What is 360-degree feedback and how does it work?

What is 360-degree feedback?

When an employee receives feedback from multiple sources, it’s known as 360-degree feedback. This method provides a well-rounded view of the employee’s performance, with input from supervisors, mentors, colleagues, and even external partners like suppliers or customers.

Unlike one-dimensional or 180-degree feedback, which comes from a single source or focuses only on the employee’s contribution, 360-degree feedback draws on perspectives from across the board. This comprehensive approach is designed to promote personal and professional development, helping employees grow and perform at their best.

When is 360-degree feedback used?

360-degree feedback is often used as part of an appraisal, but can also be used as part of a learning process. The purpose of this method is to stimulate the employee's personal development by providing feedback from different perspectives. This can be done by conducting a 360-degree feedback during the annual appraisal and holding regular roundtable discussions throughout the year. This motivates the employee to continue working on their improvements. The focus here is on identifying opportunities and possibilities for the employee, rather than just focusing on their weaknesses. It is important that the feedback is given with the intention of helping the employee perform better, not to belittle them.

Is 360-degree feedback widely used by organizations?

In many organizations, it is very common to regularly conduct 360-degree feedback. Those who use it have built a whole structure around this form of feedback. All employees have a personal development plan that is adjusted annually and there is a system of 360-degree feedback. This is an approach where employees receive feedback not only from their manager but also from colleagues, customers, and themselves. In this way, if you're the employee, you can discover what you see as your own strengths and weaknesses and how others judge that.

If the scores vary greatly, you can formulate improvement points or pat yourself on the back for the things you do better than you think. If you work in an organization where feedback is very common, then you won't have to ask for it much. The trick is to not to see 360-degree feedback as an obligatory number, but to actually do something with it. This keeps you sharp and ensures that you continue to learn and develop yourself.

If you are required to be judged by your colleagues, keep the following in mind:

• It's not the end of the world. The purpose of an honest 360-degree feedback evaluation is to help you move forward, not to punish you.
• Handle the evaluation with dignity; do something with the feedback.
• Take the results of the evaluation seriously and try to improve yourself; don't approach colleagues.
• Don't get upset if you receive negative feedback.
• Don't confront colleagues who you suspect gave the feedback. It's not evidence of incompetence, but someone's perception of your behavior or performance

The benefits of 360-degree feedback

• In general, 360-degree evaluations yield positive results, including: substantiated, useful feedback;
• Team development; a positive contribution to the performance of employees;
• Better career development for employees;
• 360-degree feedback helps with fair and objective evaluation;
• Determining training or education needs.

These, mandatory or not, 360-degree feedback evaluations provide balanced assessments. This balance is lacking in standard evaluations where only the manager does the evaluation. The effects of a good 360-degree evaluation on team productivity are even more important in the long term than the effects on the individual.

More information for 360-degree feedback

Do you want to know more about 360-degree feedback? Please contact TestGroup.

Order: 360-degree feedback

You can order 360-degree feedback for your employee(s) here. TestGroup can organize the 360-degree feedback for you, but you can also do it independently through an account on the Bridge Assessment Platform.