Launching 360-Degree Feedback

Preparing and conducting your first 360-degree feedback project doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are a few tips for getting started right.

Set Goals
Decide what you want your 360-degree survey process to measure. How will you use the results? Who will participate? What will you include in the reports? How will you incorporate the results into your organizational goals?

Prepare Participants
When starting a 360-degree program, you need to educate respondents and participants. Let them know what to expect and how the process will help them individually and the organization as a whole.

• Explain the goals of the 360 process
• Ensure participants know how the results will be presented and used.
• Assure participants their responses will be kept confidential.
• Answer any questions and address individual’s concerns.
• Instruct participants on how to complete the surveys and add comments.
• Encourage participants to be as open as possible.
• Communicate confidence in the 360-degree feedback process to participants and respondents

The more confident participants are in the process and its goals, the more candid and accurate their responses will be. More honest, complete responses mean more actionable results.

Develop your 360 instrument
Your organization is unique. Ensure your survey instrument is tailored to your organization’s unique needs. Ask clear, concise questions that directly relate to participants’ daily experiences with their jobs and with those they work with. Give participants adequate opportunity to leave comments regarding specific areas of improvement. Participants lose confidence in the process if they are required to answer questions that do not apply to their regular work experience.

Ensure Confidentiality
One of the strengths of 360 feedback is the ability to receive and give constructive feedback without fear of reprisal. 360-degree feedback should give the subject an accurate view of how his/her performance is perceived by others. If respondents fear their responses can harm them in any way, they will choose safe rather than honest responses. Less-than-candid feedback severely limits the effectiveness of 360-degree feedback.

Choose a 360-Degree Feedback Vendor
The 360 survey marketplace offers a broad variety of 360-degree feedback products. Choose one that will best suit your organization’s needs and budget.

Off-the-Shelf Products: many generic survey products are available in packaged form. These products are often less expensive, but cannot be customized to the specific dynamics of your organization.

In-house 360: some organizations decide to handle the entire 360-degree feedback process themselves. They create, administer, host, and process the survey. This ensures the survey proceeds exactly as they wish, but requires extensive investment in programming and equipment as well as extensive oversight.

360 Feedback Consultants: Human Resources or Organizational Development consultants often offer a wide variety of 360 products. Using consultants often means assistance through the entire 360 process as well as the opportunity to rely on their experience and expertise. Post-survey coaching is often the greatest advantage of working with consultants. They assist individuals and organizations in developing goals based on the 360 results. Some consultants require restrictive contracts with hidden line-item costs. Some vendors may also claim ownership of the data collected and charge you to access it. Such items can make costs difficult to predict.

360-Degree Feedback Processing: these vendors handle the technology aspects of 360-degree feedback. They host the survey, collect the data, process it and prepare reports. This option is often cost effective because you receive a customized survey and reports without the investment in software or equipment. Another advantage of this option is the reduction in administrator burden. Administrators are able to focus on content and organizational development instead of technical issues. A 360 processing vendor usually does not usually provide survey content or post-survey coaching. Organizations can develop their own survey instrument or use consultants for survey content.

Develop a follow-up program
Before you launch your survey, put the structure in place to follow-up on the survey results. You can decide who will be in charge of individual coaching to help participants understand their reports and use the information to initiate change.

Use the results to drive training and development programs for employees and managers. Follow-up is imperative to maximizing the value-derived from 360-feedback.

STAR is a 360-degree feedback processing company. To learn more about our products, please call us at 1-888-467-8575.

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