Tips For a Good 360-Degree Performance Review Process

The most successful companies are made up of people who work well together and support each other. This means that great employees not only produce high-quality work, but also collaborate with their colleagues, effectively lead the people they lead, and represent the company positively at all times.

However, none of this is taken into account in standard performance reviews. A typical 1:1 review between an employee and their manager usually focuses solely on the individual's ability to perform their duties. That's a good starting point, but it's important to consider a variety of perspectives when evaluating performance.

What is a 360 Degree Performance Review?

A 360-degree performance review consists of multiple reviews given by different people an employee works with. Instead of only being evaluated by your manager, feedback is also provided by colleagues, direct reports and members of the leadership team. In some cases, reviews can even be made by people outside the company, e.g. from customers or suppliers. The employee not only learns how to carry out the main tasks assigned to him by his manager, but also gets an idea of how he performs as a manager, team member and general employee of the company.

Let's look at how a marketing manager can gain deeper insight into their performance with a 360-degree assessment. Your main goal is to increase company awareness and attract potential customers to the sales team. As part of their job, they are likely to work with various departments within the company and manage marketing specialists.

A 1:1 review conducted by the marketing manager's direct supervisor is likely to focus on the quantifiable results that were delivered, which do not tell the whole story about job performance. A 360-degree performance review, on the other hand, also takes into account the marketing manager's cross-functional collaboration and management skills - both of which contribute to his or her ability to successfully market the brand.

Keys to Successful 360-Degree Employee Evaluations

Anonymity is a must when collecting 360-degree reviews. Everyone should feel comfortable giving feedback, both good and bad, without fear that it will affect the working relationship with the employee being evaluated. For example, if the marketing manager's direct reports know that their feedback is visible to their boss, they will tend to say only good things. And that's not exactly conducive to an effective performance review that can help the employee develop and improve.

Additionally, it is important to receive consistent but comprehensive feedback from each group participating in a 360-degree performance review. For example, each employee's manager should evaluate them based on criteria specific to their duties. Colleagues from other teams should focus on the employee's ability to collaborate. And every direct report should provide feedback on their manager's leadership skills. This ensures that everyone involved provides the feedback they are qualified to give and that the employee receives a complete assessment that takes full advantage of the 360-degree format.

At this point, you may be wondering how you can effectively collect a variety of reviews from multiple people while ensuring that the identities of everyone involved remain anonymous. At a minimum, you should use an online survey tool to capture feedback from each participant. This is less cumbersome than managing the process via email or shared documents, and no personal information is tied to an individual's rating.

However, it is far more advantageous to choose a performance management solution with integrated 360-degree assessment functions. You can easily create a variety of appraisal forms for multiple positions in your company. You can invite team members to participate by simply entering their email address into the system. Once the feedback has been collected, you can present all of the feedback to the employee in an easy-to-understand format that protects the identity of the people who provided it.

Below are some more tips for successfully conducting 360 performance reviews:

Gather a variety of perspectives from different people the employee interacts with. Assessments from 8-12 people usually result in a well-rounded assessment.
Try to provide a combination of quantitative and qualitative feedback. Ask the rater to rate the employee on a numerical scale for various criteria and also to express general thoughts.
Give the employee the opportunity to do a self-assessment. Then compare the results with feedback from others to see if the employee is making progress in the right areas.
Don’t rely solely on 360-degree feedback when conducting performance reviews. For example, when it comes to salary issues, you should focus on the employee's ability to achieve work-related goals, rather than the opinions of colleagues.

Help Your Employees Grow Through 360-Degree Feedback

Evaluating your employees using 360-degree feedback helps your team members improve in various areas. Follow the tips in this article to get the most out of employee interviews at your company.

Transform your performance evaluation approach with 360-degree feedback. Leverage IceHrm's integrated solutions for a well-rounded assessment, driving continuous employee growth.