Everything you need to know about 360 evaluation
A 360 evaluation is the process of computing the performance of an employee depending on the feedback from all the employees of a company. Generally, the employees that take part in this process are:
- Direct manager of that employee
- Colleagues of the same or different team
- Colleagues from the same or different department
- Senior leader
- Multiple senior leaders
All the feedback is collected and then compiled to convert into a single 360 evaluation template generated with the help of all employees at different tiers or in different departments. After the conversion company acquires 360-degree visibility in terms of performance, insights, and skills. This form gives several advantages to both the company and the employee itself. 360 evaluation is a development tool and a way of creating self-awareness among employees.
How are 360 evaluations structured?
360 evaluations differ in their management. These assessments can be customized depending on the needs of an organization. The evaluation can be done in a 360 evaluation template like two simple questions or an open survey. Moreover, this evaluation can be in the form of a concise questionnaire that can also include the rating of different staff members depending upon the needs of the company and the executing officer.
The best 360 degree feedback assessment asks all the participants to rate an individual depending upon his/her skills can be job-related, leadership, and how well the employee is taking care of the core ethics of the company. 360-degree feedback is a simple way of evaluating the performance of the staff. Moreover, some other methods can also be used like 1:1 feedback session or some traditional top-down methods.
High-performing companies follow some different evaluation systems to gather all the talents of the employees which include:
- 360 assessments
- weekly or bi-weekly check-ins
- real-time training
- annual or semi-annual performance reviews
What are the benefits of 360 evaluation?
These assessments provide distinct benefits for the company, managers, and employees.
Employees:
Employees get benefited by knowing the feedback about themselves isn’t archived in an interaction between them and their boss. Moreover, this is helpful for those employees who don’t get well with their direct managers. By knowing the feedback employees can quickly know their weaknesses and where they need to work.
Managers:
Managers get to know the problems and issues within their team with the help of this feedback. The 360-degree evaluation form also provides information where there is a gap in the training so that they can focus on that area.
Company:
The company gets the benefits of the impact on engagement and performance. The 2019 Employee Engagement Report shows that creating a culture of 360 feedback and investing in the development of employees are both the best influencers of engagement. A higher amount of engagement between each other improves the performance and productivity of the employees. This 360 assessment is like a lever that you can pull to improve the performance of your organization. That improvement can be seen in any form like increased revenue, better customer feedback, the accomplishment of goals on time, and many more.
How do 360 evaluations in the right manner?
First and mainly separate 360s and compensation adaptation. When you take off the compensation from the table, the employee will take the feedback table more seriously and will make plans to improve themselves. Feedback should not lead to an increase in raises, then the employees will fight and will be defensive about what others said about them.
Second, take 360 assessment documents as a title for growth. Don’t make mistakes like conducting 360 assessments once a year and leave the feedback after that. The best way to get benefits from this feedback is by appointing some leaders to let all the employees work on their weaknesses. Managers and team leaders should readdress the documents of the past 360s at the time of ongoing feedback. 360s should be conducted regularly, timely, and authentically for the development of the company and its employees.
Even executives need to receive feedback:
Use 360 evaluation to judge all the employees from team leaders to executives. Moreover, senior leaders should also be judged by all the employees of the company. Don’t guard senior leaders from honest recommendations and feedback for improvement. Moreover, the performance and development of a senior leader play a crucial role for all the employees present on the bottom line to high members. Also, the decisions, strategies, and plans can lead to the growth of the company or can lead to financial losses. Therefore, senior leaders should regularly conversate about their journey of feedback and self-development. This can help others to grasp and learn from their mistakes.
What not to do:
As broached, 360 feedbacks are only as productive as their designs and As mentioned, 360 evaluations are only as effective as their design and management. Closely lookout for these errors during the time of 360s:
- Using a universal 360 evaluation template is needless for the job roles in the company
- Using these as the only source of accuracy to keep a track of employee performance
- Taking care of confidential reviews during the time of evaluation
- Relinquish all formal meetings related to the feedback of the employees
- Aiming only on technical skills, at the cost of necessary soft skills or crucial indicators like engagement and behavior among other team members.
360 evaluations as part of talent optimization:
A modern prime practice that companies are adopting during the execution of 360 feedback is to find out the hidden talents, strengths, extra skills, and leadership qualities. Moreover, 360 evaluations are a form of data representation. Properly recording these patterns and fields can result in providing a uniform profile of who an employee is and this data also shows whether an employee is developing at what pace.
This documentation is extremely important to find out the top performers and the performance of a team. To create good bench stability you need to have a high number of good performers. The employees that don’t have the desire to improve their skills or not to manage others should be cross-trained regularly and if they have the mindset, then they should be removed from the organization for the proper functioning of an organization.