The trend has changed! 

We do not go to restaurants just because it is on our way to the destination, and we are starving. We go out to dine at restaurants or even if it is on our way to the destination, we look at the reviews before going in there. And again, not all the reviews on the restaurant are good. There are bad reviews too but we take only the average rating into consideration because the bad reviews could be because of temporary unfortunate times or a few factors that will not affect our visit.  

Similarly, 360 degree reviews give an outlook on the overall performance of an employee and his/her potential in driving the company toward success. Managers, sometimes, get into the whirlpool of biases and give subjective reviews that might not be true. Getting feedback from five different sources like peers, primary manager, direct reports, customers, and cross-functional manager helps in developing a clear career plan for the respective employee. 

Companies were gradually starting to adopt this new system of feedback delivery and BOOM! There was another drastic change in the business environment: The Pandemic. Businesses found it really hard to sustain and thrive in the new normal. But the pandemic has also awakened the sleeping future HR trends and brought them into today’s reality. As soon as the companies learned to grow in this new normal with the help of technology, their focus began to shift toward the performance management system. 

Yes! Now, they have the required tools for communication, project management, task management, etc, and also the software to ensure undisrupted work to keep their businesses running. Obviously, the next focus would be on retaining the employees and managing their performance to give higher productivity and quality. Continuous performance management software like Synergita will help companies in keeping their workforce engaged. 

HANDPICKED RELATED LINKS: 

• How 360 Degree Feedback Process Works
• Tips for a Successful 360 Degree Feedback
• Reasons Why 360 Degree Feedback are useful for Millennials

How Can 360 Degree feedback Help? 

Everyone works from home, and they hardly know how they perform or are they on the right track? These questions, when are unanswered, make the workforce disengaged. The employees, to be engaged, should know their contribution to the overall objective of their organization, and 360 degree feedback helps the employees to learn that. Through this process, the employees can learn their strengths and areas for improvement.

The process creates resilience and acceptance in the workforce. 360 degree feedback mechanism shows the employees what they need to know about themselves, even subtle behaviors. The way of analyzing an employee’s performance and skillset varies with each colleague or client, and so each feedback reflects different criteria of an employee’s work behavior and competencies. In this age of remote working, employees would be in great need of this process, which would assure certainty in these times of uncertainty.  

Besides, the comments are from various sources in 360 degree feedback process, and so the employees will also develop the ability to take the feedback constructively as they know that the overlapping comments might be true and that could have been their blind spot. 

What not to do in 360 degree feedback? 

1. Do not comment on personal character. The feedback should be given only on the relevant work behavior and competencies. 
2. The leaders or colleagues should not manipulate others’ feedback on a particular employee’s performance. 
3. Don’t stop just with the review process. Keep sending follow-ups reminding the employees of the feedback they received in 360 degree review process to encourage employees to take action. 
4. As managers, do not focus only on the areas for improvement. Appreciate the employees for the strengths whenever there is a discussion and suggest development plans to help the employees improve.  
5. Do not ask vague feedback questions. The questions should be specific and should be capable of getting an answer that helps the receiver learn about his/her performance and impact on other employees. From the answers, the receiver should also know what is right with them at work and what should be changed.
6. Forgetting the feedback and not taking action is what generally happens. Companies should conduct a few training programs immediately after the review process takes place. So, the employees will enroll themselves in the programs that they feel are absolutely necessary to them.