10 Unavoidable Steps for An Effective 360 Degree Feedback Process

As you know, a company can have several feedback systems as part of its employee lifecycle. This includes assessments of employee performance, wellness surveys of workers, customer views, and much more. However, the 360-degree evaluation that continues to acquire popularity throughout the years is one of the most interesting and long-standing techniques of giving & receiving feedback.

What is 360-degree feedback?

The 360-degree review process is a way of gathering, measuring, and reporting observations on an individual from persons with whom they have worked both within and externally. When compared to traditional feedback systems, this makes the feedback process more objective.

The 360-degree feedback method may differ significantly from one organization to the next, but it follows a similar pattern. The goal of a 360-degree evaluation is to give employees a holistic view of how they are perceived in the workplace on a variety of critical developmental variables. The assumption is that gathering multiple opinions (rather than simply top-down feedback) can eradicate or at the very least decrease biases that may exist inside specific organizations. Following that, the same team members who offered the original input should conduct assessments on a regular basis so that the individuals may get a feel of how their growth is proceeding.

Before jumping to the vital steps for an effective feedback process, let us check why should a company use 360-degree feedback?

Why use 360-degree feedback?

Performance reviews have two major objectives:

• Enhance the performance of personnel through developing – that is, improving – their abilities and
• Influence/inform personnel choices, such as who should be promoted, transferred, or fired, or who should receive pay raises and performance incentives.

360-degree feedback (versus manager reviews) is used for two major reasons. These are to:

• Enhance participants’ perceptions of fairness in the process, and to
• Improve the precision of evaluations.

Now let’s dive into the vital steps.

1. Communicate the process

It is critical to describe the process to all stakeholders if you are introducing multi-rater or 360-degree feedback for the first time in your firm. Many individuals are still unaware of the process because it is so new. Make sure everyone participating in the process understands the purpose, as well as how the process will be carried out and the outcomes, will be used. Take the time to explain everything in one-on-one meetings, group meetings, and emails to everyone.

It could take 1-3 weeks to communicate the process if in-person meetings are used with employees, supervisors, managers, and raters.

2. Selecting raters

Because numerous people are involved, rater selection is one of the most crucial stages in 360-degree feedback. Employees who are being evaluated should select a sufficient number of raters or feedback providers. There will be enough data for analysis if employees pick a sufficient number of reviewers. Examine the list of raters that your staff has chosen to ensure that no unnecessary person is on the list.

It may take at least a week or two to finish with the rater selection process, but be patient and careful with this step.

3. Choose the right software

Choose 360-feedback software that allows you to easily create a questionnaire for all of your employees. It should be simple to use and require little or no training in order to save time learning how to utilize it. The software should be easily adaptable to meet the demands of the company while still being sturdy enough to keep data safe. Not only that, but the 360-feedback program you choose should have a responsive customer support team available to assist you with your problems at any moment.

An intuitive solution like SkizzleHR will help you tackle this situation.

4.  Framing the right set of questionnaires

While the tool is being finalized, you can focus on one of the most important tasks for the 360-degree review process – that is preparing the survey questionnaire. Make it clear and simple; a long questionnaire will bore readers, while a short one will be ineffective. Uncertain questions, on the other hand, will confuse readers and result in misleading ratings. The effectiveness of the process is largely determined by how well the right set of questions is framed.

5. Distributing questionnaires/surveys

Participants will be notified via email with instructions on how to begin and complete the 360-degree feedback process. Participants will distribute surveys to their chosen raters at this point.

Don’t take more than 1 week to distribute the survey.

6. Reviewing surveys

The most time-consuming component of the procedure is having participants fill out and submit the survey. This step’s duration is determined by the number of raters involved, the employee’s job role, and the company. Establishing deadlines at the start of the process is strongly suggested to guarantee that all raters finish their surveys on time.

It may take 2-4 weeks before all of the feedback is completed. This includes sending follow-up notifications to raters to complete the questionnaires.

7. Reports

A report is generated once all of the feedback sources have finished their surveys. The reports may be provided immediately to participants or the results may be delivered in a one-on-one feedback session, depending on your company’s feedback delivery method.

1-2 days can be taken for report generation if you are using a 360-degree feedback system.

8. Facilitating feedback

It is suggested that each person conducting the 360-review have a confidential feedback meeting. During these sessions, the employee’s boss or a coach may provide feedback. These discussions provide an opportunity to discuss strengths and areas for growth as well as gain a better grasp of the feedback report.

Depending on how in-depth you’d like the feedback sessions to be, each meeting could take 1-2 hours per participant.

9. Action plan

The essence of the process is to create a development plan for each participant in the review. The feedback from the 360 evaluation is used to create a development plan that can be implemented. Reviewing the areas for improvement can help the employee find crucial areas for growth. This allows the person to enhance their abilities by taking advantage of possibilities like training, workshops, conferences, coaching, mentorship, and so on.

The completion of the development plan could take 1-2 weeks.

10. Continuous evaluation

In your organization, the 360-degree feedback process should be made a regular activity, preferably once a quarter. When the technique is repeated only once a year or once every two years, its effectiveness declines. Having a continuous evaluation allows you to re-evaluate your staff on a regular basis and see how they’ve progressed since their last 360-degree review. Frequent feedback also aids in the acclimatization of both new and experienced employees to the process.

Re-evaluations should occur 8-12 months after the first 360 reviews.

Closing Thoughts

The most important takeaway from this extensive explanation of the 360-degree feedback process is that it is a useful tool for measuring and managing performance. It will only be fruitful if the organization follows the same approach year after year, as a well-thought-out and futuristic operation rather than a one-time work that runs its course too quickly.

Do you utilize a 360-degree feedback process in your organization? What steps did you take to ensure its effectiveness? We’d like to hear from you!

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