What is 360-degree feedback?
Feedback from a person in contact with you is a good opportunity to question your own behavior, to see yourself through different eyes and to work on your personal weaknesses.
Even if feedback is not always positive, it is worth taking a closer look, especially in the case of a negative assessment. This is because it offers enormous potential for growth and development.
In a professional context, it is noticeable that feedback tends to be given from the top down. The boss praises his employees for good work or punishes misconduct.
This begins in training through grades and practice evaluations and continues through regular employee reviews that focus on professional development, goals and possible specializations.
But what about managers?
As a rule, feedback is given less frequently after a certain status. By the employee, because it is not proper to point out one’s mistakes to the superior, and from another side, because it is assumed that the person already knows what he or she is doing due to his or her position.
However, feedback does not become dispensable once a certain status quo has been reached. No, managers also benefit from continuous feedback and the opportunity it provides to grow – personally and professionally.
360-degree feedback is a form of feedback specially adapted to executives. Here, the focus is particularly on an assessment of executives in terms of their competencies and performance.
Why the term 360-degrees?
Alluding to the full angle or full circle, this refers to the fact that the manager is illuminated from all sides, an all-round view, so to speak.
In addition to the self-assessment, there are three other perspectives that flow into the assessment in the classic variant: Employees, superiors and external persons such as customers, partners, etc.
However, the definition of the degree designations is used inconsistently in the literature and can also be supplemented by other perspectives. We refer to the four aforementioned perspectives in the following text.
Through a comparison between external and self-assessment, strengths, weaknesses and development potentials of the assessed manager are to be uncovered.
The employer can then derive career-enhancing measures from the results, such as the further development of existing competencies and achievements or the acquisition of missing competencies and achievements.
Thus, with the help of constructive feedback, the manager has the opportunity to adjust his or her management style, if necessary, to set new goals or to develop personally or professionally in certain areas.
The perspectives considered can be adapted to the respective company. For example, if external people are not to be included in the assessment, they can be left out.
In the smallest variant (90°), only one perspective is included in the assessment, for example feedback from subordinate employees.
If the assessment of the employees is supplemented by feedback from the supervisor, for example, we speak of 180°-feedback and thus two perspectives.
If a third perspective, for example the manager’s self-assessment, is added, we are talking about 270°-feedback.
The best all-round view, however, is provided by 360°-assessment consisting of four perspectives, for example including external participants.
The four perspectives can be expanded as required and adapted to the company in question.
Advantages of a 360-degree survey
Below, we’ve brought you some of the biggest benefits of a 360-degree survey:
Leadership development
As already explained, everyone has the opportunity to question themselves through feedback, to work on themselves and thus to develop themselves further.
In this context, superiors are also “only” human beings and have the same right to develop themselves further through feedback.
This aspect is often overlooked in many companies; an exclusive focus on employees or the management level leaves important company levels unconsidered.
Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look here as well. The goal should always be to help the people being evaluated to develop further.
Furthermore, 360-degree feedback can be a good instrument for appreciating the work already done by a manager. In this way, all the small and large successes are recorded and can also serve as a motivational boost at a later date.
Comprehensive assessment
Of course, there are various ways to evaluate managers. Starting with a classic feedback conversation. However, the 360-degree assessment is probably the most all-encompassing variant.
By including up to four different perspectives in the feedback process, the manager receives much more comprehensive feedback and a one-sided subjective assessment is avoided.
In addition, it is possible to extend the process to include other perspectives, such as colleagues at the same hierarchical level.
The additional perspectives also offer different points of view that are not taken into account in other feedback methods.
The assessed manager can thus draw the best possible conclusions from the feedback and the feedback can thus have an effect in all business areas as well as fields of activity.
Comparison of self-assessment and external assessment
The comparison of self-assessment and external assessment also offers the advantage that the manager can take a closer look at his or her own competencies and derive new goals from them.
It helps the person to assess himself more realistically and to check where he can still develop further. In addition, the person being assessed can see whether his or her self-assessment matches the perception of others.
Increasing the acceptance of surveys
The more objective overall assessment also increases the general acceptance of surveys, since the assessment is independent of individual emotions of a positive or negative nature.
In addition, the feedback can reveal possible weaknesses, for example in leadership behavior.
By specifically promoting or eliminating the problem, this can also contribute to increasing the efficiency of the company in the long term. In this way, mistakes can be prevented or identified and corrected at an early stage.
Promoting a feedback culture
By establishing regular 360-degree feedback, you also promote a fundamental feedback culture in your company.
There are several advantages associated with this: Among other things, a feedback culture leads to greater transparency within the company, promotes open communication and thus creates a better corporate climate.
This means that disruptive factors can be addressed more quickly, allowing the company to develop continuously. Furthermore, it increases the attractiveness as an employer.
Disadvantages of a 360-degree survey
Even though the advantages of 360-degree feedback clearly outweigh the disadvantages, we do not want to deprive you of possible disadvantages or difficulties with this method.
Higher workload
As great as the advantage of including different perspectives is, it also brings its challenges.
The survey is more time-consuming and requires more preparation time than other surveys.
The submission and evaluation of the feedback also takes significantly more time than other types of feedback due to the inclusion of the many different participants.
Response quality
In addition, employee surveys are generally a sensitive topic and require a certain amount of tact. Some employees are afraid to give negative feedback for fear of consequences.
It can happen that employees embellish information in order to avoid unpleasant situations.
Since employee feedback is an important pillar of the 360-degree leadership assessment, possible fears should be eliminated as best as possible before the interview. For this reason, 360-degree feedback should always be conducted anonymously.
Sometimes the reverse can happen, with employees using the survey to vent frustration and pillory the executive.
We’ve already covered how you manage not to pillory the executive in a short insight video.
>> Video: 360 Degree Feedback: Don’t pillory managers! <<
In this respect, care should be taken not to take feedback unfiltered and to question strong deviations in one direction as well as the other. However, this disadvantage is also possible with other types of feedback.
Enough gray theory, let’s get down to practice.
How to implement 360-degree feedback
To make it easier for you to implement your (first) 360-degree evaluation, we would like to provide you with a flow chart.
The following points will give you a good idea of how to set up your 360-degree survey:
1. Definition of objectives
What goal do you want to achieve with 360-degree feedback?
As a rule, the aim is to help the people being evaluated to develop further. However, there may be other goals behind this, such as improving the leadership culture or establishing feedback management.
The more clearly you formulate your goal, the more concretely you can approach the next steps.
Another point that should not be underestimated is the advance information of all those involved. For this, it is important that you first decide which people are suitable to contribute helpful feedback to the person being assessed.
Once the selection has been made, you explain to those involved why you want to conduct the survey, what wishes and goals you associate with it, and how 360-degree feedback works.
It should be made clear here that the aim is not to pillory managers, but to provide constructive feedback that will serve the personal development of the person being assessed.
Advance communication also serves to increase acceptance among those involved and to dispel possible concerns.
Since employees in particular are often afraid of possible disadvantages due to a poor evaluation by their supervisor, it makes sense to conduct the survey anonymously.
In addition, employees should be allowed to openly express suggestions for improvement or concerns. If your employees know your goals, they are much more likely to support you.
2. Planning
The next step is to plan the survey. For example, when should the survey be conducted? What is the right time?
It’s best to take into account work-intensive phases, such as those that occur in accounting at the end of the year. In this way, you avoid stressed employees, a low participation rate or half-hearted answers due to a lack of time.
Also important is the question, how long do the participants have to complete the survey? The time span here should not be too short, but also not too long. A period of 1-2 weeks has proven itself in practice.
To prevent the answering of the survey from being forgotten, already plan a reminder email, for example, shortly before the deadline.
Furthermore, it is about the design of the survey and the creation of the questionnaires. You can use a questionnaire to ask all perspectives and compare the results at the end.
The feedback questions used in it should be meaningful and company-specific in any case.
It often makes sense to use multiple-choice questions, but there should also always be the option of adding individual observations or explanations, which can be helpful for better comprehensibility.
Furthermore, it is advisable to make sure that competencies that are essential for personnel development are queried. Both strengths and weaknesses of the manager should be included.
Important areas here can be communication & information, motivation, team development, planning & organization, leadership personality, results orientation and a global mindset.
Another important question is with which provider the survey should be conducted.
Particularly suitable are special 360-degree survey tools such as those from easyfeedback. A good provider will take some of the work off your hands, for example by providing pre-prepared feedback forms.
When you create your survey with easyfeedback, you can easily create your own 360-degree questionnaire or use our ready-made template.
Here you will also find inspiration for possible questions. In this article we will show you how to create a 360-degree feedback survey with easyfeedback.
Another part of the preparation is the formulation of an appealing, personalized email invitation. Be creative, a good invitation will help you to achieve a higher participation rate.
3. Implementation
The preparation phase is complete. Then you can start. You click on the send button and wait for the first results to arrive.
It makes sense if all groups of people give their feedback in parallel, so you save time.
Also remember to send your reminder email in time to remind those who didn’t want to do it right away to participate.
4. Evaluation
In the reporting phase, all questionnaires received will be evaluated.
This is usually easier with an online survey than with a manual survey.
To do this, compile the anonymously collected data and create a 360-degree profile from the comparison of self-perception and the perception of others.
Tools such as easyfeedback do the work for you, for example by automatically comparing the perspectives.
The comparison of perspectives helps you and the manager to assess the results. Here you can see the differences between your own assessment and the assessment of others.
Regardless of a positive or negative assessment of the leadership qualities, the comparison shows where the self-image deviates from the external image.
Here, the manager receives a real assessment of his or her leadership qualities. In the best case, there is not a large gap between the perspectives.
The second exciting point is the assessment of the leadership qualities themselves. Where does the manager have strengths and where are their weaknesses.
Based on the findings, the leader can develop further and work on his or her weaknesses.
Make sure that individual comments do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the person in question.
Statistics on participation behavior can also be relevant for the evaluation. In other words, how many visitors and participants does your survey have in total, how many have completed it and how many have abandoned it?
With tools such as easyfeedback, you can display the survey results in various diagrams and data tables. You can then use these to present the key results in a comprehensible and transparent way for the manager being assessed.
You can also download a 360-degree report directly. Below you can see an example of such a report.
5. Implement feedback
Of course, it should not remain with the pure evaluation of the results. Feedback is only effective if it is followed by implementation.
For this purpose, discussions with the manager are recommended, in which the results are discussed with the evaluated employee. In this way, joint strategies can be developed to promote potential and compensate for weaknesses.
It also makes sense to define goals and steps for achieving them. These may include training and continuing education, for example, or practical implementation in the workplace.
Developments and progress should be recorded in regular, smaller feedback meetings.
It is also important to know who will be in charge of the meeting. Ideally, a neutral person should be chosen, not the direct supervisor, or an external coach.
6. Repetition
In order to measure the effectiveness of the changes made, it makes sense to repeat the 360-degree feedback after a period of about 6 months. This makes it possible to determine whether the feedback has contributed to an improvement in the situation.
The questions should cover the same areas, but look specifically at the behavioral changes the manager is trying to make. For example, using questions such as: What has changed positively since the last time?
Tips for a 360-degree assessment
So now you know what the process of a 360-degree feedback is like. To make sure your 360-degree assessment is a complete success, we’ve put together a few final tips for you.
Anonymity
As already mentioned, it makes sense to conduct the 360-degree assessment anonymously so that the feedback from the person doing the assessment is honest.
Especially in the case of subordinate employees, there is otherwise a risk that they will conceal negative information for fear of consequences. Make sure that no conclusions can be drawn about the person providing the feedback on the basis of the comments.
A reference to anonymity before the start of the survey should dispel any remaining doubts. It is also important to remember data protection.
Pre-test
Before you send out the survey, it makes sense to conduct a pre-test.
It is best to ask an independent person to carry out the pre-test, for example to test the comprehensibility of the questionnaire and to run through the process.
If there are any questions or problems, they can easily be solved before the survey starts.
In this way, you ensure good data quality and avoid that answers to comprehension questions, for example, are not answered or are answered incorrectly.
Inspiration
Although 360-degree feedback was originally developed to evaluate managers, its many advantages mean that it can also be used to evaluate employees, select candidates for further training or fill specific positions.
Feedback can help you discover talent that you didn’t know you had, and put it in the right place in your organization.
With our tips, your 360-degree leadership assessment will be easy. Just give it a try.
Implementing a 360 degree survey with easyfeedback
Below we have compiled a few functions that will help you implement your 360-degree survey with easyfeedback:
360-degree participant list function
With the help of this function you can compile the individual perspectives for each executive manually or via import.
This has the advantage that on the one hand you have a visual overview of the individual feedback rounds and on the other hand that this preparation provides you with the automatic 360-degree reports in the results.
Corporate Design
Font, color and logo: Thanks to the layout configurator, you can provide the survey with your own corporate design and thus contribute to a uniform corporate identity.
Anonymity
As already mentioned, anonymity is one of the most important components of a 360-degree assessment.
As long as you do not ask for personal data, departments, teams or similar in the survey, the questionnaire is always anonymous.
The 360-degree participant list function within easyfeedback does create an assignment of individual employees to the respective perspectives, but no personal reference is created here.
Questionnaire logic
So that you do not have to create four different questionnaires for your 360-degree feedback, but only one, you can create questionnaire variants in easyfeedback.
This allows you to display only the questions relevant to each participant. This saves you a lot of work and makes the evaluation easier.
Hybrid survey
With easyfeedback, you can also conduct the survey as a hybrid survey.
In this case, both employees with an e-mail address (for example from the office) and employees without an e-mail address (for example from production) can participate and are automatically assigned to the correct perspective.
Results
From the very first response of a participant, you can see the results of your survey live.
This enables you to draw an interim conclusion at any time and to evaluate the results at the end.
The results are clearly presented in the form of charts, tables and statistics.
360-degree report
One of the most important features for a 360-degree survey is the corresponding report. It is created automatically and saves you a lot of work.
All you have to do is select the executive and you will receive the comparison of the individual perspectives directly. And you can share the report with the manager or HR department via a link.
Conclusion
So, that was our rather detailed guide to implementing a 360-degree assessment.
As we already pointed out in the text, establishing a regular 360-degree feedback offers you various advantages.
It can help you to identify potentials, to develop your staff sustainably and to promote competencies. With a little intuition, you can also identify hidden strengths and promote talents and skills.
All of this will have a lasting effect on an open corporate culture and thus also on your economic success.
With our flow chart and tips, you have a good starting point that will make it easier for you to implement.
For even more support: Implement your next 360-degree survey directly with easyfeedback. Click here to get to the survey template or contact us here. We look forward to hearing from you.
