360 Performance Review

360 Degree Performance Reviews - Fall 1997

PROBLEM: The limitation of traditional performance reviews is that the employee only receives feedback from one person: his or her manager/supervisor. It does not include what other people think about the person's performance. Since it's a less than complete picture, it may lack credibility in the employee's mind because he or she may believe that the manager is unfairly biased or missing something important.

SOLUTION: A growing number of companies are beginning to use a relatively new performance review technique called "360 degree assessment." Although only about 8% of the companies in one survey currently use this approach, 69% plan to start using it in the next three years.

This new approach involves getting feedback about an employee from a wide variety of sources in addition to his or her manager. These might include: departmental coworkers, direct reports, people in other departments and suppliers who interact with the person, and perhaps even some customers as well. The result is that the person gets a much more accurate and inclusive picture of his or her strengths and weaknesses.

Here's how you can do it in your organization:

Have each employee pick three to five people they would like to get feedback from and pick three to five people yourself.
Create a short questionnaire (e.g. 10 multiple choice questions) or a series of interview questions and ask for people's comments.

Have those chosen fill out the questionnaire, or complete the face to face interviews with a neutral third party.

Summarize the results and share them in a non-judgmental, anonymous manner with each person reviewed.

Finally, create an action plan with short-term goals that will focus on the person's agreed upon shortcomings.

Do not tie the results to pay raises or promotions. Doing so may encourage employees to inflate their answers for friends or downplay others' strengths to gain an unfair advantage.

Do it twice a year so there's some continuity and get some comments from your people on whether the process is useful for them or not.

EXAMPLE: A manager in the waste management industry would often get frustrated and yell at his people in public. The employees were making at least one complaint a week to the HR Department and threatening to file stress claims under Worker's Compensation. I was brought in to do a 360 degree performance appraisal to give him objective feedback about what he was doing.

RESULTS: The manager was motivated by the results of the evaluation to enter an anger management program. He calmed down and morale and productivity significantly increased. The complaints to HR also stopped.

SUMMARY: The process of 360 degree performance assessment can help your employees see themselves in an entirely new light. It can assist them in gaining consensus about what they're doing right and what they still need to improve.

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Michael H. Smith, Ph.D.
5801 Leona St., Ste A
Oakland, CA 94605

Tel: 510-530-7900
Fax: 510-530-7922
Email: MHSmith@MichaelHSmithPhD.Com