Organisational behaviour

360 Degree Assessment

360-degree feedback is a management tool that gives employees the opportunity to receive feedback from multiple sources

360-degree feedback is a management technique that allows employees to obtain feedback from a variety of sources. A 360-degree evaluation is another name for it. Because the response comes from all sides, it's called 360-degree feedback (subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, etc.).

When to use it

● To provide you with feedback from others on your performance and management style in order to assist you in developing an effective personal development plan.
● To assist the company in evaluating your performance and making salary and promotion decisions.
● To keep an eye on the leadership standard or the overall culture of the company.

Origins

The concept of gathering input from various sources to evaluate performance is as ancient as civilisation. During the Wei Dynasty in third-century China, for example, an imperial rating system was employed to evaluate the performance of people at the imperial court.

During World War II, the German military used multiple-source feedback to evaluate soldiers, with peers, superiors, and subordinates providing insight and ideas on how to improve performance. Behavioral theorists focused on employee motivation and job enrichment in the 1950s, with the goal of making work more intrinsically appealing.

360-degree assessment, as we know it now, was developed in this context.

Clark Wilson, an organizational psychologist who worked at the World Bank, is frequently credited with inventing it. Clark employed the initial tool, known as the 'Survey of Management Practices' (SMP), in his lectures at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. The DuPont Company was the first to use Clark's SMP in 1973, and it was quickly adopted by others, including Dow Chemicals and Pitney Bowes. By the 1990s, 360-degree feedback had become commonplace, with hundreds of survey devices available. Human resources consultants began to notice the concept as well, which helped spread it even more.

What it is

An employee's evaluation was once a year by their direct boss under the traditional yearly appraisal method. The review, on the other hand, was often a complete waste of time if that manager didn't have a clear knowledge of their work or lacked emotional intelligence.

The solution to these superficial and biased reviews is 360-degree feedback (also known as multi-rater feedback or multi-source feedback). 360-degree feedback is based on an employee's immediate work circle's perspectives. Direct comments from an employee's subordinates, peers, and supervisors, as well as a self-evaluation, are usually included. Feedback from external sources, like as customers and suppliers, or other interested stakeholders, is sometimes included.

How to use it

360-degree feedback enables people to learn how others see their performance as an employee, coworker, or staff member. There are four main elements:

● self-appraisal;

● superior’s appraisal;

● subordinates’ appraisal;

● peers’ appraisal.

Self-appraisal is the process of assessing your own accomplishments, as well as your qualities and faults. The conventional element of the procedure is the superior's appraisal, in which he or she gives an opinion on how effectively you have met your goals over the last year or so. Subordinate appraisal is an important element of the 360-degree feedback process because it allows your employees to rate how successfully you managed them, such as how well you communicated with them, how well you delegated, and how much coaching support you offered. Finally, peer evaluations (also known as internal customers) can help you determine how effective you are at working cooperatively within the organization, such as by being responsive

The stages involved in developing a 360-degree feedback platform are as follows:

● The person being evaluated names all of the important people (superiors, subordinates, and peers) whose opinions should be sought.

● All of these people are sent a survey, with the assurance that the information they contribute would be kept anonymous. The survey usually comprises a sequence of closed-end questions (for example, 'How effective is this individual at interacting with his/her team, 1 = extremely poor, 3 = average, 5 = very good') as well as some open-ended questions (for example, 'Please explain why you gave this rating').

● The survey findings are compiled into a report for the individual, which includes the average ratings and anonymized written responses.

● The participant is given the results and meets with a 'coach,' who is knowledgeable about reading these types of surveys.

Most significant companies now employ a 360-degree assessment system. It's regarded as a valuable developmental tool because it tracks how an individual's skills and management capacities improve over time (say, once a year).

One point of contention is whether 360-degree assessments should be used exclusively for personal growth or as a factor in compensation and promotion decisions. While the data it offers is valuable, utilizing it to make salary and promotion choices runs the risk of people attempting to 'game' the system, for as by persuading their staff to give them high ratings. Of course, this may not succeed, but the end result will almost certainly be a contaminated collection.

Top practical tip

While 360-degree feedback is unquestionably superior than traditional top-down feedback, it does necessitate careful implementation. If your company has never utilized it before, you should seek assistance from a human resource consulting agency in implementing the process. Care must be taken when requesting input from subordinates and peers, ensuring that it is completely anonymous, and collating the information in a useful fashion..

Top pitfall

When you first receive 360-degree feedback as a manager, you may be surprised to learn that the ratings you receive from your subordinates often reveal that you aren't as adept at managing as you believed. The biggest blunder you can make is going on a 'witch hunt' to figure out who provided you the bad reviews — not only is this against the rules, but it also erodes trust. The second most common error is to dismiss the results and think they are incorrect. The results reveal your employees' perceptions, and even if you disagree with their viewpoints, their perceptions are their reality, and thus have a huge impact on how you engage with one another — for better or worse.

So, if you get 360-degree feedback, make sure to take it seriously and seek guidance from a colleague or a coach on how to improve your ratings next time.

Notion Templates

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● Annual performance peer-review

● Annual performance self-review