Conducting employee reviews is a vital component of both professional development and proactive leadership.
Because of this reality, great leaders know that employee reviews are absolutely essential the flourishing of the individual and the organization.
Your candid feedback through a review is a gift. You have the potential to offer fascinating insight to the individual because of proximity of the relationship.
What if those same insights could be shared with you? Wouldn’t you want the same benefits for your own professional development?
Enter the 360 review: a powerful tool to gather insights from your closest relationships (both up and down) and clarify actions you need to take to grow in your leadership.
Key Takeaways
- A 360 review collects evaluations from various perspectives such as your peers, team members, managers and other leadership.
- 360 reviews increase self-awareness, cause many “aha” insights, improve your relationship with your team and increase morale.
- All the questions in a 360 review must be fair, measurable, relevant, specific and simple.
What Is a 360 Review?
A 360 review is exactly what it sounds like. You’re gathering employee feedback from all points of view.
The 360 review process involves collecting holistic feedback from various perspectives (such as your peers, your teammates and your bosses) rather than from a single source.
By ingesting data points from different perspectives and roles, you’ll unlock unique insights into who you are, how you work, how you benefit the team and how you can grow in your capacity as a teammate and leader.
Benefits of Implementing 360 Reviews
In a typical performance review, only one perspective is shared and discussed: the one in charge of the review.
A 360 review, however, goes far beyond a typical review and incorporates feedback from a variety of relevant sources. Because multiple perspectives are incorporated, the feedback is often more colorful, insightful and actionable.
Here are seven specific reasons I like (and frequently use) 360 reviews:
- Better, more candid feedback. It’s easier to get a clear picture of somebody’s performance, attitude and team spirit when you get feedback from many different sources.
- Increased self-awareness. It’s easy to deceive yourself. But when you get the same kind of feedback from lots of places, it’s easier to come to terms with consistent patterns and do something about them. The truth in the light is a great disinfectant of bad behavior.
- More team ownership. The team has an opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about the employee’s performance. That in turn means they will be more invested in the growth of that person, which is good.
- Increased employee engagement. 360 reviews give all employees a chance to feel heard and understood — and everyone wants to feel both of those things.
- Highly targeted development. With multiple answers to specific questions, you and your employee can create a more comprehensive, strategic plan for their professional development.
- Identification of potential leaders. 360 reviews open your eyes to potential leadership in your organization. If many people are sharing great things about a person, you can more confidently place them on a track to leadership positions.
- Improved team dynamics. When everyone offers feedback to each other, they become more aware of how their jobs and responsibilities impact their individual team members and the team as a whole.
How to Put Together 360 Review Questions
You might think the questions you use for a 360 review are no different than what you’d use for a typical review.
And you’d be dead wrong.
Because 360 review questions should be designed for input from a variety of perspectives, you need to tailor them to get the most insight out of everyone person sharing their feedback.
Therefore, you need a principled approach to developing your 360 review questions.
The questions you list in a 360 review must be:
- Fair: Don’t ask single-chute questions. Avoid including questions that could lead someone to answer in a way that shows favoritism or discrimination toward the reviewee.
- Measurable: The questions you ask must have some kind of quantifiable answer.
- Relevant: Don’t bother including questions that the person conducting the review wouldn’t have the answer to.
- Specific: Broad questions leave too much room for general responses. The more specific the question, the more specific (and better) the answer.
- Simple: Avoid complex questions. The more simple the question, the more candid and insightful the response.
The two best ways to incorporate these principles are through rating scales and open-ended questions.
Rating scales identify clear patterns in behavior, which is incredibly helpful for developing strategic plans for professional development.
Open-ended questions unlock insight on why certain behaviors might be happening, which is incredibly helpful for prescribing specific, actionable steps to address the behaviors and grow.
And as a bonus, after each section, I leave room for additional comments to allow for any further clarification.
My 5-Step 360 Review Template [+ Question Examples]
Let me briefly explain how to put together a great 360 review template for you and your team.
Start by adding an introduction that clearly explains the following:
- Why is the 360 review important?
- What is a 360 review?
- What is the purpose of the 360 review?
- Who is the 360 review for?
- Who is conducting the 360 review?
It could be as simple as:
“A 360 review allows us to identify the reviewer’s strengths and areas for improvement as we encourage our employees to achieve more. This type of review includes collecting feedback from anyone who works with the employee. By collecting a wide range of feedback, we can effectively set performance goals, award achievements and identify unwelcome behaviors.
Please be honest, fair and detailed with your feedback.
This review is for [reviewee] with [reviewer] conducting this review.”
1. Skills Assessment
The purpose of this section is to evaluate the employee’s hard skills and knowledge. This section helps leaders understand where the employee excels and where they may require further technical training and development.
- On a scale of 1-5: How well does the employee manage their time and prioritize tasks?
- On a scale of 1-5: How would you rate the employee’s level of expertise in their area of work?
- On a scale of 1-5: How would you rate the employee’s technical skills pertaining to their job?
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s willingness to seek out opportunities that enhance their knowledge and skill set.
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s problem-solving skills.
2. Professionalism Assessment
An evaluation of professionalism is essential for understanding how an employee conducts themself at work and around their peers. It can been seen as an assessment on their integrity and character. This section helps leaders determine behaviors they need to address.
- On a scale of 1-5: How well does the employee collaborate with others and contribute to a positive team environment?
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s time management skills.
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s communication skills.
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s willingness to take initiative and ownership of their work responsibilities.
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s abilities in resolving conflict within the team.
3. Employee Engagement
This next section is all about how the employee engages with their work and coworkers. Assessing employee engagement helps leaders understand how to employee fits in the work environment and contributes to its culture.
- On a scale of 1-5: How much does the employee demonstrate enthusiasm towards their work and responsibilities?
- On a scale of 1-5: How well does the employee handle and adapt to changes in the work environment?
- On a scale of 1-5: How well does the employee use constructive feedback to improve their performance?
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s willingness to collaborate with their coworkers.
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s display of integrity in their interactions with others.
4. Leadership Potential
Leaders lead future leaders, so you should always include an evaluation of someone’s leadership potential. This section helps leadership identify who is ready to take on future responsibilities and who may be eligible for upcoming promotions.
- On a scale of 1-5: How well does the employee delegate tasks to team members?
- On a scale of 1-5: How much does the employee show creativity and innovation in their work?
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s willingness to share their knowledge and skills with their team.
- On a scale of 1-5: Rate the employee’s decision-making abilities.
- On a scale of 1-5: How often does the employee actively seek opportunities for professional development?
5. Open Comments Section
Open comments are essential for soliciting valuable, candid feedback. I always like to add a section for additional comments so that you can gather the most insight from the reviewer.
- How does the employee support my team?
- What does the employee do to help my team achieve its goals?
- Can you provide one specific example of when the employee went above and beyond?
- Have you learned anything from the employee?
- What three skills should the employee improve to become more effective?
- Do you have any additional comments?
Utilizing Responses From a 360 Feedback Survey
Candid feedback is a gift, but you have to do something with it for it to prove fruitful. It’s ineffective to create an awesome review process if your employees aren’t going to implement the feedback they get from their review.
Here are six things I ask my employees to do once they’ve seen their reviews.
- Say “thank you” for the feedback. Remember, great feedback is a gift. Turn your critics into coaches and remain grateful that others are willing to help you determine your strengths and weaknesses.
- Ask clarifying questions. Sometimes a review leaves you surprised and confused. You don’t have to stay that way, so ask probing questions to get the answers you need. Present your questions in a way that shows your genuine interest in learning (e.g. “Help me understand…”).
- Identify areas for improvement. What weaknesses are you seeing come up in the review, and what can you do to improve?
- Draw up an action plan. Now that you’ve set your destination, chart the course of how you will get there.
- Seek out resources and support. Some of the best resources are those around you. Ask if they are willing to mentor you, or look for other resources at your disposal that you can use to achieve your goals.
- Communicate your plan. When you share your plan with a peer or a manager, they can help keep you on track and accountable.
Better Reviews for a Better Workplace
When you share thoughtful, candid reviews with your employees, they’ll typically find ways to improve and grow into the people you expect them to become.
And with great 360 reviews, they’ll do both of those things faster.
They’ll feel motivated to develop new skills, learn new habits and become a better employee — not just for you — but for everyone they work with.
To cultivating a more engaging and productive workplace,
Thomas
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