To develop an effective performance management strategy, you need to have a clear picture of how employees are performing. A 360 review is an excellent way to gather feedback from all levels of an organization and to ensure competencies. 360 reviews involve input from different organizational team members, including colleagues, direct reports, managers, and others.
“Specific, real-time feedback conversations in all directions — upward, downward, and peer — are incredibly important,” said Brianna Inoa, organizational psychologist and senior manager of employee engagement at software company MongoDB, Inc.
The 360 feedback process can be a powerful performance management tool for driving individual and team development. But what are 360 reviews, and what do they mean for your organization? Here’s a closer look at the ins and outs of 360-degree reviews.
What is a 360-degree review?
The 360-degree review is a type of performance evaluation that gathers feedback from various people in an employee's circle, including team members, colleagues, and subordinates. This inclusive approach provides a more comprehensive view of an employee's competencies and job performance compared to traditional reviews that only consider a manager's feedback.
“A 360-degree review is a talent development tool used to provide the recipient with feedback from all directions,” Inoa said. “This typically includes upward feedback from their direct reports, peer feedback from those they work closely with, and downward feedback from their manager.”
Patricia Thompson, PhD, corporate psychologist and president of consultancy Silver Lining Psychology, described it visually: “If you imagine the 360 degrees of a circle, with the individual in the middle, they are getting feedback from those above and below them on an org chart, as well as those who are horizontal.”
Generally, 360 reviews are anonymous. Anonymity encourages an honest and candid feedback process, ensuring the most relevant and helpful input from those who work closely with the employee.
What are the pros and cons of 360 reviews?
Managing employee performance is critical to an organization’s success, and effective 360-degree feedback questionnaires can help. Like any other process, 360 reviews have their advantages and downsides.
Here’s a closer look at those pros and cons.
Pros of 360 Reviews
1. They provide better, more well-rounded, and more diverse feedback. As Thompson put it, “360 [reviews] give the employee a wide range of feedback, which tends to provide more insight than simply being reviewed by their boss, who only sees how they perform in certain settings.” She continued, “In addition, if an employee has a manager who is not particularly effective at giving feedback, it gives [the employee being reviewed] the opportunity to get constructive feedback from other sources.”
Unlike traditional annual reviews that rely on a manager’s assessment, the 360 review process creates a more accurate picture of employee performance because data is collected from multiple sources, which can help prevent bias.
While 360 reviews may seem daunting because they combine multiple feedback sources, the right human resources software will make this process more manageable. Lattice’s connected analytics for identifying themes and areas of focus helps you maximize performance, productivity, and engagement across your workforce by using data to drive HR decisions. Lattice’s ease of use even encourages employee participation — the team at Strive Health saw an uptick in completion rates after rolling out Lattice.
2. Feedback from 360-degree reviews helps identify individual developmental needs. If an individual’s manager, colleagues, and direct reports all make a note about their poor time management skills in a 360 review, that common theme reveals an opportunity for development. With that insight, the employee can work with their manager to set goals focused on improving time management or create an individual development plan for growth.
An employee’s professional growth is critical to their company’s success. And when managers can identify an employee’s developmental needs, they can better support employee growth in those areas.
At the fitness company Future, Lattice's performance review system has helped managers track employee goals and development areas, facilitating productive follow-up discussions. Plus, the customizable reviews have allowed Future to recognize and reward team members for their interpersonal skills and accomplishments, encouraging them to do their best. These reviews also create a transparent record that can be referenced as needed, contributing to the company's continued growth without compromising expectations.
3. 360-degree feedback makes managers better. While employees can benefit from 360 reviews, managers can find them just as helpful for professional development. By giving employees a safe space to provide upward feedback, the reviews hold leaders accountable for their decisions and impact. The insights allow managers to better support and elevate their teams.
“A 360-degree review creates a place for employees to provide upward feedback about their manager that they may not feel comfortable doing in a one-on-one forum,” Inoa said. “This can inform a leader’s holistic understanding of the impact they’re having on their direct reports.”
360-degree performance reviews can also be valuable for managers who want to improve their leadership skills by assessing how their teams are viewed across the organization. This broader perspective can include constructive criticism that allows managers to better understand their employee’s strengths, development areas, and overall contributions.
With these holistic insights, managers can prioritize and make more informed decisions about how to effectively support and develop their teams. They can use an HR dashboard, a business intelligence tool that aggregates and visualizes data from different HR systems, to help make decisions. By displaying key metrics in one centralized location, HR dashboards allow managers and teams to get an overview of their people operations while also connecting specific data points and identifying patterns.
Lattice has HR dashboards and other tools to help companies improve their operations. Braze replaced an email employee review process with Lattice to be competitive in the area of performance management. By streamlining its performance review process, the company was able to implement a two-cycle approach. A fall review covers the traditional retrospective, while the spring cycle focuses on career development, a change made in response to employee feedback.
4. Feedback from 360 reviews builds trust. Traditional one-on-one performance evaluations can sometimes feel uncomfortable or even confrontational, leading employees to question the candor of the feedback they receive during the review process. For instance, if a supervisor tells an employee they’re “doing a great job” during a review, but then puts off any discussion of a pay raise or promotion, the mixed messages can cause strain.
But because 360 reviews offer a variety of perspectives — and because they are generally anonymous, which allows people to speak more freely — employees tend to be more trusting of the feedback they receive during the 360 review process.
“Because the 360 ratings are [typically] anonymous, people are often more candid than they would be if they were providing the feedback face-to-face,” Thompson noted. “As a result, you can get a very clear sense of how others really perceive you.”
Cons of 360 Reviews
1. 360-degree reviews need the right participants — and the right method. Like any review or feedback structure, if a 360 review isn’t administered to the right people, it might not generate the most helpful feedback.
Tips for choosing raters for the 360 review:
- Avoid only selecting respondents with close relationships. Familiarity may lead to skewed feedback.
- Steer clear of those with known conflicts. Colleagues who clash can have biased insights.
- Include a range of experiences and backgrounds. This ensures a well-rounded view.
Companies are benefiting from Lattice’s user-friendly interface for selecting raters, as it encourages more participation in employee performance reviews. Since implementing Lattice, Monzo Bank’s performance review participation rates have increased, and the evaluation quality has improved as well.
Plus, Lattice offers tools like the 360 Performance Review Template to make the process easier.
2. The 360 review process can be more involved than other types. 360 reviews are effective, but they require cooperation from multiple stakeholders, which can be time-intensive. Some sources may hesitate to respond to 360 reviews if they don’t feel they know the subject well enough to share feedback. Others may feel they don’t need to participate because “Someone else will do it.”
Gathering feedback from various sources can mean investing time, juggling deadlines and schedules across teams, and sending follow-up requests. Plus, once you do get feedback, compiling it all can be tricky.
Fortunately, Lattice integrates with email, Slack, and Microsoft to meet employees where they’re already working, which saves employees time when writing feedback. Plus, feedback shared in each of these tools gets stored in one centralized place, saving managers effort and keeping them organized.
Why the Right Software Is a Must for 360 Reviews
While 360 reviews can benefit an organization, having the right software is important to overcome the challenges that come with them. Lattice makes the entire 360 review process smoother, helping you gather and act on feedback without the usual headaches. This not only streamlines reviews but also fosters a positive workplace culture where everyone feels valued.
Lattice helps leadership, managers, peers, and direct reports deliver feedback in real time. Tools can adapt to fit your organization’s performance management model, streamlining the review process whether you conduct reviews on an annual, mid-year, quarterly, or ongoing basis.
Lattice’s flexibility stood out for Agero, a driver safety services and technology company. “We chose Lattice because it was highly configurable and gave us the ability to easily customize it to fit our needs,” said Stephen Pratt, the company’s director of learning and development. For Agero and other organizations, Lattice fits seamlessly into different performance management frameworks.
If you’re curious about how Lattice can make a difference for your team, let’s explore how we can transform your performance management and create a thriving workplace together. Schedule your product demo today.
