Important Insights Into 360-Degree Assessment Performance Dimensions

I have been looking for insight about 360-Degree assessment performance dimensions for a long period of time and have compiled what I have explored in the body of this opinion piece.360 degree feedbackis gathered from all around you: your direct reports, peers, internal and external “customers” (where appropriate) and your line manager. The results are then collated with your own responses and used to generate a report. The report is discussed in a confidential developmental conversation with a trained facilitator. Psychological mechanisms related to how we operate in social environments may become impediments to accurate self-assessment; this may be especially true for individuals in organizational settings. Mechanisms exist that make honest self-assessment more difficult. Some of these mechanisms are related to filters through which we tend to view ourselves; others are related to the kind of information about ourselves that is available. When giving 360 degree feedback, it’s important to clearly explain why a factor is hurting the subject's performance. Referring to specific situations will encourage employees to recall their past behavior and think about what actions they could take to change their performance. Revolutionary changes in organization cultures have made traditional single-source assessments illogical and impractical. Among these changes are increasing participative leadership, empowering employees, improving customer service, integrating quality initiatives into the mainstream of business activities, reengineering, moving to competency- and team-based rewards, and ending entitlements. The 360 degree process could take 2-3 weeks to communicate about the appraisal system. This can be done through a personal meeting with supervisors, managers, leaders, and employees. Also, it can be communicated through emails and employees should be encouraged to come forward if they have any queries related to the 360-degree performance appraisal process. A lack of trust will undermine your 360 degree project. It will go smoothly if you are trusted as a project lead, if the 360 degree feedbacksystem is trusted, if the survey is trusted as relevant and robust, if the coaches are trusted to be professional, skilful and confidential, if reviewers are trusted to provide honest constructive feedback, if participants are trusted to respond maturely and if the senior leaders are trusted to follow through on promises regarding sight of personal data. Customer involvement in 360 degree feedbackmay redefine the feedback criteria. The First Union example encourages the expansion of our thinking to encompass a variety of methodologies to capture input for a 360-feedback process. All constituencies who are to provide feedback do not need to do so using the same assessment instrument and criteria. In fact, the criteria may need to be tailored to the interests and priorities of the feedback givers, to the differences in the behaviors or outcomes they are likely to observe or experience, or to the competitive value of the information to the organization. Once participants have received the full 360 degree feedbackreport, they should be willing to share a summary of insights gained, and/or developmental plans made, based on the feedback in order to ensure that they will be (and feel) accountable for making progress based on the report. A 360 degree feedbackprogram improves Working Relationships: Feedback is something that is often one-sided or altogether missing. By introducing a reciprocal exchange of feedback into a relationship, an implicit message is sent that the participant cares about their co-workers and associates, and they value their opinions and perceptions. The feedback forms for 360 degree feedbackinclude questions that are measured on a rating scale and also ask raters to provide written comments. The person receiving feedback also fills out a self-rating survey that includes the same survey questions that others receive in their forms. Developing the leadership pipeline with regard to 360 degree feedback system helps clarify key organisational messages.A Big Dose Of DeterminationYou can be sure to maximise the visionary dimension by truly listening to the future strategy and the visionaries of the organisation, seeking out trends in the market-place – in your industry and in HR in general and by looking internationally, eg using the thought that the US trends may take a while to get to the UK. Be wary of past “myths” that may not now hold true. You can get swallowed into accepted thinking and practice if you are not careful. Some organizations have a relatively large number of senior organization members who occupy space and use organization resources but have long since ceased to be productive. These coasters also are known as deadwood, in-place retired, and window watchers. At a large service company they are called empty suits and at a manufacturing company, wasted shoes. By whatever name, they try to block the use of any credible performance feedback systems because their nonperformance will be exposed. The tasks required of a manager during a 360-degree review are quite similar to those required by the other reviewers. They will be asked to answer a series of questions about their direct reports. This will typically include questions about their attitude, team spirit, and skills, among others. The number of people who go through a 360 varies widely, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, some companies use it only for a single leader – often an executive – who is struggling. Or they might use it when they are considering someone for a specific promotion, and want to get some data about where they can improve. 360 degree feedbackallows employees to learn how to work more efficiently as a team. You can benefit through stronger cohesiveness, better communication, and team development. Analysis and decision making become easier when an understanding of what is 360 degree feedback is woven into the organisational fabric.With the 360 degree feedbackprocess, rating procedures fail if the confidentiality of each employee's score is not protected. Such information has historically been confidential, known to only the employee, the employee's supervisor, and sometimes higher-level managers. The 360 degree feedbackprocess must include safeguards that ensure the confidentiality of the employee's scores. Multi-rater surveys, such as the 360 degree review, offer individuals and organizations a unique opportunity for holistic, advanced feedback. To capitalize on the opportunity, the organization must clearly define the objectives, train the raters, and design a process that encourages open discussion. Therefore, one must check for feedback readiness, be clear about the objectives, and systematically initiate the process. Customer involvement in 360 degree feedbackfacilitates top-to-bottom focus. Top-to-bottom alignment may be achieved by using an integrated set of validated feedback criteria for the 360-degree program throughout the organization. These criteria should be based on the organization's understanding of what will drive its competitive advantage and success. Achieving this alignment enables the 360-degree process to focus the entire organization on one set of strategic priorities. Sharing data themes and promoting others' involvement in interpreting the feedback not only gives a person insight to the meaning of the data but also enlists support from others for ongoing development efforts. In a culture that supports collective learning, there are systems and processes that allow for the more public sharing of data about individuals' strengths and weaknesses, for clarifying what the data mean, and for deciding what actions should be taken-by the individual and the collective. 360 degree feedback, also known as multi source assessment, is a development tool. It’s one of the best ways to get personalised, accurate information about how others see you at work. Supporting the big vision encompassing 360 degree feedback will lead to untold career development initiatives.Painting The Picture Of Your Organisation's Leadership360 degree feedbackcan be less effective in small organisations as there are fewer sources and reduced objectivity. To run a successful business, you need your employees to thrive. Modern businesses recognize that typical performance measures aren’t enough to help their staff identify areas to improve and capitalize on the areas in which they’re successful. Do not stop the process of learning right after a 360 performance review. Set your managers up for success by teaching them how to do a proper follow-up after the review. Organizations too often forget the importance of training, yet problems occur when employees and supervisors have no training in performance feedback. Many supervisors avoid the feedback process or provide nearly useless information to direct reports. And employees who are given negative behavior feedback, from a multisource system or any other evaluative procedure, will find the evaluation process distasteful. 360 feedback reviews are useful to the employee as they provide a well-rounded and balanced view of their skills and behaviours. In this model, feedback isn’t just given from the individual’s supervisor but from a variety of people in the organization. This provides a fair and more accurate picture of the employee’s demonstrated behaviour. Organisations should avoid fear based responses when coming to terms with 360 feedback software in the workplace.Once you’ve sent out your 360 degree surveys, collected all the responses and analyzed the data, you should get a clear indication of what people think of an employee. This is a great start, but you then need to present this information to your employee. Sometimes this is a great time, employees are well liked in their team and everyone sings their praise. If you’ve heard any horror stories about 360 degree feedbackinitiatives that simply fell flat, know that research shows that when 360s fail, it’s usually because of botched implementation, not the tool itself. So before you start, consider how a 360 feedback initiative connects to your business strategy and to your talent strategy. The philosophical concept of Naïve Realism explains that each of us thinks we see the world directly, as it really is. We also think that what we see is what everyone else sees. The 360 degree feedbackprocess exposes us to others’ perceptions about our behavior. Fortunately, participants find that most of their multi rater feedback is consistent with their own expectations. Find supplementary info on the topic of 360-Degree assessment performance dimensions at this Wikipedia entry.Related Articles:How Do We Get To Grips With 360 Degree Evaluation Processes?Important Insights Into 360-Degree Evaluation InstrumentsElementary Mistakes We All Make With Regards To 360 Evaluation Systems