Video of speech for 360 degree Feedback

360 degree feedback

Ken Blanchard once said: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

Nothing raises hackles as fiercely as a change in performance feedback methods, especially when they affect compensation decisions.
I think organizations these days lack an efficient 360 degree feedback mechanism. We are still not open to positive feedback from our subordinates, leave alone criticism. I am here today, to highlight some important aspects of an unbiased feedback system, which is now becoming imperative to every organization's employee development program.

It is important to understand that the degree of job satisfaction is one of the key factors responsible for the high attrition rate in our organization. While we have been very dedicated to the aim of getting maximum productivity from our employees, we have forgotten to empathize with them and to understand their needs.

There are a number of reasons why organizations should introduce 360 degree feedback systems. I am outlining a few below:

1. Improved Feedback From More Sources: Provides well-rounded feedback from peers, reporting staff, coworkers, and supervisors. This can be a definite improvement over feedback from a single individual.
2. 360 feedback can also save managers’ time in that they can spend less energy providing feedback as more people participate in the process. Coworker perception is important and the process helps people understand how other employees view their work.
3. Team Development: Helps team members learn to work more effectively together. (Teams know more about how team members are performing than their supervisor.) Multirater feedback makes team members more accountable to each other as they share the knowledge that they will provide as inputs on each members’ performance. A well-planned process can improve communication and team development. This linking of individual performance with feedback from all relevant constituencies fits well into the emerging team-based workplace.

4. Personal and Organizational Performance Development:If you don't get feedback from your performers and your audience, you're going to be working in a vacuum (Peter Maxwell Davies). In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people. They no longer can lead based solely on positional power. 360 degree feedback is one of the best methods for understanding personal and organizational developmental needs.

6. Responsibility for Career Development: For many reasons, organizations are no longer responsible for developing the careers of their employees, if they ever were. Multirater feedback can provide excellent information to an individual about what she needs to do to enhance her career.
   
   Additionally, many employees feel 360 degree feedback is more accurate, more reflective of their performance, and more validating than prior feedback from the supervisor alone. This makes the information more useful for both career and personal development.
7. Anonymity of feedback: Another difference from traditional performance appraisal is that 360-degree feedback is supposed to be given anonymously. Study has demonstrated that anonymous feedback is more honest and closer to what raters actually feel about the feedback recipients. Appraisers whose identity is known to the feedback recipients give higher ratings than those who are anonymous.
8. Improved Customer Service: Especially in feedback processes that involve the internal or external customer, each person receives valuable feedback about the quality of his product or services. This feedback should enable the individual to improve the quality, reliability, promptness, and comprehensiveness of these products and services.
9. Reduced Discrimination Risk: When feedback comes from a number of individuals in various job functions, discrimination because of race, age, gender, and so on, is reduced. The "horns and halo" effect, in which a supervisor rates performance based on her most recent interactions with the employee, is also minimized.
10. Training Needs Assessment: 360 degree feedback provides comprehensive information about organization training needs and thus allows planning for classes, cross-functional responsibilities, and cross-training.
11. Detects barriers to success: "We think we know how we are viewed by colleagues and subordinates; however, when we receive the results, many of us are shocked."

The concept of 360 [degrees] feedback can be threatening to even the most progressive managers. The idea that direct reports and peers will have significant impact on a supervisor's overall evaluation and organizational future can be truly intimidating.

Now while we introduce 360 degree feedback in organizations we must keep in mind the following points which are imperative to a change in feedback mechanisms. Here are seven recommendations for avoiding problems:

1. Learn about the technology before you invest in it. 360 feedbacks is changing as rapidly as hardware and software systems are changing. Much is possible now that wasn't dreamed of a decade ago. Innovations in 360-degree systems such as 20/20 Insight GOLD have made feedback easier, more accessible, more affordable, more flexible and more versatile than ever. Not all 360-feedback publishers are innovating at the same pace or in the same direction. This creates a challenge for the prospective user who is learning about feedback options. However, a thorough, up-to-date review of what's available now will ensure that you get the maximum capability for the least investment.

2. Make sure that organization is prepared for 360-degree feedback. Readiness can be improved by addressing the following areas:

* The climate of trust

* Organizational stability

* Feedback practices

* Development practices

* Awareness and acceptance of 360 feedback

* Availability of computers

3. Use well-researched, well-constructed survey items. A 360-degree assessment is only as effective as the items that make up the survey. The best surveys are carefully constructed and locally validated. This is challenge is made easy by customizable survey platforms such as 20/20 Insight GOLD.

4. Protect confidentiality. People are willing to give honest feedback if they believe that doing so will benefit them and the people receiving it. You should establish policies and procedures that keep ratings anonymous and give supervisors only the summary data they need to help direct reports improve performance—and no more.

5. Use skilled facilitators. When people receive 360-degree feedback the first time, they often need help sorting through, accepting, understanding and making use of the information. People who have experience making this process successful should lead these meetings.

6. Follow up. Don't make the mistake of thinking that 360 feedbacks alone will improve performance. It can focus on priority development needs and produce strong motivation to change in many people, but individual development planning; coaching and empowerment of developmental activities are essential.

7. Separate developmental feedback from personnel and compensation decisions. 360 are best used for measuring the hard-to-quantify aspects of work, such as interpersonal skills. Reward systems are expensive, so they're best applied to reinforce desired results. It's a mistake to apply rewards to the work processes rather than work outcomes. Follow developmental feedback with developmental initiatives, not rewards.

Doug Lowenstein once said "Everybody needs feedback, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than paying a trainer."

If all these intricacies are kept in mind, it will foster an environment of cooperative work in the organization and will encourage healthy competition. What more can we ask for!