The Feel and Future of 360 Degree Feedback Tool

Times have changed; the Information era has begun. Now people know more than their bosses what needs to be done and how it is to be done. Hence in an effort to manage the knowledgeable workers, it is mandatory to listen, ask and learn from everyone around.

Feedback is common sense. When people ask, listen and then try to learn from others, it improves the relationship between them.

The 360 degree feedback tool has created an upheaval in the HR space, and people are all over it.

The people are inculcating the system into their companies. The tool is about the pretty colors of help, where companies are making a shift from appraisals to continuous performance management.

360 degree evaluation system is a tool that gives each employee performance feedback from the people who work with them. These people are none other than the employee’s peers, manager, subordinates and sometimes customers. At least four to eight people fill the feedback form, where the questions evaluate the employee by covering a landscape of competencies.

The employee for whom the feedback is being filled is also required to fill a self-assessment form with the same questions. Once the process is over, the system automatically presents the report in a manner that is easily understandable by the recipient and helps him create a development plan.

The Essence of the Tool-

• It gives a picture to the individual as to how his/her effectiveness is viewed by others in the organization.

• It provides knowledge of the abilities and practices wanted in the company to achieve the mission, vision, and objectives.

Strictly speaking, the 360 degree feedback tool does justice to its name by measuring the feedback from a 360 degree angle of the employee including all the people connected with him/her.

“Genuine feedback is important to test one’s own perception, perceive the hidden qualities, and understand the blind sides in self-recognitions.”

What are the Advantages of 360-Degree Feedback?

Some of the most important benefits of 360 degree feedback are:

• Makes you Aware–

Being self-aware is to understand one’s own thoughts, interests, strengths, and weaknesses. A leader needs to be balanced in his ideas and approach. Leaders come in with a great start but sometimes lose track, and this feedback system could be one way to give them the right direction to improve.

• Facilitates Communication

Dialogue is the initial step to move from evaluation to improvement. A self-aware attitude matched with feedback creates an opportunity for dialogue. This generally begins with a warm talk between the reviewer(manager, peers or co-workers) and the candidate surveyed defining the personality pros and cons.

This communication proceeds to form a plan where improvement goals are settled upon.

• Provides Developmental Opportunities

An integral part of continuous performance management is development opportunities. The 360 degree evaluation tool shows a strong way of how teams could keep developing and become far better in their performance. It gives them space to build on current skills and develop new ones. And allowing the individuals to take ownership of the development process increases their engagement.

• Builds a Relationship of Reciprocity & Accountability

A continuous 360 degree feedback system is not a one-sided tool where the top administration directs the one below them. It removes the problem of ambiguity; the system defines certain competency needs. According to the needs, the person is required to perform. This makes it easy to convey the requirement, and if the person fails to perform, he can be held responsible.

But what makes the process efficient is that when the needs are pre-defined, there is no room for unclear thoughts. The employees understand where he lacks, takes ownership of his actions and hence this makes it easier to identify development opportunities.

• Improves performance

When implemented properly a good 360 degree feedback system guarantees employee engagement. With the 360 feedback questionnaire, the employees unearth their strengths and weaknesses. Identifying the competencies allows the structuring of a customized development plan. When they are told about the abilities and the same are sharpened they excel and contribute more to the company’s goals.

• As a Developmental Tool

The feedback mechanism provides feedback to the employees from all levels. This feedback is generally kept anonymous to avoid any discomfort during expression. This way the employee gets to know what other people think about his abilities and performance.

The recipients hence get a chance to understand what others feel, good or bad and hence have a chance to improve themselves and adjust their behavior.

That’s how employees move towards improvement and excelling in their jobs.

• The Ingredient of Continuous Performance Management

The performance of a company is directly related to the performance of an individual.  A traditional performance evaluation system assesses the employees and rates them annually.

Performance is nothing but the accomplishment of a task by a person. The use of 360 degree evaluation tool in this manner is gaining importance for its unbiased assessment. The goal of the 360 degree feedback questionnaire is to focus on the abilities and aptitude of the worker and convey to them the feelings and perception of others in the company.

In this way, the tool calls attention to the important performance dimensions that may otherwise get neglected by the company.

The 360 degree feedback tool is  gaining popularity over the years. Once used for just the top level of the management it has now come to include other worker groups as well. The multi-rater process begins with the senior team coming down to include the various management levels.

“More than 85% of all the Fortune 500 companies use the 360 degree feedback system as a cornerstone of their overall leadership development process. If you are not a user, we encourage you to take a fresh look.”

But before using, understand the expectations to be set for your tool because it is only then that fresh look count.

• What Not to Expect?

The tool is a part of the performance management system and not the system itself. Sometimes people start expecting way more than its capability. The system is a part and needs to be well integrated into the system to perform.

It is not about focusing on the downfalls, negatives, and weaknesses of a person. The system is about promoting good performance and making improvements wherever needed.

The tool does not focus on job-specific skills or technical expertise. It is not the tool to check whether the person is meeting the job requirements.

The feedback tool is not a standard questionnaire that can be used in all companies in the same way. Each company has different requirements, and the questions need to be adjusted according to the requirements.

• What to Expect?

Whenever you want to look for a developmental tool for your employees, a tool that assesses the behaviour and competencies of the employee, go for the 360 degree feedback questionnaire.

Expect to understand how you are seen in the eyes of others in your workplace, get to read what feedback they give.

It focuses on subjective areas such as teamwork, attitude, leadership and management.

“Wrong expectations are the root cause of disappointment.”

Other times it is about how companies implement the tool in their system. The reasons for failure could be-

• Disinterested Bosses–
  

Programs that do not get the due attention from bosses are ineffective. Bosses are the believers without them; the programs may not succeed.

• No Follow-Ups-

Change does not happen overnight; it takes time. Once the feedback has been taken and provided to the concerned persons, the work doesn’t end there. An effort to change requires time, attention and reminders. Plan the post 360 plan as the action.

• No Strengths Only Weaknesses-

Some companies only focus on the negatives and disregard the positives that are unraveled in the feedback process. The positives are what got the employees where they are, that’s what which needs to be remembered.

Once companies understand these downfalls and make the 360 degree evaluation tool systematic and optimized, the experience will, then, positively impact everyone.

Before the company starts to train its employees based on the feedback received it is mandatory to include assessments in the process.

Pre and post assessments are the best way to evaluate the skill gap analysis and keep a tab of the pre and post learnings as well.

Mettls’ bank of Pre-Built-Tests and assessments for cognitive, behavioral, technical or aptitude abilities are a must view.

Before taking up the learning initiatives, it is customary to know where the employee stands before the learnings in terms of skills and repeat the process post assessments. And that is how we at Mettl help you make an informed decision and give one too to your employees. Based on the assessments analytics it gets easier to tell the employees what areas to improve and monitor the change as well.

Do you want to improve the performance of your employees?

The first step is to understand the purpose of 360 degree feedback questionnaire. 360 degree evaluation tool is a positive and powerful instrument that can build an organization’s support system.

Mercer | Mettl has a one-stop solution for all your 360 degree evaluation needs. It offers 3 effective tools to evaluate employee’s potential and abilities. They are listed below:

Performance Appraisal

The evaluation tool provides you overall employees’ perspective in the form of a seamless platform, intuitive reports, and customizable surveys.

• Seamless Platform: Eliminates operational hassles from the 360 degree evaluation and appraisal process by the quick set-up, effortless administration, and automated reminders.

• Intuitive Reports: Mercer | Mettl helps in preparing beautiful reports and dashboards with clear and actionable information. It consists of comprehensive feedback reports, group reports, and easy-to-understand dashboards.

• Customizable Survey: It helps you customize questions to competencies to reports. Mercer | Mettl will help you build custom questionnaires, an exhaustive competency library, and multiple question types.

You can visit the link for more details on Performance Appraisal.

Training Needs Identification

The assessment tool helps in identifying gaps in the behavioral traits of an employee as perceived by other stakeholders.

It Is Divided into 3 Pillars:

Why to Train

Mercer | Mettl identifies and develop key competencies in employees to achieve business goals

Who to Train

It helps in identifying the skill gap for each employee based on the competency levels

What to Train

It helps in designing a customized training plan based on individual skill gaps and training needs

Apart from that Mercer | Mettl helps you in curating the right training program for your organization. It is divided into 3 parts:

Skill-based: It helps in identifying employee’s unique skill sets required to succeed in every job role and function.

Behavior-based: It identifies behavioral gaps that needs to be worked upon employees. They are basically the dominant predictor for most roles.

Future-Proofing: It augments the learning agility within the organization by identifying upcoming skills to develop in the workforce.

For more details on this, visit the link.

Succession Planning

This tool understands behavioral dynamics observed on-the-job and improves the developmental steps.

Mercer | Mettl can help you plan Succession Planning in the following way:

• Identify: It defines key competencies required to succeed in critical roles and nominate candidates.
• Assess: Valid and reliable tools such as Psychometric, Aptitude Assessment, Assessment and Development Centers, and 360 Degree Feedback System are used to assess candidate readiness on key competencies.
• Plan: Customized reports are used to shortlist the suitable candidates for succession. 
• Act: There is a check on the growth of selected candidates.

Implementing 360 degree feedback system in organizations is a smart investment and a business decision as it promotes self-awareness and creates transparency in communications. The feedback tool creates transparency among the internal team via trust, sharing, and increased clarity towards expected behaviors and goals. A well-crafted 360 degree feedback tool and process can boost the overall team performance.

At Mercer I Mettl, our mission is to enable organizations to build winning teams by making credible people decisions across two key areas: Acquisition and Development. Since our inception in 2009, we have partnered with 2900+ corporates, 31 sector skill councils/government departments, and 15+ educational institutions across 90+ countries.

Mettl was acquired by Mercer in 2018, a global consulting leader in advancing health, wealth, and career, and a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), the leading global professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people.

For more information, visit www.mettl.com. Follow Mercer | Mettl on LinkedIn and Twitter @MercerMettl.