360 feedback enables employees to see how they are performing through a holistic lens, providing a balanced view of performance that often uncovers behaviors (both positive and negative) that a supervisor alone may not be aware of.
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360 Feedback Basics
Typical performance reviews only provide one perspective—the employee’s direct supervisor—whereas 360 feedback includes input from across the spectrum of an employee’s relationships. Every employee should receive 360 feedback. Not only will this help avoid accusations of discrimination, but it will also give accurate and timely information on how employees view each other.
With a 360 review process, you want genuine and productive feedback about the employee’s behavior and performance. The more senior an employee and the more workers they oversee, the more raters they should have. Entry-level positions only need two or three raters.
- Manager: The employee’s manager or supervisor should be part of the 360 feedback process. Along with other peers, the manager should rate and evaluate the employee’s work performance and behaviors.
- Peers: We recommend that you include peer employees who may have had important interactions with the employee being reviewed during this review period.
- Clients: Though not required, some organizations (e.g., retail, real estate, or salons) like to include feedback from outside the company by soliciting help from vendors, clients, or customers. They can provide a unique perspective into how well the employee is performing.
- Employee: The employee should provide a self-evaluation. This will help you determine how the employee sees their performance in comparison or contrast to how their peers see it.
Why 360 Feedback Should Be Anonymous
Feedback from managers does not have to be anonymous, as managers should be able to have direct conversations with all of their employees. However, to get honest and transparent information, all other feedback (except the employee’s self-evaluation) should be anonymous. An anonymous process also:
- Reduces stress on the raters
- Puts the focus on the feedback and not the source
- Helps avoid workplace conflict
We recommend doing a 360 review annually. However, you can also give 360 feedback after completing a major project, to encourage an employee’s development, or on a more frequent basis (such as quarterly).
Note that a 360 performance review should not take the place of or be combined with a regular performance review. Visit our guide to employee evaluation forms for downloadable evaluation forms for conducting regular performance reviews.
Additionally, don’t let this take the place of real-time feedback. 360 feedback should simply be a part of your broader review and feedback process, along with other types of feedback.
How to Conduct 360 Feedback
As a manager, you need to ensure you get accurate data on your employees. Following a structured process like the one outlined below will help you get honest feedback from your team members.
Step 1: Create a 360 Feedback Review Template
Keep in mind, when creating your template, that 360 feedback should be open-ended. So, your questions/comments should allow the raters to expand on their answers. We recommend you also include a five-point rating system (see our template above). But, make sure the raters know they need to provide written details to answer each category.
Here are the statements you might want to include for managers and coworkers (for internal review):
Work Attitude:
- This employee demonstrates our company values.
- The employee’s behavior is positive.
- The employee can handle interpersonal conflicts.
Quality of Work:
- The employee’s quality of work is satisfactory.
- This employee works at their highest potential.
- This employee’s performance level is satisfactory.
Collaboration:
- This employee can handle conflict.
Here are questions/comments to consider using for customers or vendors (for external review):
- This employee is effective at resolving concerns.
- I have enjoyed working with this employee.
- This employee provided a resolution to a stressful situation encountered.
Here are questions/comments to consider using for employees (self-evaluation):
- Rate your overall performance.
- I have the capacity and the tools necessary to work at my highest potential.
- I align well with the company values.
If your company uses performance review software, you may be able to send these directly from the program, making your next steps simpler. If you don’t, we recommend creating a template and sending it via email to each rater.
You can use our sample 360 feedback review template to craft a form based on your company’s needs.
Step 2: Speak With the Employee
Many employees haven’t participated in 360 feedback before. While learning about it should ideally be part of your company’s onboarding process, it’s not a bad idea to remind them of how it works.
Discuss the process, what information you’ll solicit from others, and when you expect to meet with them again to review the results. Keeping your employees informed will ease their concerns about what’s happening behind closed doors.
Step 3: Choose the Raters & Give Guidance
360 feedback should involve managers, colleagues, and even clients. If you can, choose raters that the employee worked with on a recent big project.
When you assign raters, give them a timeline. It’s important to provide raters with a reasonable amount of time to complete the feedback. Especially if they’re rating multiple employees, this can get time-consuming. Generally, a deadline of two to four weeks is good.
Also, raters should be given guidelines for completing review forms, which can include open-text questions and ratings. Ideally, these forms should be used for every review. Remind raters to keep comments focused on work-related actions.
If you’re asking raters to give their colleagues a score of one to five, make sure they have an understanding of what each numerical value represents. Encourage raters to give positives and negatives in their comments—at least one each, preferably three. This helps you get accurate and honest feedback on employee performance.
Step 4: Send the 360 Review Template
When sending the 360 feedback template to raters, you can either print them out and hand them to the reviewer or send an individual link to the rater and have them complete their portion online. Then once all reviews are submitted back to you, you will compile the feedback together into one document.
Step 5: Review the Responses
As a manager, this is where you step back in to review all of the comments and scores (if you used any) before sharing them with the employee. You may also want to request additional information if something is unclear.
Putting the data together into one report for the employee to review is not recommended for two reasons:
- First, it defeats the purpose of having anonymous reviews if the manager is going to paraphrase all of them.
- And second, the manager may have a bias that comes through in the paraphrased comments, even unknowingly, which can affect how the comments are received.
Remember that anonymous feedback also opens up opportunities for rude and unprofessional comments. In case some responses may be too blunt, managers may have to step in to paraphrase them or omit them entirely. Ultimately, managers should use their judgment when reviewing the results with the employee.
Step 6: Deliver the Results
Up to this point, most of your work has been automated or electronic. Delivering the results of the 360 feedback should be personal, whether that’s in person or via video call (for remote employees).
Make sure that you know how to approach concerns the employee might have before going through the results with the employee. It’s not always easy to share negative feedback, but it’s crucial for the employee’s development.
Also, share positive feedback. Too often, an employee fails to recognize their contributions to the team. When they hear from their manager about the things they’ve done well, it can boost their morale and remind them that they may have very few areas that need improvement.
Benefits of 360 Feedback
Soliciting feedback is crucial to effective employee management. Feedback from multiple sources gives managers a balanced view of the employee being rated and helps them identify areas where they can offer better support to help the employee grow.
Benefit | Reason |
|---|---|
Feedback From Multiple Raters | When you solicit feedback from different sources, you end up with varying viewpoints. This will allow you to see how your team is perceived from every angle, giving you insight into where to focus for employee development. |
Uncover Blind Spots | When people provide varying perspectives, the feedback can uncover blind spots for both the employee and their manager. The manager can incorporate this information into their discussion with the employee and support the employee in adjusting their behavior and developing their skills. |
Balanced View | 360 feedback provides employees with a balanced view of their skills and behaviors, as seen through the eyes of managers, colleagues, and customers. This gives employees a fair and broader perspective of how they and their work are perceived. |
Increased Self-Awareness | Self-awareness can give employees a boost to recognize poor behavior or performance and correct it on their own. |
Employee Development Opportunities | 360 feedback can show areas where employees need further development and improvement. That can open avenues for employee development opportunities. |
Reduced Workplace Bias | When an employee is only evaluated by their direct supervisor there can be a bias to the way the supervisor feels about the employee. 360 feedback allows perspectives from multiple sources which in turn can lessen the chance of bias. |
Improve Customer Relations | When 360 feedback is provided from clients and customers it allows the employee and managers to see where they can increase customer satisfaction. |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Accuracy is an issue with 360-degree feedback because individual evaluators may have different recollections of how the employee performed. Additionally, depending on the evaluation and the criticism it may contain, this type of evaluation can lead to decreased motivation.
360 feedback can provide you with valuable insight into how others—managers, coworkers, and clients—view the performance and attitude of the employee. Each offers a different perspective, and while that can also be a negative, it can also give you a 360 view of how well the employee is doing.
There are different methods to receive 360 feedback. These include:
- Surveys
- 360 Feedback Software
- Evaluation Forms
- Questionnaires
Bottom Line
A structured performance management process helps businesses achieve their goals—and 360 feedback is one goal in your arsenal. It gives you great insight into how other people perceive an employee’s work performance. Even for small teams, 360 feedback can give managers exceptional data about how to support their teams.
