What is 360-degree feedback?
A process in which you evaluate yourself on a set of criteria, your manager evaluates you, as do your peers and direct reports. You receive a gap analysis between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. Effective 360-degree feedback processes also include coaching sessions and development planning.
What type of information should be targeted?
- Knowledge - understanding of job, industry, company
- Competencies - task proficiency
- Behaviours - patterns in relating to the environment (energy, optimism)
What are the benefits of 360-degree feedback degree feedback?
To the individual:
- The process helps individuals to understand how others perceive them
- Feedback is essential for learning
- Individuals can better manage their own performance and careers
- Quantifiable data on soft skills
To the team:
- Increases communication between team members
- Higher levels of trust and better communication as individuals identify the causes of breakdowns
- Better team environment as people discover how to treat others how they want to be treated
- Supports teamwork by involving team members in the development process
- Increased team effectiveness
To the organisation:
- Reinforced corporate culture by linking survey items to organisational leadership competencies and company values
- Better career development for employees
- Promote from within
- Improves customer service by having customers contribute to evaluation
- Conduct relevant training
How do you introduce 360-degree feedback to a potentially resistant organisation?
- Start at the top
- Conduct a pilot
- Directly address, up front, the issues that are at the source of the resistance
- Focus on the benefits for the individual or group
- Utilize an external consultant to minimize fears of confidentiality and inappropriate data usage
Is 360-degree feedback ever inappropriate?
Yes, when:
- the person receiving feedback is too new to the group or organisation
- there are not enough respondents who truly understand the full scope of the individual's responsibilities
- during a time of major change such as just before or after a merger or acquisition
- in an environment where there is a high degree of mistrust
Does 360-degree feedback really generate results?
Lyle Spencer and Charles Morrow in The Economic Value of Competencies: Measuring ROI, found that 360-degree feedback systems could yield a Return on Investment as high as 700 percent.