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Why 360-Degree Feedback is Essential: 10 Benefits You Need to Know

According to Forbes, over 85% of all the Fortune 500 companies use the 360 degree feedback process as a cornerstone of their overall leadership development process, showcasing the clear benefits of 360 degree feedback systems in major corporations..

The feedback system is often overlooked in employee management, despite its significant advantages of 360-degree appraisal. While employees typically receive feedback from their managers during quarterly or annual performance reviews, this may not be sufficient.

Peer feedback is essential for enhancing employee performance as colleagues may have a better understanding of the nature of work than managers. Thus, receiving feedback from peers brings additional advantages of 360-degree feedback in helping employees improve.

Understand 360-Degree Feedback from the following insightful video.

Why is 360 Degree Feedback Important?

In 360 degree or multirater feedback, managers, peers, direct reports, and sometimes even customers, consultants, and vendors are involved in the feedback process. It provides an overall analysis of the performance of the employee in the organization.

Here are the main reasons why 360-degree feedback is important in today’s workplace:

Provides a comprehensive evaluation of employee performance from different perspectives
Promotes a culture of openness and transparency within an organization
Enables informed decision-making about employee development, promotions, and job assignments
Identifies potential leaders and areas where employees need support or guidance
Aligns individual goals with organizational objectives, leading to improved organizational performance and greater success.
Encourages Continuous Improvement: Promotes ongoing development by highlighting specific areas for growth.
Builds Trust and Engagement: Boosts engagement and trust by recognizing contributions from all perspectives.
Reduces Bias in Evaluations: Balances performance reviews by including diverse viewpoints.
Fosters Accountability and Ownership: Encourages accountability as performance is assessed broadly.
Enhances Team Dynamics: Improves team support through understanding of each other’s skills.

10 Benefits of 360 Degree Feedback

360 degree feedback is an employee development tool that helps in building a skilled, dynamic, engaged, and productive workforce. Due to its innumerable advantages, most of the Fortune 500 organizations are using it for workforce development. The following section talks about the benefits of 360 feedback in an organization.

1. Increases Self-Awareness

“In a study conducted by Gallup among 65,672 employees, it was discovered that those who received feedback had 15.9% better turnover rates than employees who received no feedback.”

360 feedback is a valuable tool for enhancing employee self-awareness and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. By utilizing this process, employees can gain insight into their hidden strengths and weaknesses, which they may not have been aware of previously. The comprehensive nature of the 360 degree review process allows employees to gain a better understanding of their behavior and approach to work, ultimately leading to improved performance.

2. Offers Objective Evaluation

360 degree feedback provides the employee with a scope to get multiple inputs for their role, performance styles, and ideas. It provides a well-balanced view of the behavior and skills of the employee. It helps employees to know themselves from others’ perspectives and bridges the gap between what they think of themselves and what others think of them. This feedback system is constructive and more acceptable for the employees.

Also read: 10 Best Employee Feedback Tools To Track Performance

3. Reduces Workplace Bias

In a multi rater feedback process, feedback is collected not only from the manager but also from peers, subordinates, direct reports, and sometimes even customers. As a result, the feedback received in the 360-degree review process is completely impartial as it is not based on single person assessment. It helps in reducing managerial biases, which are often prevalent in the traditional feedback system.

4. Emphasises Employee Development

“According to Skills Gap Report, nearly 80% of Americans agree there is a skills gap, and more than a third (35%) say it affects them personally.”

Every employee should prioritize professional development to progress in their career. The 360 feedback process is a useful tool for identifying employee training needs and skill development opportunities.

Since employees become more self-aware through this process, they take responsibility for improving their existing skills and acquiring new ones. This not only leads to employee growth but also benefits the organization by increasing employee engagement and retention.

5. Improves Decision making

360-degree feedback is an excellent tool for managers to gain valuable insights into employee performance. This helps managers make informed decisions about employee development, promotions, and job assignments. With feedback coming from multiple sources, managers can identify employees’ strengths and areas for improvement.

This information helps managers provide targeted training and development programs that enable employees to grow in their roles. Additionally, 360-degree feedback highlights potential leaders and helps managers prepare them for leadership roles. This approach leads to better decision-making, improved employee performance, and organizational effectiveness.

6. Improves Work Relationships

“In a study of 530 organizations, Gallup reported that managers who received feedback showed an increase in 8.9% profitability and 12.5% productivity.”

In traditional one-to-one feedback, the one who receives feedback from superior generally has nothing to say from their side as it is one-sided. There is no sense of personal connection in this type of feedback process. But in 360 feedback, as superiors and subordinates review each other, it improves the superior-subordinate relationship. Everyone’s morale is boosted, and employees and managers work together to achieve mutual goals.

Also read: Benefits of 360 feedback for leaders

7. Creates Open Culture

Multi rater feedback helps in promoting a sense of an open culture in the organization where it is implemented. Every employee feels that their opinion is valued as they take part in the review of their peers and managers. The feedback process becomes the medium to share their opinions without having a fear of getting repressed.

8. Promotes Team Building

In a 360 degree feedback process, peers review each other frequently. They understand each others’ weaknesses and strengths very well, which helps them to work as a strong and cohesive team. They work collectively to improve the productivity of the organization. An effective team is one where each team member knows how to use each other’s strengths and weaknesses effectively and get the result.

Also Read: How do you prepare your team for a 360 degree review process

9. Improves Customer Relationship

When customers are made part of this feedback process, they feel that they are valued and given importance. Since employees work closely with the customers, sometimes they can identify certain strengths and weaknesses that even managers, peers, and others fail to identify during the 360 feedback process. Thus, it helps in improving customer service when organizations ask customers to be a part of the process.

10. Enhances Performance

One of the most important benefits of a 360-degree feedback process is the enhanced performance of employees. It helps in improving employee relationships, and self-accountability, and provides clarity on how to improve overall performance. This, in turn, improves employee engagement and retention of the organization. They feel valued since importance is given to their professional development, learning, and their opinions.

Companies that leverage the benefits of 360 degree feedback often see higher levels of employee engagement, as the inclusive feedback process makes employees feel heard and valued

Advantages of 360 degree appraisal

1. Holistic Feedback

One of the primary advantages of 360 degree appraisal is its holistic approach to gathering insights from multiple sources: peers, subordinates, managers, and sometimes even customers. This way, you get a comprehensive picture of an employee’s performance.

For instance, imagine a team leader known for hitting targets but not for communication. Feedback from team members might reveal that they need to work on delegation and empathy, while their manager praises them for strategy. Together, this feedback gives a fuller, more balanced view.

2. Identifies Blind Spots

We all have areas we think we’re doing well in but may actually be our weak points. A 360-degree review can reveal these blind spots. Let’s say Priya, a manager, thinks she’s a great listener. Her team, however, might say she tends to interrupt during meetings. This feedback highlights something Priya wouldn’t notice on her own, giving her a chance to improve.

3. Encourages Personal Growth

Knowing how peers perceive you can be an eye-opener and a motivator for self-improvement. For example, if an employee receives feedback that they often shy away from presenting their ideas, they may feel inspired to speak up more. Over time, with some encouragement and practice, they grow more confident and make a bigger impact on the team.

4. Strengthens Team Relationships

The 360-degree appraisal fosters a culture of transparency, where team members feel comfortable sharing honest feedback. Imagine a scenario where teammates are hesitant to tell a employee about his overly detailed emails that take too much time to digest. With a 360 review, they can communicate this constructively, leading to a more streamlined communication style and better team dynamics.

5. Aligns Personal Goals with Organizational Goals

This appraisal method allows employees to understand how their performance aligns with company goals and what adjustments are needed.

If Rina’s feedback shows she’s strong in creativity but less focused on deadlines, her manager might set specific time management goals to bring her performance in line with the team’s expectations, boosting productivity without stifling her creativity.

6. Enhances Accountability and Engagement

Knowing that everyone’s feedback matters can create a stronger sense of ownership. For instance, when team members know that their opinions count toward a colleague’s development, they become more invested in the team’s success. This mutual accountability can improve engagement and commitment, as everyone feels they’re part of a supportive and cohesive unit.

How Engagedly’s 360-Degree Feedback Empowers Organizations

Traditional performance evaluations often lack crucial perspectives, relying solely on manager assessments. This can lead to incomplete evaluations, hindering employee development and organizational growth. Engagedly’s 360-degree feedback module tackles this limitation, providing a comprehensive approach to performance assessment that benefits both individuals and organizations:

Enhanced Employee Development:

Multi-rater Feedback: Engagedly’s 360-degree feedback gathers input from peers, managers, direct reports, and even clients, offering a holistic view of an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This self-awareness empowers employees to take ownership of their development and chart a focused path for growth.

Targeted Development Plans: With a comprehensive understanding of their performance, employees can collaborate with managers to create personalized development plans. These plans leverage strengths, address weaknesses identified by diverse perspectives, and align with individual career aspirations.

Improved Management Effectiveness:

Unbiased Insight: Managers gain valuable insights into their own leadership style and how it impacts team performance. Peer feedback sheds light on communication, collaboration, and delegation practices, allowing managers to identify areas for improvement and refine their leadership approach.

Strengthened Team Dynamics: 360-degree feedback fosters open communication and builds trust within teams. By understanding how colleagues perceive each other’s strengths and weaknesses, teams can address interpersonal challenges, improve collaboration, and build a more cohesive working environment.

Data-Driven Decision Making:

Actionable Insights: Engagedly’s platform analyzes 360-degree feedback data to identify emerging trends and patterns within the organization. This data helps inform strategic decisions related to talent development, team building, and overall performance improvement initiatives.

Increased Performance Visibility: Leadership gains a bird’s-eye view of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses through aggregated feedback data. This enables them to identify areas requiring intervention, allocate resources effectively, and track progress towards improvement goals.

Engagedly’s 360-degree feedback module goes beyond simply providing data. It fosters a culture of continuous feedback and development, leading to:

Enhanced Employee Engagement: Feeling valued and supported by colleagues and managers increases employee engagement and motivation.

Strengthened Employer Branding: Organizations that prioritize employee development attract and retain top talent.

Improved Customer Satisfaction: A collaborative, engaged workforce translates into superior customer service and satisfaction.

Engagedly’s 360-degree feedback module is more than just a tool; it’s a catalyst for organizational transformation. By providing a holistic view of employee performance, empowering development, and informing data-driven decisions, it unlocks the full potential of both individuals and teams, driving sustainable success for the entire organization.

Also Read: 8 Points to Ensure an Effective 360 Feedback Process

360 Degree Review: Enhancing Organization, Employees, and Culture

Organizations seek to develop high-performing employees who are productive, engaged, and committed to their job. While continual feedback is critical for developing these top performers, many companies find that continuous feedback is not effective at all times. One of the major reasons for the same being, not all employees work directly with their immediate managers daily. This is where 360-degree review scores over other forms of the feedback systems and, hence, has gained acceptance among many companies.

Some companies remain skeptical of embracing the 360-degree review process. However, considering the pros and cons of 360-degree feedback, when done properly, the pros outweigh the cons, hands down.

This blog post offers insight into what is 360-degree feedback; the purpose of adopting a 360-degree feedback system, and how a 360-degree review can be helpful for an organization and its employees. Above all, its role in developing a work culture of an organization.

360-degree review process: What is it?

The 360-degree feedback, also known as a 360-degree review process, is an employee assessment framework that enables the organization to better understand employee performance and perceptions from both internal and external stakeholders using a variety of anonymous and private appraisal tools.

It serves as a mirror, revealing to employees their skills and talents, and weaknesses. The 360-degree review system not only assists employees in developing self-awareness but also in determining the extent to which their perceived inadequacies influence various stakeholders.

Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About 360 Degree Feedback

Why implement a 360-degree review process?

The 360 degree performance review mechanism enables you to hear from all stakeholders. In contrast to conventional performance assessment, wherein managers (direct/indirect) make the final verdict on an employee’s performance, the 360-degree review method enables you to receive inputs from colleagues, customers, suppliers, and a variety of other stakeholders.

This eliminates any prejudice a specific supervisor may have against an employee or vice versa. It focuses more on an employee’s performance and contribution to the team and to the business.

Does a 360-degree feedback help to change an employee’s outlook and performance?

Employees are the organization’s face and hence, their conduct and performance influence a company’s productivity and external stakeholders. The 360-degree review process can bring any form of mistakes or aberrations to notice and the concerned employee will have to work on it. Thus, the process enables personal development and aids in a company’s productivity.

Also Read: Know How To Implement 360 Degree Feedback in Your Startup

How will a 360-degree review add value to your organization?

According to Forbes, over 85% of Fortune 500 organizations employ 360-degree feedback as a foundational aspect of their entire leadership development process. Thus, a 360-degree review can influence employees and management.

Let’s begin a quick check-in on the positive impact of a 360-degree performance review on organizations.

360-degree review gives you a comprehensive picture

If you simply look at an employee from a particular viewpoint, you will miss out on important details. As a talent manager, the side you see may differ greatly from the one shown to others. However, using a 360-degree review, you can gather those additional viewpoints and use them to create a more complete picture of an employee’s performance.

With a more comprehensive overview in hand, you may approach your performance assessment from multiple angles.

Perhaps an individual may be a higher-level manager but has difficulty communicating with his superiors. Alternatively, maybe, an employee may get peers’ admiration but they may be hesitant to speak about his improvements, upfront.

This is where a 360-degree performance review can help to gather information on various aspects of an employee’s engagement, performance, and behavior and communicate the same to the concerned person. Without 360-degree feedback, the employee may remain oblivious to these indispensable facts, from a variety of sources.

Establishes Communication Channels

Adopting the practice of a 360-degree performance review enables employees to provide feedback on one another’s work. This creates an atmosphere conducive to conversation and enables the resolution of issues. Effective communication increases a company’s likelihood of retaining the top employees.

Reinforces company values

Managers and higher management usually look for the best in every employee and encourage them to improve. You can share company values with all employees through a 360-degree review process and ask employees to get their performance aligned with the company values.

To translate your values into practical measures, you can use 360-degree review software like Engagedly to help employees to understand where they are going wrong.

Engagedly’s 360-degree employee evaluation platform allows sharing of valuable feedback to employees. The best part is that the feedback is a one-to-one process. This confidentiality feature, coupled with constructive feedback, makes employees to retrospect and changes themselves to align with company values.

Agility

Agile refers to anything that is always evolving, adaptable, relevant, and updated, which is how your approach should be toward the performance assessments.

360-degree feedback may assist you in achieving that agility by providing a more comprehensive image of your employee. A single-view performance assessment evaluates an employee from a single perspective (only from a manager’s perspective).

When you invite many opinions on an employee, you get a more thorough and fast assessment, which enables you to perform an agile employee analysis and conclude better for a review process.

When you promote business values, openness, and the pursuit of a whole picture, you are fostering an atmosphere where transparency and a continuous performance assessment approach are supported by everybody.

These elements contribute to the growth and development of the business, as well as increased employee productivity.

How 360-degree review benefits employees?

The following are some of the most significant advantages of a 360-degree feedback system for employees:

All voices get heard and valued, and it promotes openness

They bring diverse views of all stakeholders to light, not only for an individual employee but for the whole business. This promotes openness and frequent communication amongst all stakeholders.

Corrective plan and employee improvements

This assessment approach enables employees to focus on their “weaknesses,” fix their “mistakes,” and ensure that their future actions do not negatively impact other stakeholders. This also promotes Kaizen – continual and systematic improvement.

Kaizen is a technique of producing continuous improvement based on the notion that tiny, continual beneficial adjustments may yield substantial gains.

Customized training programs based on employees’ unique requirements

Training sessions may be planned and customized based on employee input. This increases employees’ motivation to attend more training. This step also enables organizations to save money by eliminating training sessions that do not offer value to employees and also by establishing a matrix-based work model.

Matrix management is a style of management in which employees are accountable to multiple managers rather than a single supervisor. It does away with the one-boss, vertical structure that most businesses use and replaces it with a system in which employees report to several superiors across departments and projects.

Avoid discrimination and avoid communication gaps

360-degree feedback systems enable multifaced communication and help to identify and correct mismatch in plan execution. Junior-level employees may also offer areas for development for management-level employees. Communication gaps caused by hierarchy are reduced.

It helps avoid misunderstanding and cultivating a positive team spirit in order to progress on an individual level, which may result in team growth. Ego disputes and workplace turmoil may be avoided by taking everyone’s opinion into account.

Fosters self-improvement and teamwork

A 360-degree feedback system enables continuous improvement and growth, not just as a person, but also as a team. Because everyone taking part in the process has the chance to share their ideas, it increases responsibility and motivates participants to assist one another in improving and becoming better at their work.

Contribution of employees to all stakeholders

It gives an opportunity for evaluating and discussing how an employee contributes significantly to their stakeholders. This demonstrates to the organization and its employees how their contributions make a difference and why they should continue to do what they are doing.

The framework enables employees to enhance their performance while simultaneously maintaining their existing outstanding quality productivity.

Remuneration based on feedback

A 360-degree feedback system helps foster a healthy discussion about individual contribution and, subsequently, increasing remuneration. When an employee gets excellent responses from all stakeholders, statistical evidence of the individual’s contribution is provided, and pay may be determined appropriately.

Contributes to increased employee retention

A 360-degree feedback system instills in employees a sense of importance in the business, as all stakeholders recognize and value all contributions. It may serve as an effective means of recognizing employees, assisting them in identifying areas for development, and providing an opportunity for personal growth and exploration. Subsequently, employee retention increases and workforce productivity grows as a company grows.

Constructive criticism

Employees must recognize that not all feedback can be rosy and favorable, as a 360-degree review entails constructive feedback that’s in the employee’s best interest. Since 360-degree performance review entails reviews of all junior and senior employees; peers, and customers, employees have to get in the groove of handling negative criticism and learning from their errors. They can take the help of the in-charge managers and HR personnel for the same.

How 360-degree review helps to improve your work culture?

Satisfactory work culture is gradually becoming a must for employees in today’s working environment. Without a suitable workplace culture, a company will surely lose bright individuals. Diverse and robust workplace culture is critical for long-term corporate success.

Thus, how can your business establish and maintain a positive workplace culture while retaining its core workforce? The solution is to implement a robust 360-degree performance review system across your organization.

Implementing a 360-degree review system enhances your organization’s working culture. Continue reading to see how a 360-degree feedback system may help you enhance your workplace culture.

Enhance employees’ self-awareness

A 360-degree feedback system assists employees in developing self-awareness and identifying their strengths and flaws. Employees may also get an insight into unknown talents and limitations via this approach.

Increased employee self-awareness benefits both an employee and his company. This is because employees who can clearly perceive their own progress within the organization are more likely to work harder and remain loyal to their employer.

Fostering a strong sense of trust between the employee and the organization

Organizations that employ a 360-degree feedback system foster an open work environment. This culture fosters employee collaboration in aspects such as task execution methods; interpersonal interactions with subordinates; peers and superiors, and so on.

It enables employees to feel secure and comfortable enough to express their ideas about their jobs and colleagues. Since the standard feedback procedure is the same for all employees, nobody worries about being suppressed for their thoughts, which fosters a strong sense of trust between the employee and the organization. Thus, an open work environment benefits not just employees, but also the organization.

Helps to maintain a constant dialogue with employees.

A well-designed 360-degree feedback system contributes to the establishment of a culture of a continual dialogue between employees, colleagues, and supervisors. It lets all employees in your business to feel heard and their needs satisfied.

Collecting information on your employees in order to better understand and align them with your organization’s ethos and goals is one way to enhance your organization’s workplace culture.

When employees feel heard, they are more inclined to be happy with their workplace culture.

Eliminate bias and foster bonds of solidarity

One of the most serious risks to an organization’s working culture is prejudiced conduct against an employee by peers and superiors. Typically, traditional feedback procedures focused on collecting input from a single source.

However, when your organization adopts a 360-degree performance review system, you may collect input from a variety of sources, including peers, subordinates, supervisors, direct reports, and sometimes even customers, relieving individual bias against employees.

Employee satisfaction also rises when employees understand they will be evaluated fairly in a performance review system.

What is the easiest way to get started with 360-degree feedback?

Your first step should be to analyze and strengthen your current performance evaluation system. If you are still following the paper-based assessment process, consider shifting to a digital 360-degree review process.

Engagedly’s 360-degree performance review software is worth a try. It simplifies the 360-degree review process by allowing stakeholders at all levels of the organization to submit real-time feedback–including management, managers, fellow employees, and direct reports. It also allows to share a company’s mission, vision, values, and goals with the employees.

Engagedly’s 360-degree review platform may assist businesses in developing their managers in novel ways, as well as give a channel for employees to voice praise or worry about their frontline managers.

Also Read: How To Choose The Best 360 Feedback Software For Your Company?

Want to know how Engagedly can help you manage your hybrid employees better? Request us for a demo.

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Pros and Cons of 360 Degree Feedback In The Workplace

Reviewing an employee’s performance is an essential aspect of any successful performance management process. Without a question, a 360-degree review is an effective methodology to collect inputs from various stakeholders at different organizational levels and to steer employees’ performance in the right direction.

While the 360-degree review is a developmental tool rather than a rating mechanism, many companies combine it with other assessment techniques to enhance company-wide development.

However, what is a 360-review process and what type of challenges and advantages can they bring to your organization? Here’s a detailed look at everything you would like to know about the 360-degree review.

Understanding the 360-degree feedback mechanism

A 360-degree performance appraisal, sometimes referred to as a 360-degree review, multi-rater feedback, or 360-degree management review, happens when an employer analyzes an employee’s performance through different sources such as colleagues, customers, and managers, rather than just one-on-one input from a manager directly.

Once all inputs have been obtained from various sources, it is utilized to determine an employee’s strengths, shortcomings, and talents, and may be used to create a comprehensive performance assessment report. If the 360-degree performance assessment is well-designed, it may help to improve a team’s performance, employee awareness, and communication among employees.

In this article, we will cover the pros and cons of 360 degree feedback tool as an employee development tool.

Also Read: 360 Degree Feedback: Best Practice Guidelines

Pros of the 360 Degree Feedback

The 360-degree assessments can be an exceptionally efficient performance management tool.

1. Provides more precise, thorough, and extensive feedback.

In a typical evaluation, the employee receives input from a single source — their immediate supervisor. However, the 360-degree review focuses on the collection of inputs from various sources, providing employees with a far larger, more diversified, and, in many circumstances, more accurate variety of perspectives on their work.

This form of feedback is often better than the performance evaluation of a supervisor, who only observes how an employee performs in certain situations.

2. Fosters a favorable work atmosphere

A 360-degree review helps employees and teams to understand their strengths and limitations. Whenever a team is able to recognize all of their unique capabilities and challenges, they possess the required skills and understanding to make necessary changes for advancements.

When employees understand the responsibilities clearly, aligned with a company’s objectives, they may become more effective as individuals and as teammates, resulting in a more productive and happy work environment. Thus, a 360-degree review aids in the improvement of employees’ performance and fosters strong working relationships and a favorable work environment.

3. Scope for development

Another significant benefit of the 360-degree review is its effectiveness in identifying an employee’s growth needs.

The collective viewpoints offered by colleagues and managers may present fair facets and provide more clarity on the shortcomings of an employee. The company may then take the required steps to close the gaps by creating training programs that promote individual development and address the skill gaps.

For an instance, during a ‘360-degree review‘, an employee may receive reviews from his immediate team leader and multiple peers on his performance and time management skills. The employee may then collaborate with his manager to establish objectives. Post this, they can create an action plan to enhance his performance, according to the available working hours to enhance time management skills.

4. Helps to determine training needs

The 360-degree performance review helps to identify employees’ training gaps. To elaborate, the feedback enables management to get a holistic knowledge of employees’ skill competence and, accordingly, spot specific areas where training is needed.

5. Offers motivation and improves performance

360-degree feedback has been shown to improve employee performance, and team communication and collaboration.

When utilized properly, feedback may help to create trust, enhance communication, boost overall performance, and motivate teams to work together to accomplish common objectives. Additionally, it may assist employees in aligning their objectives with those of the business and providing a better picture of the abilities necessary for success.

6. Understand how others perceive you

Observing how people view you in the job may be a positive experience. The 360-degree review enables colleagues to anonymously share their feelings about their peers, which is not something that occurs often in a workplace.

If you can handle constructive feedback without being offended, you would like to know how others perceive you. To deal with criticism effectively, you need to cultivate a growth attitude and see it as a chance to bring in the required improvements.

7. Anonymous feedback

360 feedback is often anonymous and a reason for many employees to freely voice their opinion about other employees. Thus, this can be considered as one of the benefits of 360 feedback, since certain employees may feel more at ease providing feedback. This is particularly true for both positive and negative feedback.

If certain members of your team are afraid to offer negative feedback about a colleague, 360 feedback may provide a secure platform for them to bring their concerns to the attention of their manager.

8. Promotes transparency

Increased transparency, resulting from 360-degree feedback, may give rise to the development of trust among employees.

An open and trustworthy environment may improve managerial decision-making skills; enhance employees’ performance and establish a firm knowledge foundation. Thus, 360-degree feedback can be used to develop a higher degree of trust among employees and create a transparent work environment, which may help to improve employees’ performance throughout the organization.

Also Read: 360 Degree Feedback:10 Questions To Consider

Cons of 360 Degree Feedback

While there are several benefits to adopting 360-degree feedback, there are also concerns related to it. The following are some drawbacks of using the 360-degree performance assessment evaluation approach.

1. Time-consuming process

A 360-degree performance assessment might take considerable time to conduct due to a large number of participants.

Employees need time to respond prudently to the questions, and supervisors or Human Resources professionals need time to sort through the information and assess it. Often, the quality and quantity of feedback come at the expense of extra time.

Evaluating the feedback and putting it into a single performance review document using specialized tools, such as that offered by ‘Engagedly 360-degree performance review,’ may speed up the process.

2. Ambiguous assessment

If there is a lack of trust among employees, they might refrain from expressing their true opinions. If the feedback is not candid, it is also likely to be erroneous, which is ineffective.

A small team, on the best of terms, may be fearful of being overly critical, whereas a big team may lack the necessary familiarity to provide an informed judgment.

Prevent this issue by establishing clear boundaries and communicating expectations transparently via 360-degree feedback.

3. May affect leadership

It is critical to communicate to managers what they learned from the 360-degree review and how they intend to handle the feedback.

If participants believe that the 360-degree feedback process was a waste of time or a pointless exercise, no concrete progress or constructive change will occur; confidence in leadership will erode, and engagement will likely decline.

Leadership may avoid this by implementing an action plan based on the feedback outcomes.

4. No way to monitor anonymous input

While anonymous feedback is beneficial in terms of encouraging employees to voice their ideas, it can occasionally be a double-edged knife.

If a serious problem arises within a 360-degree feedback loop, you will be unable to identify the person who provided the negative or constructive input. This makes it more difficult for the management to properly address and resolve the disagreement.

5. Ineffective execution

Often, companies introduce and use the 360-degree assessment approach ineffectively. It is critical to approach the assessment process correctly, which includes appropriately and positively presenting the method and optimizing the relevance of the feedback.

This is particularly critical when transitioning from one kind of performance feedback to the other and especially when the change may influence employees’ salaries or positions.

How Does 360 Degree Review Software Help?

The 360-degree review process comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. If you’re unsure whether to deploy 360 feedback within your team, the solution is to use Engagedly’s 360-degree performance review software.

Engagedly streamlines the 360-degree review process by enabling stakeholders at all levels of the business — including management, managers, colleagues, and direct reports — to provide real-time input.

Additionally, Engagedly conforms to your organization’s performance management strategy, easing the review process regardless of whether you conduct evaluations annually, mid-year, quarterly, or regularly.

A 7 Step Guide To A Successful 360 Degree Feedback Process

Roughly 60% of top development companies are using 360 degree feedback for both development and decision making for high-potential identification, confirmation of potential, and succession planning purposes – Bracken and Church(2013).

Multirater or 360 degree review process has become the most preferred feedback method for many organizations. It is a shift from the traditional feedback process, which is subjective and based only on the direct supervisor’s inputs.

What is 360 degree feedback?

360 degree review process is the method for collecting, quantifying and reporting observations about an individual from people that an individual has worked with, both internally and externally. This makes the feedback process more objective when compared to traditional feedback processes. People who take part in the feedback process include not only the manager but also peers, direct reports, consumers, and vendors.

Also Read: Why Every Organization Should Practice Continuous Feedback?

If you have become a manager or joined as one recently, and planning to implement a 360 degree review process in your organization, here is a seven-step guide to implement it successfully.

Communicate The Process

If you are implementing multirater or 360 degree feedback for the first time in your organization, it is essential to communicate the process to all stakeholders. As it is relatively a new process, many people are still unaware of it. Communicate the purpose and also how the process will be conducted, and the results will be used so that everyone involved in the process has a clarity of it. Take time and communicate it to everyone over one-on-one meetings, group meetings, and emails.

Rater Selection

Rater selection is one of the most important processes of 360 degree feedback, as several people are part of it. Employees who are being reviewed should choose an adequate number of raters or feedback providers. When employees select a good number of reviewers, then there will be enough data for analysis. Review the list of raters whom your employees have selected, so 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.

Choose The 360 Feedback Software

As a manager, you should select a 360 feedback software that will help you set the questionnaire quickly for all your employees. It should be easy to use with little or no training so that less time is spent on understanding how it works. If there is confusion in selecting the software, then demo versions should be used before selecting one. The software should be easily customizable as per organization needs, and also robust so that the data stays secure. Not only this, the 360 feedback software that you select should have an efficient customer support team to help you at any time with your issues.

Engagedly’s 360 feedback software tool is the perfect solution for you. It is not only easy to use and understand, but also can be customized as per your needs.

Also Read: 7 Essential Features Of A 360 Degree Feedback Tool

Questionnaire

Preparing the survey questionnaire for the 360 performance review process is one of the most important tasks. If you are unsure of what questions to set, you can take the help of HR experts or senior managers. Include questions such as:

What should this employee stop doing to get better at work?
Does this employee communicate well with colleagues?
What are the new things this employee should start doing to be better at work?
Does this employee show leadership qualities?
What are the things this employee is doing well and should continue doing?

Make it clear as well as concise, a long questionnaire will bore the readers, and a very short one won’t be effective. On the other hand, ambiguous questions will confuse the readers, and they will provide inaccurate ratings. Framing the correct set of questions plays a major role in deciding the effectiveness of the process.

Also Read: Workplace Competencies To Include In A 360 Degree Feedback Form

Report

Once all the reviewers have submitted their reviews, it is time to generate a report for the employees who were reviewed in the 360 performance review process. It should be simple and self-understood. With the help of the report, the employees should be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses. It should be a guide for the employees, using which they can improve their productivity, and have an overall development. An apt report would be one that highlights the highest rated areas, lowest rated areas, blind spots, gaps, and ratings.

For managers, it becomes a stressful task to make such a report or to find a tool that incorporates all the points in a single report. Engagedly’s multirater or 360 degree feedback module incorporates all the points in a single report through well-defined graphs. Request for a demo with us.

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Action Plan

After the reviews have been completed and the report has been generated, create an action plan for your employees. The action plan should be based on improvement areas, blind spots, and skill gaps identified in the report. This will help the employees to improve their skills and develop themselves through training, internal or external workshops, conferences, coaching exercises, mentoring programs, etc. It should have specific goals and development plans outlined for your employees.

Continuous Evaluation

The 360 degree feedback process should be made a regular activity in your organization, preferably every quarter. If the process is conducted once a year or once in two years, then the effectiveness of the process plummets. Having a continuous evaluation helps in re-evaluating the employees from time to time and how they have improved from their previous 360 degree review process. Frequent feedback also helps the old and even the new employees to get used to the process.

Often, organizations start with the 360 degree review process but make no effective use of it. This 360 feedback guide will help you with it.

Planning to start a 360 Degree Feedback Process in your organization? Request us for a demo.