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Assessment & Evaluation

Successfully Managing Your 360-Degree Initiative

Chris Musselwhite

If, after careful consideration, you’ve chosen to invest in a 360-degree system, here are some suggestions that will contribute to the success of your initiative.

Be Thoughtful

If you make the 360 a positive experience, people will line up to be next for the learning. A big factor in this is how you handle the management of the entire process, especially the post-survey development. When you create an organization of individuals who can’t wait to learn and attack their next area of personal development, you are creating a culture of learners. This is how you begin to cultivate agility in your organization, which is a hallmark of successful companies.

Start Small

If the 360 assessment process is new to the organization, start with fewer people. This provides an opportunity to test your process and participant reactions. From this test, you can make course corrections and avoid widespread unanticipated negative reactions.

Communicate

It is important to have very senior people own and introduce the 360 initiative to the organization. This is the time to provide the rationale behind it, as well as the process. The more communication people receive about what’s going on in the organization — even if they aren’t involved — the more likely they are to receive it positively.

Ensure Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a must when using a 360 instrument. If people don’t think their feedback is anonymous, they are less likely to be honest. To model the most positive response to the survey, senior executives must be willing to go first. In fact, it’s best to start as high in the organization as possible. The way they respond to feedback will be a model for the rest of the organization, so take the time to coach them on how to respond.

Put Developmental Resources in Place

Developmental systems must be in place to address needs in a timely fashion once identified. Take this opportunity to start to develop a feedback-oriented culture. Make people excited about getting better versus getting defensive about criticism.

Employ Coaching

One-on-one coaching is critical to ensure feedback is not misinterpreted and that it is confidential. Using one-on-ones with 360 assessments is a great way to jump-start the coaching process based on the feedback being given. Often, those who need the attention won’t talk in a group setting — another good reason to start small so you can provide one-on-one feedback and coaching.

Make it Relevant

To make it relevant, every individual’s resulting developmental plan must be part of the organization’s performance appraisal and development process. Without attaching it to employees’ performance objectives, it might seem as if you just spent a lot of time and money to show them what they need to improve but that you don’t care enough to help them actually make the improvements.

Follow Up

Put in a follow-up assessment to close the loop for individuals. If no one’s going to see if they’ve made improvement, where’s the motivation or proof of the organization’s investment?