10 Tips for Successful 360 Degree Feedback
by Jo Ayoubi (Track Surveys)
People who are thinking about starting 360 Degree Feedback in their organisation, or who are looking at improving how they run their current process, often ask "what are the key things you need to get right for successful 360 Degree Feedback?", "how can I make 360 Degree Feedback really work for us?", or "how can I use 360 Degree Feedback really effectively to get visible and measurable change in our organisation?".
1. Be very clear at the start on what you're going to get out of the 360 Degree Feedback process - Is it going to help people identify their learning needs for leadership and management development? Is it going to be part of Appraisal process? Will it be used to manage problems with performance, if these arise? Will it affect employees' salaries, promotions, career prospects? Will it support your Talent Management activities?
2. What is the 360 Degree Feedback going to measure? - Be very clear on what you need, and what you're going, to measure. For instance, if the 360 Degree Feedback is going to measure leadership or management skills, make sure that the 360 statements are specifically asking about those management skills that are important and relevant for your company. It can also be a useful tool for assessing Return on Investment: if you want to use it for this, make sure you're linking the questions with your organisation's revenue or cost saving goals.
3. Don't use competency framework statements as your 360 Degree Feedback statements - your 360 Degree Feedback statements need to relate to very specific, observable behaviours. Competency framework statements can sometimes be vague or general, for example, instead of saying: "Strives to continually exceed customer service expectations" (hint: how can you tell if someone strives or not?), we would suggest breaking down the competence into specific, demonstrable actions, such as "Proactively contacts the client on a regular basis", "Finds ways of exceeding what we currently do to meet customer's expectations" or "Obtains and shares customer feedback to ensure we are exceeding customers' expectations".
4. Be wary of generic ‘leadership' or ‘manager' 360 Degree Feedback statements. Off-the-shelf statements or generic lists may be a useful place to start developing your 360 Degree Feedback statements, but employees and learners have been shown to have a very negative response to statements that sound ‘corporate' and that don't sound like they relate to their own organisation. Make sure you tailor your 360 Degree Feedback for your organisation; Feedback that's intelligent and personalised is much more likely to be successful.
5. Don't ask too many questions! We've worked with clients who started off wanting to ask over 150 questions in their 360 Degree Feedback - this is far too many. Think about how many learning points your employees can take on board at a time, and how many things they can focus on for change. Keep the 360 Degree Feedback focused on the key areas for change in your company. And think of the people who have to give feedback on more than one person! We have found that a good number of statements for successful 360 Degree Feedback is between 15 and 20.
6. Make sure your senior management or Board is fully supportive. Senior sponsorship and participation is very important if you are introducing 360 Degree Feedback into your organisation for the first time. Without visible support from the leaders in the business, your 360 Degree Feedback may end up as just another chore or tick-box exercise for the rest of the company.
7. Ensure that confidentiality is built into the 360 Degree Feedback process. By putting a few key steps in your 360 Degree Feedback process, you can ensure confidentiality and therefore help people to trust the process. Easy steps include requiring feedback from at least three colleagues, and make sure that the report randomises the scores and comments.
8. Keep the Reports Simple! Too many statistics, means, averages and graphs just end up confusing people and taking their focus off the key messages that the feedback is giving. The key things that employees need to know from their 360 Degree Feedback are 1) whether their Self-reviews are consistent with their colleagues' feedback 2) whether feedback from different colleague groups is consistent 3) what areas are strengths and 4) what they need to do better or differently.
9. Make sure that people understand how to read and interpret their 360 Degree Feedback reports. Until they get used to the concept of 360 Degree Feedback, employees need to be briefed and helped through the process and the information coming out of it. Provide one-to-one support for people who have difficulty understanding their feedback or knowing what to do next (or provide coaching and training for managers on how to use 360 Degree Feedback effectively with their people).
10. Ensure consistency across your organisation by using a robust, online delivery tool that is simple for employees and managers to use. If you have employees overseas, it's well worth investing a little extra in multi-language online 360 Degree Feedback. As well as giving your project consistency, credibility and a high profile, overseas staff will be much more enthusiastic and willing to buy-in to 360 Degree Feedback in their own language.