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‘Can I give you some feedback?’ These six simple worlds can often turn someone’s stomach. Many employees fear feedback for many reasons; the person giving it may be too harsh, the person giving it may not know the employee that well, they may not want to hear how they are getting on for fear it’s not good, they may think it’s just a waste of time.
But, what if the feedback was provided in a structured, constructive way – it would be a completely different story.
Why is feedback important?
Receiving great feedback boosts morale. It gives encouragement to an employee and makes them feel good about themselves.
Receiving feedback on areas where improvement is needed should not be considered a negative; it should be considered the start of an opportunity. Employees grow in strength when they understand their weakness; recognising areas of development encourages learning, development and personal growth.
The top performers in any company are the ones who use feedback well and act on it to continuously improve their performance.
Successful businesses rely heavily on the skills and expertise of its workforce. Developing and enhancing these skills further will move a good business to a great business, achieving increased profitability, delivering a competitive advantage and creating an enviable workplace culture.
What is 360 Degree Feedback?
This method of performance appraisal, often referred to as simply 360 feedback, is an essential part of effective learning. This particular form of feedback uses information from various sources and encourages feedback from the individual – a complete 360 degrees.
These are the most commonly used evaluations:
Line manager evaluation
Peer evaluation
Self-evaluation
Direct report evaluation (if the individual manages others)
Those who know the employee well and work closely with them are the best qualified to provide feedback on skills and performance as well as working relationships. These are likely to be managers, colleagues, direct reports and in some instances, customers.
The employee will also complete a self-perception questionnaire. A useful tool to allow the individual to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses. Ideally, this self-evaluation should match the responses from their line manager, their peers and direct reports.
Why use 360 Degree Feedback?
This feedback is incredibly useful in organisations where employees are working on multiple projects where their direct manager does not work with them on a daily basis and have full visibility of their contribution.
Obtaining a wide range of feedback from junior to senior positions forms a more accurate picture of performance compared to the more traditional appraisal methods based on just the direct manager’s assessment.
How to gather information for a 360 Degree Feedback?
The feedback consists of collating the opinions from relevant people close to the individual using structured competency-based questionnaires. The 360 degree questionnaire comprises of a number of statements clustered against the competencies to be measured (for example: leadership, communication, analytical, organisation, customer service) which are then scored.
The questions will be open ended to encourage a full and personal answer and not one that is restricted to yes, no or maybe. Those completing the questionnaire should be told to do so objectively and positively.
Getting it right
Here at P3 People Management we use a specific online 360 feedback assessment tool for this exercise where we set up, distribute and manage the process for you confidentially, quickly and cost effectively.
We will:
Measure the right competencies; the ones which matter to a successful business
Give clear explanations so those taking part understand what it is, how to complete and why it is important
Identify strengths as well as weaknesses
Enable a tailored development plan from the results for each individual based on what is relevant to them and their role
Provide clear and simple reports
Presenting the results
Once the questionnaire is scored, a report is created to share with the individual. This report will highlight any areas which are consistent between their self-perception scores and the answers given from their co-workers and will become key to support their professional development plan.
During the report sharing, the manager presenting the findings should do so fairly and sensitively. We can assist managers in how to do this effectively.
What happens after the 360 Degree feedback is given?
Keep the momentum going! Build on the strengths and weaknesses identified by creating a learning and development plan tailored to the needs of the individual.
Supporting your staff this way demonstrates your commitment to them to allow them to grow which, in turn, supports the growth of your company.
How we can help you
If you’d like to discuss any of the issues detailed in this blog, get in touch with us today. We’re here to help.
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