360s are a great way for good employees to get even better. 360s expand a participant’s pool of raters and combined perspectives of their performance. 360s provide balance. Top-down feedback only reveals one manager’s opinion or viewpoint, but 360 or multi-rater feedback allows for more input from peers, direct reports, even customers and provides a more complete picture of individual leaders’ skills, behaviors, abilities or performance.
360 feedback data provides insights about the results of a person’s past performance, behavior, and interactions, and can significantly influence how that person chooses to perform, behave and interact in the future. When done effectively, 360-degree feedback can transform individuals and organizations for the better.
WHY USE 360 FEEDBACK?
360 degree feedback offers several advantages over top down or single-source assessments:
- Measure Performance: 360 surveys are crafted to measure observable behaviors and provide specific and accurate qualitative information to employees about their workplace performance.
- Increase Self Awareness: Managers are able to see how their behavior affects those around them and how others perceive their ability
- Reduce Single-Source Bias: More than one perspective permits the ratings to be averaged across multiple respondents, which tends to provide a truer evaluation of the manager’s performance.
- Individuals Can Rate Themselves: Involving the feedback recipient can positively affect the implementation, administration and impact of the 360 process. Comparing and contrasting self scores with those of other rater groups provides a useful mirror to help highlight alignment and agreement and further enhance self-awareness.
- 360°s Educate All Respondents: 360° assessments can be used to reinforce organizational values, vision and mission and help participants and raters alike to better understand what it takes to be successful in the organization. 360° feedback can contribute greatly to an organization’s common language, culture and unity.
HOW A 360 WORKS
Successfully Launching 360-Degree Feedback
Preparing and conducting your first 360-degree feedback project with us is easy. Here are a few tips for getting started right.
- Set Goals
Decide what you want your 360-degree survey process to measure and select the corresponding assessment. (i.e. leadership, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence) How will you use the results? Who will participate?
- Prepare Participants
Educate your survey respondents and participants. Let them know what to expect and how the process will help them individually and the organization as a whole.
Explain the goals of the 360 process
- How the results will be presented and used
- Answer any questions and address individual’s concerns
- Instruct how to complete the surveys and add comments
- Communicate confidence in the 360-degree feedback process
The more confident participants are in the process and its goals, the more candid and accurate their responses will be. More honest, complete responses mean more actionable results.
- Ensure Confidentiality
One of the strengths of 360° feedback is the ability to receive and give constructive feedback without fear of reprisal. 360-degree feedback should give the subject an accurate view of how his/her performance is perceived by others. If respondents fear their responses can harm them in any way, they will choose safe rather than honest responses. Less-than-candid feedback severely limits the effectiveness of 360-degree feedback.
- Develop a follow-up program
Before you launch your next 360 survey, put the structure in place to follow-up on the survey results. You can decide who will be in charge of individual coaching to help participants understand their reports and use the information to initiate change. Use the results to drive training and development programs for employees and managers.
Follow-up is imperative to maximizing the value derived from 360-feedback. Commit to an ongoing process An effective feedback system is cyclical in nature. Once a baseline is established, progress can be measured against past performance. Whether it’s semi-annual, annual or bi-annual, give your leaders and your organization the benefit of regular feedback.
WHERE TO USE 360°
Training
360s for Training
- Provide a baseline to measure improvement over time (pre-post surveys)
- Tie training concepts to observable leadership behaviors
- Focus improvement efforts in key development areas
- Act as starting point for individual development planning
Coaching
360s for Coaching
- Identify strengths & weaknesses; focus development efforts
- Establish a baseline to measure improvement over time
- Create basis for accountability between participant and coach
- Lay foundation for self awareness and improvement
Leadership Development
360s for Development
- Identify strengths & weaknesses; focus development efforts
- Establish a baseline to measure improvement over time
- Encourage self-awareness, improvement, long-term career development
- Educate participants and raters about organizational values, expectations
- Help develop business and interpersonal skills
The STAR Advantage
Founded in 1996, STAR360feedback has conducted 360 assessments in 48 countries and 35 languages. After processing millions of surveys and supporting clients ranging from fortune 50 companies to one-person consultancies, STAR360feedback understands how to help organizations get the most from their feedback investment.
At STAR360feedback, we realize organizations don’t invest in assessments to capture data, they are investing in and expect positive skill improvement. This focus informs all aspects of our 360 processes. Our surveys use behaviorally based questions and our report teach participant how to use the data to improve their skills.
While our feedback reports contain all the traditional 360 data and analysis, the foundation of our reports is a simple change model that teaches participants how to use the data to improve performance. The reports are interactive pdf’s that allow participants to build their action plan right in the report and share their action plan with their manager. The reports also make it easy for coaches to help participants create their action plans and support participants as they implement their plan.
Bottom line, STAR360 helps you become the expert by drawing on decades of their experience and passion for using feedback to create positive behavior change. They have developed leading-edge tools that transform feedback into performance improvement.