360-degree feedback : Features

Organisations that are happy with the 360 degree component of their performance management consistently identify the following positive features of the process.

For every good story about 360, however, there is a downside.

Improved Feedback From More Sources: 360 provides well-rounded feedback from peers, reporting staff, coworkers, and supervisors. This can be a definite improvement over feedback from a single individual, such as the boss. 360 feedback can also save managers’ time in that they can spend less time and energy providing feedback as more people are involved in the process. The perception of peers or coworkers is important too in helping individuals understand how other employees view their work.

Team Development: It helps team members learn to work more effectively together. (Teams generally know more about how team members are performing than their supervisors' do.) Multirater feedback can help make team members more accountable to each other as they understand that they will be asked to provide input on each others' performance. A well-planned process, therefore, can dramatically improve communication and team development.

Personal and Organizational Performance Development: 360 degree feedback is one of the best methods for understanding personal and organizational developmental needs. It is used extensively in modern organisations to provide targeted development input to key individuals and has been acknowledged as providing excellent value for money.

Responsibility for Career Development: For many reasons, organisations are no longer responsible for developing the careers of their employees, if they ever were. Multirater feedback can provide excellent information to an individual about what she needs to do to enhance her career.

Additionally, many employees feel 360 degree feedback is more accurate, more reflective of their performance, and more validating than prior feedback from the supervisor alone. This makes the information more useful for both career and personal development.

Reduced Discrimination Risk: When feedback comes from a number of individuals in various job functions, discrimination because of race, age, gender, and so on, is reduced.

Improved Customer Service: Especially in feedback processes that involve the internal or external customer, each person receives valuable feedback about the quality of his/her product or service. This feedback should enable the individual to improve the quality, reliability, promptness, and comprehensiveness of their relationship and service levels - which is of enormous benefit to both customer and organisation.

Training Needs Assessment: This type of feedback provides comprehensive information about organisation training needs and thus allows planning for classes, cross-functional responsibilities, and cross-training.

A 360 degree feedback system has a good or even great side. To ensure that you make the best use of the system, however, check out the process to ensure success

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