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Building a 360-Degree Feedback Program

Benjamin Granger, Ph.D.

Benjamin Granger, Ph.D.

Principal Consultant, Org Behavior

Dr. Benjamin Granger provides expert guidance to

organizations implementing employee engagement

and assessment initiatives. Prior to joining Qualtrics,

Ben spent five years as a Senior Consultant with

Verizon’s Employee Experience team where he led

enterprise-wide employee assessment, engagement,

and system integration projects. Ben is also a

certified Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt.

Ben earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from

the University of Louisiana and his Ph.D. in Industrial

Organizational Psychology from the University of

South Florida.

Agenda

What is 360 Feedback?

Common Problems with 360s

Building a 360 Feedback Program

Defining the Purpose of your 360 Program

Designing the Workflow of your 360 Program

Building Competency Models

Writing 360 Assessment Items

Developing Reports based on Best Practices

Following up on Results

360 Feedback collects, quantifies, and reports coworkers’ (Evaluators) observations of an individual (Subjects)

What is 360 Feedback?

C O M M O N S O U R C E S O F R AT I N G S

o Manager(s)

o Peers

o Subordinates

o Customers/ clients

o Vendors

What is 360 Feedback?3 6 0 F E E D B AC K FAC I L I TAT E S D ATA - D R I V E N O U T C O M ES :

o Degree to which behaviors are exhibited by the Subjects

o Meaningful comparisons…

o of evaluator perceptions across multiple Subjects (internal benchmarking)

o of evaluator perceptions across sources of ratings (e.g., Subordinate vs. Manager ratings of a Subject)

o of ratings over time

o Creation of individual, group and/or organizational behavior change (action plans)

Common Problems with 360s

M O S T C O M M O N R E AS O N S 3 6 0 S FAI L TO L E AD TO B E H AV I O R C H AN G E

o Neglecting to define a specific purpose/ goal for the 360

o Making decisions about the workflow that do not align with its purpose/ goal

o Lack of accountability/ action

Common Problems with 360sL E V E L S O F AC C O U N TAB I L I T Y

SUBJECTS – use their results to take action

EVALUATORS – provide accurate and actionable feedback

MANAGERS – assist Employees with action planning and development

ORGANIZATION – provide resources to support behavior change and remove

roadblocks

Defining the Purpose of your 360 ProgramC O M M O N P U R P O S E S O F 3 6 0 F E E D B AC K

o Development

o Identification and Succession Planning

o Performance Appraisal/ Measurement

o Occupation Certification

Defining the Purpose of your 360 Program

H O W TO D E F I N E Y O U R P U R P O S E / G O AL

o Pull in senior leaders and stakeholders EARLY to help determine

which organizational outcomes to drive with this program

o Identify a key group/ level of employees to target with the program

(e.g., hipo individual contributors, front line leaders)

Designing the Workflow of your 360 ProgramC O M M O N 3 6 0 W O R K F L O W D E C I S I O N S

o Who nominates evaluators?

o Do managers have to approve nominations?

o Do evaluators have an opportunity to opt out?

o Who receives reports?

o Who is responsible for initiating an assessment

debrief meeting?

Evaluators

Opt in

Evaluators rate

Reports related

Follow up discussions

Subject Nominates

Building Competency Models

The foundation of a 360 Feedback Assessment is a relevant competency

model However, Subjects SHOULD NOT be rated directly on competencies

but rather specific behaviors associated with each competency

W H AT I S A C O M P ET E N C Y M O D E L ?

KSAOS - a summary of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics

(KSAOs) needed to be successful in certain job or level (e.g., leader) within an

organization

ORGANIZATION–SPECIFIC – a good competency model is specific to the

organization within which it is built

Building Competency ModelsI F N O C O M PE T EN C Y M O D E LS E X I S T …

o Conduct focus groups with incumbents and leaders

o Survey incumbents and leaders about important competencies and work tasks

o Look to your organization’s core values/ leadership principles

o Review job descriptions/ job analysis data

Writing 360 Assessment ItemsG O O D I TE M S

o Capture an important aspect of a key competency

o Focus on a single behavior

o Start with an action verb (e.g., motivates, listens, etc.)

o Do not include jargon or overly technical language

o Can be acted upon if they are identified as weaknesses/ opportunities

Writing 360 Assessment ItemsB AD I T E M S

o Loosely or fail to measure an important competency

o Focus on multiple behaviors (double, triple barreled)

o Include too many unnecessary adverbs (e.g., efficiently, effectively)

o Do not match the rating scale

o Are too technical or hard to understand

o Are culturally biased

Writing 360 Assessment ItemsO T H E R AS S E S S M E N T T I P S

o Avoid including too many items (generally 50-60 total items max)

o Frequency scales (Rarely > All the time) help evaluators focus on the consistency of behaviors

o Include open-ended items that ask Evaluators to provide constructive and actionable feedback

o Remind employees not to include identifying information in open-ended items to protect

confidentiality

360 Feedback reports must provide robust data for employees to process, but be simple enough to easily digest the insights so action can be taken

G O O D R E P O R T S :

AGGREGATE RESULTS WITHIN SOURCE – Aggregate ratings within source for each competency and item

PROVIDE MEANINGFUL COMPARISONS – Compare source-level ratings to internal benchmarks

INCLUDE OPEN-ENDED COMMENTS – Present both positive and constructive comments (ideally, separately)

Developing Reports based on Best Practices

Following up on ResultsThe 360 Feedback process should not stop when reports are distributed. To ensure lasting behavior

change, formal and informal follow up on results and behaviors is critical

T I P S F O R F O L L O W I N G U P

o With help from them manager, engage in goal setting

o Hyper focus on one or two areas at a time

o Think ahead about obstacles to engaging in desired behaviors

o Think carefully about the reason for discrepancies across sources of ratings (e.g., peers vs.

subordinates) and assume discrepancies are meaningful

o Engage in ongoing conversations with manager and other trusted peers/ mentors about

development

360 Expert Tips

Follow these 10 expert tips to

ensure that your 360 Feedback

program is successful

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1). Engage the right stakeholders from the very beginning

2). Keep both Subjects AND Evaluators in mind when designing the program

3). Make sure the goal of your 360 drives the process/ workflow

4). Embed the 360 into an existing performance management system – it should NOT be a standalone event!

5). Invest time and resources on the front-end to communicate the purpose of the 360

6). Clearly define and communicate how the success of the 360 program will be evaluated

7). Ensure that follow up and feedback is built into the program – set expectations for accountability

8). Base your 360 assessment on a competency model or models (may include core values or job analysis data)

9). Have Subjects focus on 1 or 2 behavioral goals that align to the strategy of the organization

10). Ensure that confidentiality is built into the program and clearly communicated to everyone involved

Q & A