security confidentiality anonymity in 360 degree feedback

Track Surveys Ltd: 2009

Success with 360 Degree Feedback:

Ensuring Your 360 Degree Feedback is Secure, Confidential and

Anonymous


Security: making sure the system is only

accessible by authorised people

Anonymity: not attributing

feedback to specific reviewers

(with some exceptions)

Confidentiality: limiting access to

reviewees’ feedback within the organisation

Successful 360 Degree Feedback requires:


Summary: Ensuring your 360 Degree Feedback is Secure, Confidential and Anonymous

As well as being well-designed and properly implemented, the basic requirements for successful

360 Degree Feedback are that it complies with security and confidentiality guidelines, thus

ensuring that both reviewees (those receiving feedback), and reviewers (those giving the feedback)

have trust in the process and are not apprehensive about the outcome.

Anonymity is the third key concern for most organisations, especially when 360 Degree Feedback

is at the early stages of being implemented. In general reviewers tend to be more honest with their

scores and their comments if the feedback is not going to be attributable to them. The 360 Degree

Feedback report should therefore be designed in such a way that anonymity of reviewers is

protected (apart from line manager feedback which is normally attributable to the line manager).

However there are some organisations who allow some or all reviewers’ feedback to be identified, in

particular when they have a strongly established culture of feedback and performance review.


Security

• Host the 360 Degree Feedback on a professional, secure

website.

• Allow access to users through system-generated

usernames and passwords.

• Provide usernames and passwords on request (not in bulk

emails).

• Limit administration access to a small number of

authorised users in the organisation, and limit the

information that internal authorised users can see (e.g.

Internal administrators should be able to view the amount

of feedback, but not view the feedback content, for each

reviewee.

• Limit personal data of reviewees and reviewers only to

that required for the 360 Degree Feedback exercise.


• Only the reviewee should have online access to, or be

emailed, their 360 Degree Feedback report.

• If the line manager, coach or mentor is to view the 360

Degree Feedback report or if they are going to be emailed

the report, this should be clearly communicated to the

reviewee in advance – the purpose should be made clear

(e.g. for a coaching session with the reviewee).

• If anyone else in the organisation, including HR or

Learning and Development are going to be able to view

360 Degree Feedback report, the reviewee should also be

made aware of this.

• If the 360 Degree Feedback report is going to be used for

any process, reporting or analysis by the organisation, this

must be communicated to reviewees. For example, their

360 report may be reviewed as part of the appraisal or

performance review, or as part of a wider Training Needs

Analysis.

• It must also be clear how and where the 360 Degree

Feedback report is going to be stored, and if it is going to

form part of the individual’s personnel file or official

records.

Confidentiality


• Reviewees should be encouraged to request as much

feedback as possible; this makes the feedback more

valuable, but it also reduces any risk of individual

feedback being identified, which can discourage

colleagues from giving honest feedback

• There should be a minimum amount of feedback provided

from each reviewer group (e.g. From peers, team

members etc). This needs to be at least 2, although 3 or

4 is preferable. Feedback from a group that is less than

the minimum must be combined with feedback from

another group.

• Feedback from line managers, and sometimes from

customers, can be identifiable as this forms a key part of

the individual’s feedback.

• Reviewers should be advised that, even where scores are

not attributable to individuals (unless it is line manager or

customer feedback), it may be possible for the reviewee to

guess who has given particular comments and examples

if they are very specific.

Anonymity


For more information on how to ensure Security, Confidentiality and

Anonymity for your 360 Degree Feedback, contact us at:

[email protected]

Or on

+44 (0) 20 7206 7279

www.tracksurveys.co.uk


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.tracksurveys.co.uk/

security confidentiality anonymity in 360 degree feedback

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