A Comprehensive and Stress Free Guide for 360 Degree Feedback

Feedback is an effective tool to help you improve. But it can also feel like "just one person's opinion", and then it's hard to trust it or give it too much credibility.

360 degree feedback has been developed to provide a holistic perspective that goes deeper than constructive criticism from a single source. If you do it in a good way, you will gain a better understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can not only build self-awareness, but also better relationships with the whole team.

What is 360 degree feedback?

360 degree feedback means that you get feedback from a number of different sources. Think of it as being in the middle of a circle, gathering insights from everyone around you.

While the traditional feedback method focuses on observations from your immediate manager, 360 degree feedback uses other people you work with regularly - usually three to eight people - to get input on your abilities and performance.

What makes 360 degree feedback so thorough and useful is that it encompasses all types of feedback:

• Feedback from your immediate manager
• Feedback from close colleagues at the same level as yourself
• Feedback upwards from people who report to you
• Feedback from customers you serve directly

360 degree feedback collects perspectives from all these sources (and sometimes more) at the same time to get a more holistic picture of your strengths, weaknesses and achievements.

Although "feedback" is often perceived as synonymous with employee interviews, it is important to distinguish between the two. A 360 degree feedback is simply about gaining insights to learn and improve, while a 360 degree evaluation ties these insights to decisions about promotions, compensation, and other hiring factors.

And, it just makes sense to ask for feedback continuously, throughout the year. There is a growing body of research showing that the mere fact that feedback is given in conjunction with an assessment dramatically reduces effectiveness. Yet another reason to decouple feedback from employee interviews, psychologically speaking.

This is how 360 degree feedback works

There is no one "right" way to conduct a 360 degree feedback process.

Some companies offer regular, self-service opportunities to give feedback to employees, for example through an employee recognition platform or an easily accessible form. Other companies launch 360 degree feedback as a more formalized and planned initiative that is carried out once or twice a year.

The cadence and methods may vary. But in general, 360 degree feedback usually works like this:

1. Select the right people

It's not about getting feedback from absolutely everyone. It's about getting feedback from people who have first-hand knowledge of what it's like to work with a person.

Typically, the recipient of the feedback, that person's immediate manager, and the HR department can work together to find the right people—whether other team members, customers, or other managers—who have the most hands-on experience and can provide the most useful perspectives.

2. Ask for feedback

The selected people are contacted with a request, a deadline and instructions on how to provide feedback. This usually involves a survey or questionnaire with a combination of quantitative and open-ended questions.

For example, respondents may be asked to rate how much they agree with statements such as:

• This person performs his work duties in an efficient manner.
• This person manages their time efficiently.
• This person is reliable and trustworthy.
• This person is a clear and effective communicator.
• This person lives and breathes the company's values.

But they may also be asked to write down answers to questions such as:

• What are this person's greatest strengths?
• In what way does this person demonstrate leadership?
• What challenges have you encountered in working with this person?

When asking for feedback, remember to clarify in advance whether the responses will be anonymous or whether names will be attached to the comments.

3. Make sure the feedback ends up in the right hands

The companies have different processes for passing on feedback to the recipient. Some send the feedback directly from the respondent to the recipient, so that person can go through all the comments themselves and draw conclusions.

Others send the feedback to the person's immediate manager, who can analyze the responses, identify common themes and pass on the most useful insights - without the person feeling buried under an avalanche of criticism (especially criticism that could potentially be contradictory).

4. Talk it through

It can be difficult to get feedback, and it can be overwhelming to get feedback from all sides. Therefore, it is wise to set up a conversation where the person can review the comments with their manager, ask clarifying questions and develop a plan to move forward. After all, feedback is only useful if you act on it.

Is it worth it? The benefits of 360 degree feedback

One of the biggest objections to 360 degree feedback is that it can be a rather tedious and time-consuming process for everyone involved.

Employees may need to complete surveys for several different team members. Managers have to respond to a lot of feedback, both to themselves and to their direct subordinates. The HR department may have to push people to get them to complete the questionnaires on time.

Get a deeper understanding of the achievements

One person's opinion can feel biased and subjective. But it is far more credible and meaningful to extract common denominators from a number of different perspectives.

That is one of the biggest advantages of 360 degree feedback: It gives a more holistic understanding of the work you do - and how it is perceived by your employees.

In the same way, managers get a more complete picture of the performance and behavior of their subordinates, which is valuable information when helping them to grow and improve.

Minimize the impact of office politics

Working relationships are not always problem-free. Everything from small misunderstandings to personality conflicts can affect how people perceive each other.

And these feelings inevitably find their way into the feedback, which can sometimes make a single point of view feel unfair, accusatory or even vindictive.

360 degree feedback is based on a number of different perspectives. As well as providing a more complete understanding, it also helps to minimize the role that bad feelings, tensions and office politics can play in the quality of the feedback.

Fuel productive conversations

This type of feedback is about supporting growth and development - not about giving reprimands or rigid plans for performance appraisal.

Managers and employees should use the points in the 360 degree feedback as a starting point for sincere and productive discussions. Employees should also be encouraged to ask clarifying questions to understand the insights better.

360 degree feedback gives employees honest observations, but this versatile approach is also useful for managers. By collecting comments from various sources, they can uncover cultural issues, process issues, or other issues that need to be addressed at a higher level.

While this more thorough approach to feedback requires a little more time and elbow grease, the benefits are more than worth it.

Increased self-awareness

Traditional feedback does not necessarily increase self-insight - it only gives you one person's point of view. It is not always as enlightening, especially when different people can have very different experiences with you.

360 degree feedback is based on wider sources and challenges you to evaluate comments, identify themes, see connections and draw your own conclusions. Thus, it can illuminate aspects of your behavior, interactions and performance that might not have come to the surface if you had only asked for one person's opinion.

This more in-depth feedback gives you a much deeper understanding of yourself, but the firmer grip also means you gain increased awareness and sensitivity as you move forward.

Selecting the right 360-degree feedback tool is pivotal for a successful implementation. IceHrm provides a comprehensive solution, integrating user-friendly interfaces, robust security, and insightful analytics, ensuring a seamless and effective feedback process.