Tweet

What Is A 360 Employee Performance Review

Written by: Ingrid Cliff

Article Overview: "A 360 is where a person gets feedback on their performance from their peers, their subordinates, their boss and in some cases even suppliers and clients. That's why it is called 360 – you get feedback from all around you." A 360 is a very intense tool and not to be messed with. I have seen it create miraculous shifts in previously stuck managers and I have seen it plunge people into a major stress crisis. I have even seen people totally ignore what all the facts are telling them and stay on their track. It is only a tool for a mature organisation willing to take it seriously and implement it correctly.

What Is A 360 Employee Performance Review

I was talking with a manager about their employee performance review processes. This company had been doing them for some time and wanted to take their reviews to the next level.

"What about a 360?" I was met with a very stunned look.

"I didn't think you thought of me that way" came the reply. It was my turn to look stunned.
"No – a 360 degree performance review process" was my reply.

"A 360 is where a person gets feedback on their performance from their peers, their subordinates, their boss and in some cases even suppliers and clients. That's why it is called 360 – you get feedback from all around you."

A 360 is a very intense tool and not to be messed with. I have seen it create miraculous shifts in previously stuck managers and I have seen it plunge people into a major stress crisis. I have even seen people totally ignore what all the facts are telling them and stay on their track. It is only a tool for a mature organisation willing to take it seriously and implement it correctly.

Why? Imagine you are in a room, having a quiet coffee by yourself. All of a sudden in walk 20 of your employees, peers and your boss. They each proceed to tell you exactly what is right and wrong with your leadership, your knowledge, your teamwork, your technical skills and a host of other things. All you are allowed to do is listen. Now you can see why it is intense!

There are lots of tools on the market to help create a 360 – many just focus on the forms and not the process (or the process to debrief and ensure the person remains stable!).
If you are looking at doing a 360 here are my best tips to help you create one that works for your business (no matter the tool you use).

• 360 should NEVER be mandatory. It should always be voluntary. If mandatory you will force people who may be having a lot of stress in their personal life to deal with an additional stress load which could push them over the edge.

• 360 should never be used as a promotion tool. It is designed to help people learn and grow and not punish and reward. If you take it in the positive development approach you are more likely to get honest feedback from participants and more willingness to deal with the results by the person. If it is for reward and punishment, the dynamics change and it is less effective.

• 360 questions need to be directly related to what matters in your organisation. There is no point doing a 360 if none of the questions relate to areas of importance to your company. Do you want managers to work across information silos – then measure it. Do you want managers to be inspirational leaders – then measure it.

• The boss goes first and shares their results with the management team. If you are serious about a 360, the boss should be the first person who has one and they should share the results with the management team. If they are not willing to be open and do the process, the company is not ready for a 360 generally.

• Confidentiality is crucial. Every subordinate, peer, client and supplier who responds should have their results pooled and not be identifiable. This assists in ensuring they will give honest feedback.

• Feedback is perception not proof. The results of a 360 are just people's perceptions of a person at that point in time. Something about their behaviour is triggering this result. Perceptions are not proof that a person is "bad" – they are just showing something in the behaviour needs to be modified.

• The process is more important than the forms. You need to ensure everyone is briefed beforehand (participant and raters) as well as ensure that you allow a good 2 hours with each person to debrief their results. The results can't be just mailed or handed to someone, they must be debriefed – taking into account emotional reactions as well as action setting for the future.

• No witch-hunts. There should be no witch-hunts over negative results. If a person decides to blame the raters and punish them – then you quickly need to deal with it as a case of workplace bullying.

Follow these processes and you will have a powerful tool to make significant change in your company. Miss any of them and you will get a paper exercise or conversely one that damages people for life. It's your choice.

Related Articles
  If You Haven’t Already, STOP Doing Annual Performance Reviews
  Performance Review Disagreements
  Here Is A Quick Way To Improve Your Performance Review
  Dealing with Performance Review Disagreements
  Employee Review Writer

Article Tags: 360 degree performance, boss, employee performance, leadership, next level, peers, personal life, plunge, promotion tool, quiet coffee, reply, stress load, subordinates, teamwork



Related Forum Posts
Post subject: It's Not Personal, just business - I so agree! Actually, the business world as we know it IS in trouble. I heard some stats last week that they expect by the time 2050 that 70% of workers will be freelancers. Employee/Executive Bullying won't be able to stand it when it could be easier for someone to simply contract with the nicer guy (or gal). I, for one, will be choosing the nicer ones!
HRPreneur - Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and I recently started my own Human Capital (HR) consulting firm called HRPreneur Inc. HRP focuses on making human capital a strategic differentiator for SME's. Below is a summary about HRP; Who We Are: HRP is a Human Capital consulting firm with 30 years of experience that becomes an extension of your company by providing a full array of services to help you create a highly engaged workforce focused on achieving strategic results in order to build a long lasting great company! Mission: HRP provides small and medium sized businesses a Strategic HR Business Partner to increase employee engagement, resulting in cost savings, increased productivity and results at an affordable rate! Vision: To inspire and warrant SME's reach their full competency! Cost Effectiveness: We provide over 30 years of experience at a fraction of the cost at a strategic executive HR business level You will save between 50% to 60% in costs per year on salary, bonus, benefits, training, office space alone We will provide you additional cost efficiencies through our services Services: • Strategic Human Resources Planning • Organizational Redesign • Change Management • Organizational Culture Development • Employee Engagement Programs • Leadership Assessment and Development • Compensation Design • Talent Acquisition • Assimilation and On-Boarding • Performance Management • Talent Management & Succession Planning • Human Resources Due Diligence • Human Resources Audit • Full Service HR Outsourcing
Re: Significance of Review Sites - Exactly! Review sites are very helpful for providing better understanding to a product or service.
ARTICLE: Performance coaching in the workplace - To create lasting performance change it is necessary to first understand the positive and negative influence that a person’s personal behaviors has on their execution and what impact these have on their ability to achieve success. Only when we fully understand a person’s behavioral patterns and create positive self-managing coaching strategies can we assist a person to create lasting performance change. The vast majority of employers believe coaching can deliver significant benefits to both individuals and organizations. The majority of employers plan to increase the use of coaching over the next few years, according to a new survey by the Institute of Personnel and Development. Nearly nine out of ten interviewed companies expect their managers and supervisors to deliver performance coaching as part of their day-to-day work. In another large industry-wide study it was found that most managers reported that they were confident in their ability to coach. However, the study also showed that the managers’ actual skills levels as coaches were typically poor. As a consequence they were not nearly as effective in their coaching as they believe themselves to be. Often times, they believed that coaching consisted of just providing 1-to-1 instructional feedback to their staff members on what to do in a given situation to perform better. Many recent studies have shown that technical skills only represent at best 20% of the contribution into our performance. The remaining 80% comes from our ability to choose or make a decision, assertiveness, commitment to grow, ability to concentrate, honesty, optimism, persistence, ability to perform well under stress and so on. These traits are commonly called our soft skills or attitude. Few managers understand just how deeply rooted their own behavior patterns are, let alone how to positively change them in other people. Performance coaching is frequently confused with other types of coaching, such as Executive coaching and Life coaching. Performance coaching is a form of Directive coaching. Executive coaching and Life coaching are both forms of Non-directive coaching. Directive coaching is usually more suitable for a manager who sometimes acts as a coach. Performance coaching in the workplace has developed immensely from what it was only 4 years ago. To choose the right coach will make a huge difference. You also better make sure to know what you want. If your coach knows what (s)he is doing – you will get on your way to get it! [i:38tu5pgr]- Peter J Karlsson[/i:38tu5pgr]
2 Forums Updates - Many of you have been writing in suggesting that on my website and in my newsletter we include the link to the actual forum post and not just the name of the post and a link to the Forums home page. Well, after looking into it I'm pleased to announce that this feature is now available. Thank you everyone for the suggestions! We've also added names for members based on how much they post. Level one is Newbie, Level 2 is Intern, Level 3 is Employee and so on... There are 10 levels in total. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone does! Keep the suggestions coming - they are great!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What If You Had a 100% Success Rate?

What Aweber Can Do For Your Online Business

RULE YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A SHINE STAR

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.