360s: How to do Them Right
There are few professional development tools as valuable and effective as the 360-degree assessment. A properly designed 360 assesses an individual’s performance on various activities and attributes that lead to job success — and ultimately help the organization reach its goals. The tool is called a 360 because several people surrounding the employee — supervisors, peers, and subordinates/clients/customers — assess the employee’s activities and attributes. The employee also completes a self-evaluation.
A 360 benefits the employee because it can reveal their self-awareness blind spots and help them learn how to improve performance. A 360 can also be used to implement a cultural change, assess people on dimensions of performance previously considered unnecessary, and/or identify negative behaviors that an organization wants to eliminate.
There are some specific components to the creation and administration of the 360s that are critical to their effectiveness.
Measure what is essential to the organization and to the job.
Oftentimes, organizations use their company values as a framework for assessment. For example, “Rate this person’s ingenuity on a 1 to 5 scale,” is an item you might find on a 360, but this item is ineffective because it leaves too much to interpretation and because it may not have anything to do with the job. Should the accountant really show ingenuity? Instead, assess specific behaviors that align with both the job tasks and company goals.
Allow people to choose their evaluators.
Imagine there’s a person on your team who criticizes others but doesn’t pull his own weight. Now imagine your team evaluates your leadership performance, and that guy’s critical ratings and comments are in the mix with everyone else’s. Would you question the 360 results? Would you devalue some of the comments? A wise person does not give equal weight to the feedback of all people; therefore, a good 360 doesn’t acquire data from just anyone. When you can choose who contributes to your 360, you choose evaluators who know you well and whose advice you want. This approach facilitates valuable feedback because the person being evaluated has some control and investment in the process of their development.
Keep the feedback private.
360s are most frequently used for employee development, which means that 360s need to be a confidential space to address poor performance. Think about this…if you know that your coworker’s boss will be seeing 360 information and that information could affect your coworker’s raise/promotion, you are likely to tailor your feedback based on how you want it to impact your coworker. For that reason, 360s are only useful for development when the feedback goes straight to the individual being rated or to a trusted third party, such as HR or an outside professional (i.e. an executive coach). Then, the individual can share their chosen development goals and plan with their supervisors and 360 contributors to let them know how their feedback is being used. Again, this approach gives the individual some control as well as psychological safety.
Do not combine development and performance assessment.
On occasion, an organization will utilize a 360 as a promotion tool; for example, a company might conduct 360s on candidates for a high-level position, hoping to collect broad feedback concerning their overall performance. While this can be an effective use of 360s, the same survey should not be used simultaneously for development. To understand why, imagine your favorite coworker asking you to provide 360 feedback regarding how he/she on needs to improve. Now imagine them asking you to submit a 360 that will be used to determine if they get a promotion. Are you going to give the same feedback for both 360s? Probably not. So organizations that use 360s for both development and performance must separate those surveys and be honest with evaluators concerning how their feedback will be used.
Morgeson, F. P., Mumford, T. V., & Campion, M. A. (2005). Coming full circle: Using research and practice to address 27 questions about 360-degree feedback programs. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 57(3), 196 209.
