
Individuals selected as raters should be advised whose ratings will remain anonymous (typically peers and direct reports) and those whose ratings will not be anonymous (typically the reviewee’s direct managers).
Peers and direct reports may be concerned about retaliation for their ratings. Several studies have demonstrated that permitting anonymous feedback from these categories of raters is more likely to result in candid and objective feedback than if the ratings are not anonymous. Interestingly, direct reports have been frequently found to provide higher scores for their supervisors indicating increased leniency towards their bosses. The best way to ensure accurate feedback from all raters is to discuss their accountability for providing honest and meaningful responses to questions.
Reviewees should be allowed to select their raters. This helps to increase their sense of ownership of the process and the feedback. When selecting raters, reviewees should ensure they have sufficient experience with the reviewee’s work to be able to answer the questions and to provide specific examples of the reviewee’s performance and behaviour in the workplace.
To maintain the anonymity of the peers and direct reports, ensure that sufficient are chosen so that their information can be presented in the aggregate.
(3) Prepare participants
Both the raters and the reviewee need to be orientated to the 360° feedback process, the objectives of the process, the administration of the process, and how to avoid rating errors.
(4) Review and interpret feedback results
A necessary condition for initiating and sustaining behavioural change is the ability to interpret critical feedback from others in a positive fashion. Many researchers and HR professionals recommend that the feedback from the raters is provided to the reviewee by someone familiar with 360° feedback process to help the reviewee make sense of the information and to help select target areas for development.
(5) Develop an action plan
Once feedback has been collected, it’s time to review the responses, assess the findings, and sort out the strengths and weaknesses identified by the raters. A 360° feedback process results solely in information gathering. The next step is to meet with the reviewee and share the feedback. Aligning with the goals of the exercise, frame the conversation as a growth opportunity and develop a specific and measurable action plan to facilitate change. Reviewees will need support from their organization and their direct leadership to ensure time is taken to follow through.
(6) Follow-up
Like any sort of strategic planning, follow-up on the action plan for the feedback from the 360° process should occur regularly to ensure progress towards accomplishing the identified goals. Managers who follow through on these action plans have shown significant improvement in their leadership effectiveness. The following areas of change have been identified by researchers: increased self-awareness, performance, and skill improvement, improved self-perception accuracy, promotability, and improved attitude towards work.
2 Leslie, J. B. (2002). 360-degree feedback: Best practices to ensure impact. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
3 Nowack, K. M. (1992). Self‐assessment and rater‐assessment as a dimension of management development. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 3(2), 141‐155.