360 Feedback is better than a performance review

In a previous post, we talked about a performance review being one-sided. 360 feedback is a powerful tool for the employees to gain feedback (usually anonymously) regarding their skills, behavior, and work ethic.

What is a 360 feedback?

360 Degree Feedback is a system or process in which employees receive confidential, anonymous feedback from the people who work around them. This typically includes the employee’s manager, peers, and direct reports. A mixture of about eight to twelve people fill out an anonymous online feedback form that asks questions covering a broad range of workplace competencies. The feedback forms include questions that are measured on a rating scale and also ask raters to provide written comments.

If you don’t have a system to use for this, I would recommend calling an HR representative from your company to facilitate the sessions. Come up with a list of questions or competencies that you want the employees to rate each other on write the information in a document with a rating and a place to provide comments. Some examples of items could be teamwork, work ethic, quality of work, attitude, etc. Have the employee pick 4 people they would like to receive feedback from and you pick the others to participate in the survey.

If your HR rep facilitates the sessions, they can summarize each participates feedback in a diplomatic way so that the provider can remain anonymous.

360  performance feedback phrases offer the employee the benefit of hearing positive and negative feedback from someone other than their direct boss. If there is multiple people giving the same negative feedback — the employee has to listen to this, and will hopefully adjust the behavior. This feedback can be a huge success when the surveys are administered correctly and names are never given out. It keeps the employee always guessing who said what and could motivate them to change the perception of them.