First, according to tradition, a little theory
“360 degrees” is a monitoring technique for assessing personnel, which consists of determining how well an employee corresponds to the position held using his internal reflection, as well as a survey of the employee’s work environment. Appearing at the end of the 20th century, “360 degrees” gained wide popularity. The reason for this is high efficiency, because an individual employee is evaluated by a whole group - managers, subordinates, ordinary employees and, of course, himself. Thus, we receive a detailed description of a person, which serves as the basis for further organizational decisions.
So before we start detailed analysis Please note that this technique is not applicable to all companies and teams. Dominance of an authoritarian management style, lack of traditions of group work, low level work (please note, not corporate) culture and the general distance of employees from each other make the use of “360 degrees” meaningless. In other cases, its use is more than justified.
For greater clarity, let's look at a specific example.
So, a survey was conducted of employees of an IT company developing mobile applications.
The tasks to be solved were as follows:
- determining the degree of effectiveness of the development team;
- the true level of their competence;
- the need for additional training of individual team members.
At the first stage, survey tools were developed
And here there is the following feature of this method - the relative uniqueness of the ready-made tools. Don’t make a common mistake, don’t be lazy, don’t download “ready-made” questionnaires for “360 degrees” from the Internet, because, firstly, they do not reflect the specifics of the activities of a particular company, and secondly, the data obtained with their help is superficial and are not very informative for you; thirdly, it is quite difficult to make organizational decisions based on general data. Therefore, create questionnaires yourself, incorporating into them the specific features of your activities and your company, or seek help from specialists to achieve maximum research efficiency.
To obtain adequate results, the questionnaire is compiled not only for a specific company, but also for a specific position. Thus, professional responsibilities and the role that the employee plays in the organization are taken into account. The structure of the questionnaire (but not the specific content) usually consists of the following thematic blocks (competencies):
- general competence, including:
- 1. professionalism (basic knowledge and experience in a specific field);
- 2. management block (optional for management positions; ability to manage a team);
- communicative competence (communication skills within a team);
- customer focus (optional for relevant positions; basic skills in interacting with customers);
- efficiency and quality of work (effectiveness of achieving set goals and quality of results);
- development orientation (the ability to master new things and learn from mistakes);
- leadership (initiative and leadership qualities);
- teamwork (team-oriented and committed to the company).
It is worth noting that the number of questions in each competency depends in direct proportion to its significance for a particular position. So, for example, blocks of professionalism or work efficiency for an ordinary programmer-developer (in the case of the team from our example) will contain a larger number of questions than the categories of leadership or communication, and indicators such as customer focus or management skills will be, in principle, irrelevant for this positions.
When directly composing questions, you must adhere to several simple rules: Avoid complex terms and ambiguous wording, use clear words and do not include questions with extreme wording. Let's dwell a little on the last point. In essence, the “360 degree” questionnaire is a list of situations that arise during the work process and interaction of employees. And any real social situation can have several outcomes. Therefore, you should not include absolute statements in the questionnaire, such as, “Always puts the interests of the company at the forefront” or “Never shows his irritation to his subordinates.” In the case of our example, it is not necessary to include terms from the field of computer science in the questions, and not because they are unknown to the employee (this is completely in order), but because they load the sentence, making it difficult to understand and drawing attention from the assessed criterion to themselves. More suitable formulations are “Differentiated by a systematic approach when performing work”, “Increases the level of his knowledge and skills with high frequency”, “Ready to provide timely assistance to colleagues”.
If we touched on the topic of questions, then it is necessary to talk about the rating scale - a direct tool for translating individual opinion into a unit suitable for further analysis. Many specialists practicing this technique have clearly recognized the fact that it is necessary to avoid using the standard 5-point scale, because its gradations are strongly stereotyped in our minds, and during the survey it is simply impossible to change a person’s attitude from “3 is satisfactory, and 5 is excellent” to “3 is normal, 5 is excellent, but very rare.” The use of scales with higher gradations, for example, seven- or nine-point ones, is also not recommended due to their different interpretation by survey participants. The most acceptable option is to move from a numerical to a descriptive scale. In relation to our survey of a team of programmers, a similar scale looked like this:
- almost never;
- almost always.
A separate mandatory item is the “I have no information” option. It is necessary to improve the quality of the data obtained by eliminating those who do not see manifestations of the competencies of the employees being assessed. Naturally, this option is not taken into account when calculating average scores.
Another problem area of 360 degrees is ensuring the reliability of the answers, because... The desire of employees to inflate scores for themselves and others is almost inexhaustible. Therefore, it is worth being familiar with the means to combat this phenomenon. The first of them is the so-called sincerity scale. Let's give a simple example. If to such judgments as “Does not make mistakes in work”, “Has a positive attitude towards any decisions of his superiors”, an employee gives “extreme” answers: “almost never”, “almost always”, then with a high degree of probability he is insincere or fills in superficially questionnaire. If there are quite a lot of similar answers, then the questionnaire is simply excluded from general analysis. Another way to fight for authenticity is the technique of “reversal questions.” IN in this case From question to question there is a polar change in the scale. In the case of our programmers it looked like this:
Features a systematic approach to performing work
- almost never;
- in some situations, rarely;
- in about half of the situations;
- in most cases, often;
- almost always;
- I have no information.
Solve assigned tasks efficiently and effectively
- almost always;
- in most cases, often;
- in about half of the situations;
- in some situations, rarely;
- almost never;
- I have no information.
An employee who has been warned about such a design of the questionnaire is more attentive to filling out the questionnaire and thoughtfully reads both the questions themselves and the scale of answers to them. Duplicate questions can be another means of fighting for authenticity. Their mechanism is extremely simple. There are several questions with different verbal formulations, but the same semantic content. In the case of a team of programmers, an example would be: “Tries to take initiative”, “As far as possible, makes new proposals and ideas.” Thus, in the event of a radical discrepancy in the answers to such questions, it is quite easy to isolate the lie.
After the questionnaire has been successfully completed, the next stage begins - a direct survey of employees
Here it is also important not to commit big mistake, which could negate the entire study. It is necessary to maintain a balance between the anonymity of the assessment and the transparency of the procedure itself. At first glance, it seems that this is impossible, however, this is not so. The principle of transparency is that all employees are announced about the conduct of the relevant survey, its goals, mechanism, as well as the criteria by which they will be assessed are explained in detail. In no case should you try to carry out “360 degrees” secretly (as some believe for more objective results). Such a practice will bring the opposite, negative effect. If this information spreads through informal channels of communication among employees, it will cause a surge of distrust in management and worsen the general atmosphere in the team. Therefore, it is better to announce the upcoming testing publicly, at general meetings. Anonymity is ensured through a kind of “isolation” of the evaluator from the evaluated. Handing out questionnaires to fill out in the office or asking questions at the end of a meeting are all wrong approaches. Being close to the object of evaluation, the employee experiences some psychological discomfort, therefore, he becomes insincere and inflates estimates. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate sources of direct or indirect influence on the person filling out the questionnaire. And here they come to our aid modern technologies. Experts in the survey environment currently recommend creating questionnaires in electronic format and distributing them using e-mail newsletters or special online survey services (for example, Questionnaire), where the procedures for creating tools, sending, storing and presenting primary data are presented in a comprehensive manner. In the case of researching a group of programmers, this option is simply ideal, because represents a familiar environment for them. Automation of the system makes it possible to increase the sincerity and reliability of the data received several times: the respondent can fill out the questionnaire at a convenient time, away from prying eyes; the answers are hidden from third parties, therefore, information leakage is unlikely.
In conclusion, it is worth saying a few words about the analysis of the “360 degree” results
All information obtained using this technique, despite its constant improvement, is subjective. For this reason, it is very incorrect and unprofessional to make radical organizational decisions, such as dismissal, promotion or bonuses, based on the results of “360 degrees”. Determining problem areas in the team, its overall effectiveness, the limits of employee competence, the need for their training, as well as organizing feedback along the “subordinate – boss” route - this is the purpose of this technique.
The result of the survey we considered as an example of a team of mobile application developers was the development of individual development plans for individual employees (additional training never hurts), as well as a change in the format of collective interaction from passive correspondence on Skype to active discussion of problem situations.
- Personnel assessment, assessment
In some situations, it is necessary to quickly and accurately assess the personal and business qualities of an employee.
For example, the company has been using an approved employee competency model for the second year, and the HR service was puzzled by the question: how to determine the dynamics of competency development compared to last year?
Or, let's say, for a while maternity leave Head of the department, one of the talented specialists was appointed acting. The results of the department’s work remained at an acceptable level, and the pace of work did not change. A specialist, inspired by the experience in a new position, is not against learning and moving to a related department to a management position. How to determine the level of development of qualities for transition? How to get information about how the acting manager demonstrated management competencies - what worked and what needs to be “pulled up”?
A sales manager who has been working successfully for a long time wants to work with larger clients and expand the range of products sold. It is necessary to determine what qualities prevent you from moving forward, and what helps you perform the existing functionality. What should I do?
Similar situations often arise at work. To resolve them, there are many methods and assessment methods. In this article we will look at one of them - the so-called 360 degree method.
The essence of the 360 degree method
An ideal tool that provides comprehensive additional information about an employee’s work behavior, close to an objective assessment of his qualities, is the 360 degree method. As is known from geometry, 360 degrees is a trajectory describing a circle, which presupposes a comprehensive assessment not by one person, but by several, in relation to the person being assessed, who are in different statuses and relationships. At the top is the immediate supervisor, at the side are colleagues, partners, clients, at the bottom are subordinates. In the center is the person being assessed. The assessment process comes down to obtaining information about the manifestation of a person’s business and personal qualities in behavior. Employee competencies are usually assessed for the following purposes:
- determination of employee development zones;
- comparison of competencies for a certain period (month, quarter, year, etc.);
- identifying different opinions about the employee’s strengths and weaknesses;
- identifying the compliance of the employee’s competencies with the required level and standards.
Advantages and disadvantages of 360 degree assessment
As practice shows, it is not worth relying only on a 360-degree assessment to make serious personnel decisions. This method cannot be called 100% objective; it does not allow one to evaluate quantitative performance indicators, the employee’s potential, or his motivation for development. You can get data in real time, only “here and now”.
Advantages of the method:
1. Method is enough simple in development, application and interpretation and does not require outside experts. You independently determine the list of evaluators. It is not necessary for the assessor to have special professional and psychological knowledge. (But you should make sure that the qualities being assessed are understood equally by all participants in the assessment.) Knowing what exactly needs to be assessed, you can present the qualities in the form of a description, a list of behavioral indicators, and create a questionnaire. How to prepare staff for an assessment, develop a methodology, carry out a procedure, provide feedback and draw conclusions can be easily learned from many open sources (HR portals, HR media, websites of specialized companies, etc.). If you are unsure, you can always practice by conducting a small group assessment.
2. Versatility. You get a lot of additional information. For example, you can see the general trend in the development of the competencies of those being assessed, conduct a comprehensive, comprehensive analysis of the results, and evaluate the attitude towards the person. The employee gets the opportunity to compare his opinion with the opinions of others - subordinates, colleagues, management, clients. This is very useful to identify low or high self-esteem.
3. Visibility. The results can be presented not only in the form of a description, but also in the form of a table, graph, chart, etc. Let's give an example.
Disadvantages (risks) of the method:
1. Subjectivity. It cannot be avoided, especially if the appraisers are people who communicate with each other, and the closer they are, the more subjective the assessment will be. Those who are disliked are underestimated, those who are liked are overestimated (not necessarily consciously). Sometimes colleagues even fill out questionnaires together; confidentiality is not respected. It happens that people are afraid to give real ratings because the method does not imply anonymity. Clients and partners, as a rule, do not give low ratings, especially if they were chosen by the person being evaluated.
Participation in the assessment of a large number of appraisers does not always ensure its objectivity. The assessment is influenced by personal relationships, the presence of conflicts or simply a competitive motive (when the assessment is carried out to determine the best employees). These factors can be compensated for:
- together with the 360 degree method, use other methods that are not based on outside opinions;
- select evaluators with presumably different attitudes towards the person being evaluated: loyal, disloyal and neutral;
- ask to justify high and low ratings, leaving space for comments at the end of the questionnaire.
Example:
2. Ambiguous wording in the questionnaire. The qualities being assessed must have an unambiguous interpretation and be understood equally by all participants in the process.
Let’s take, for example, the competency “ability to plan working time.” The colleague believes that since the person being evaluated carefully keeps a to-do list in Outlook, then everything is good with planning, and gives a high mark. The subordinate gives a low rating, noticing that the person being evaluated fusses around almost every day, gives tasks without taking into account time resources, and is often in a state of time pressure. The manager knows that the person being assessed carefully writes down the list of tasks in the program every morning, but, as a rule, does not stick to the plan, takes on everything at once, gets distracted, etc. The result is a high score in relation to planning “on paper”, but a low score on the implementation of planning, in the end - average.
Now let’s describe the competency “ability to plan working time” as certain behavioral indicators, in particular:
- maintains a daily list of planned to-dos;
- knows how to set priorities, separate important and urgent matters from “routine”;
- sticks to the plan;
- analyzes the reasons for failure to complete tasks.
If you work with this list, the assessment will be differentiated and accurate, and the weaknesses and areas for development of the person being assessed will be visible.
Here is a sheet for assessing the “loyalty to the company” competency.
There is another trick - mix qualities and competencies of the same order in the questionnaire. This makes processing more difficult, but increases reliability. Otherwise, when people fill out a questionnaire, they read similar characteristics and automatically give the same ratings. If different parameters are mixed, the rater will be less likely to try to remember what rating he gave to a similar description. Indeed, in practice, a hardworking, painstaking employee is perceived by us as productive, loyal, customer-oriented, etc.
For example, a description of the “results orientation” competency may contain the following indicators:
- evaluates his work based on the results achieved;
- shows persistence in achieving goals and overcoming obstacles; failures do not “unsettle”;
- knows how to work under time pressure, effectively distributes working time with a large volume and rapid change of tasks;
- completes work on time and completes what is started.
One employee completes tasks on time, but is not focused on achieved result- he doesn’t think about it, but focuses on speed. Another, having completed a time-consuming analytical report on time, but having encountered difficulties, spent a lot of personal resources, constantly complained about the lack of time, creating unnecessary panic, emphasized the frightening volume and complexity of the work, and attracted attention to himself. The assessment of the parameters of the same competence “result orientation” of these two employees will be different, although both of them cope with their work.
And no numbers needed! Form the scale in the form of descriptions or in the form of a rating accompanied by a description. If you want to get an assessment in the form of points, decipher them, for example:
5 - level of skill that allows you to demonstrate this quality in extremely difficult conditions, develop its standards and train others;
4 - level of extended experience, allowing to demonstrate quality not only in standard, but also in difficult conditions;
3 - level of basic experience that allows you to demonstrate quality in most work situations;
2 - level of development, when business quality is not always manifested, but the employee already understands the importance of its manifestation and tries to develop it;
1 - quality does not appear.
And be sure to leave the “no information” field. In this case, the evaluator will not feel trapped in the framework of choice.
3. Labor intensity. If you need to evaluate a large number of employees (more than ten), doing it manually is quite time-consuming. To resolve this difficulty, try to automate the process as much as possible (for example, you can use Excel). This will also reduce the risk of careless errors.
Conclusions based on 360 degree assessment
So, research using the 360 degree method includes:
- profile analysis (obtaining a competency profile in the form of a graph);
- matrix analysis (dividing the results on the scales of self-esteem and assessment of others into four zones: strengths, weaknesses, tending to strengths, tending to weaknesses);
- analysis of the difference between assessment and self-esteem (in which a person overestimates or underestimates himself);
- analysis of the difference between the employee’s actual behavior and the required one;
- analysis of professional qualities individually and collectively.
In addition, we will learn how the immediate supervisor, colleagues and subordinates perceive the person being assessed, and by creating a unified idea of the “ideal”, we will be able to rank the employee’s competencies, including in terms of their relevance.
And lastly: for a 360-degree assessment to be effective, provide the assessee with timely feedback: the assessment results can become the basis for developing an individual development plan for the employee, perhaps he can even cope with it on his own.
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What is 360 degree assessment
A 360-degree assessment is an assessment of an employee’s competencies by the manager, subordinates, colleagues, clients (external and internal), suppliers, and the employee himself.
The 360 degree method was first proposed by Peter Ward in 1987.
The first definition he gave to this method:
360-degree evaluation is the systematic collection of information about the performance of an individual (or group), obtained from a number of people interested in his work, and feedback on it. According to the author of the method, the scope of its application can be very wide:
self-development and individual counseling(receiving feedback allows the employee to adjust his behavior and outline areas of development);
team building(this refers to team feedback, which allows you to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the team before the start of team work);
performance management(regular feedback allows a person to judge how much his or her performance has improved);
strategic and organizational development(the ability to identify points where development is particularly required, the use of the 360 degree method in this vein is based on the fact that by changing the behavior of specific people, you can change the way the organization acts as a whole);
assessing the effectiveness of trainings and other educational activities(conducted after the training, the questions are aimed at determining at the behavioral level what changes have occurred in the employee’s behavior after completing the training);
wages(not used 100 percent when determining the amount of payment).
Why companies now use 360-degree assessments, the pros and cons of this method and recommendations on how to deal with them are outlined in this article.
The 360 degree method is used both independently and as an additional method to other assessment procedures.
The 360 degree method is applied:
to determine the employee’s training needs, those competencies that need to be developed, and create individual development plans;
current assessment of activities according to specified criteria for performing work at a given workplace for a certain period of time (usually together with assessment by goals or performance assessment);
to select a project team or identify employees capable of working on complex projects;
to form a personnel reserve, it is better in conjunction with professional tests, profile cases, an assessment center (since the 360-degree methodology evaluates qualities demonstrated in the past, and to assess the personnel reserve it is necessary to predict how a person will behave in the future in a new position) .
Based on the results of the 360 degree assessment, the following conclusions can be drawn:
about the nature of interaction between departments, identifying conflict situations;
to what extent the person fits into the corporate culture of the organization and the existing team;
How adequate is a person’s self-esteem?
It is not used directly to develop a system of remuneration and bonuses (since the technique can only identify personal qualities and is not suitable for determining the qualifications of specialists and the value they bring to the company).
Basic conditions necessary for a successful 360 degree assessment:
close-knit team, trusting relationships between employees;
absence of pronounced staff turnover (employees have worked together for at least 1 year);
ensuring the anonymity of the assessment (employees are confident that their assessments will not be disclosed);
preliminary explanatory work with employees about the purpose of the assessment (the goal should be formulated before the start of the assessment and communicated to employees; awareness will reduce the stress of the assessment and will allow obtaining more objective data);
mandatory feedback based on the results of the assessment (must be carried out no later than one month after the assessment, during this period it remains relevant and significant for the employee);
mandatory implementation of decisions based on the results of the assessment (assessment for the sake of assessment itself does not make sense, clear control over the implementation of decisions will make the assessment a tool for personnel development);
the results of the assessment should be aimed at development (this is the only way to obtain assessment results that are not inflated; in a 360-degree assessment this is the main drawback that has to be dealt with; as a rule, 2-3 assessments take place before the idea of that 360 degrees brings only positive aspects).
Advantages of the method:
obtaining a comprehensive assessment for one employee (the employee receives an assessment from people with whom he directly encounters while performing his work; unlike other methods, the circle of assessors is significantly expanded);
the democracy of the method (not only the manager evaluates his subordinates, but also his subordinates can evaluate him, this increases the loyalty of employees to the organization, for them this is an indicator that their opinion is listened to);
creating and strengthening trusting relationships with customers (this is an opportunity to once again show that the organization is working to improve customer service);
modeling of assessment criteria to meet the requirements of corporate standards (the criteria are competencies developed for a specific organization).
Disadvantages of the method
Each method has its own limits of application; this must be taken into account when choosing an assessment method. So, the disadvantages of the 360 degree method:
not used directly for basic personnel decisions: transfer to another position, dismissal, salary increase;
evaluates only the competencies, and not the achievements of the employee;
The solution to these 2 shortcomings is to use the method as a complement to other assessment methods.
a high degree of confidentiality is required;
To solve this problem, you can involve external organizations that collect information and provide assessment results. Or consider a method for collecting data in an organization that takes into account the principle of confidentiality. Automated personnel assessment systems are now increasingly being used, thanks to which the process of collecting and processing information is greatly facilitated.
it is difficult to obtain frank information from colleagues in an assessment (especially the opinion of subordinates about the leader);
As a rule, subordinates highly rate their managers, even though the principle of confidentiality is strictly observed. This situation can be corrected using the weight of the evaluation of subordinates. By reducing the weight of the evaluation of subordinates in relation to the weight of the evaluation of the manager or colleagues, you can seriously adjust the final result.
The 360-degree personnel assessment method is very often used by HR managers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees, promote someone to a position or issue a bonus. It is worth noting that this method appeared in Russia not so long ago, and even now not all companies have begun to use it. However, it is already gaining popularity and at the same time raises many questions.
Nuances
The very main obstacle to career growth is that a person simply cannot look at himself from the outside and soberly assess his capabilities. It turns out that he has been marking time in one place for years and simply cannot move. It is the “360 degree” method that will be able to evaluate an employee from all sides as objectively and adequately as possible. Evaluators include:
- The employee himself must give himself an assessment. That is, think about how he sees himself.
- Colleagues.
- Direct supervisor.
- Subordinates, if the employee has them.
Experts believe that the success of the method is determined by the questionnaire and the number of questions in it. There should be enough of them to give an objective business assessment to the staff, but there should not be too many, otherwise the respondents will simply get tired. Ideally, there should be no more than 50 questions. The survey should not take more than 45 minutes. More volume will ultimately lead to participants not paying close attention to the final questions, which means there will be a minimal amount of objectivity.
Statement questions
Grading scale
A five-point rating scale should be avoided. The point is that many people will avoid "2" and "5". This is due to associations, because two is always very bad, and five is excellent, which means it happens very rarely. This will also lead to bias. A 10-point system would be ideal. We should not forget that people need to be given a chance to answer that they have the information. Not all colleagues or subordinates have the opportunity to observe another person always and in all situations. If respondents only have a rating scale in front of them, this will lead to bias.
Examination
In order to find out how sincerely people answer questions, it is necessary to test them. To do this, you need to place several questions in the questionnaire that simply cannot be answered “always” or “never.” They can be very different. Below are examples to make it clear:
- Doesn't make mistakes even in the smallest things.
- Perceives all management decisions only positively.
- Has no personal preferences - likes or dislikes.
Sometimes people respond insincerely out of sympathy for the other person, deliberately raising the score. If there are only two of them in the entire questionnaire, then you should simply lower the overall score by 2 points. If things are such that staff evaluations are overestimated very often, then it is better to exclude the questionnaire when the results are summed up, since it will spoil the final results with its bias.
Important! You can check the attentiveness of the respondents using reverse questions. That is, they are again asked questions that were already in the questionnaire before, but they are formulated a little differently. If a person fills out a questionnaire inattentively or answers questions insincerely, then he will most likely make a mistake. Here you will also need duplicate questions; they are also needed to check your attentiveness.
Results
It is worth noting that the assessment using the “360 degree” method is still subjective and will not give 100% correct results. This method may be additional during verification, but not the main one, since it is not practical, that is, people’s work is not revealed in practice. For example, productivity or independence cannot be assessed here. For this, other proven methods are already used. However, based on the results, some problem points can be identified:
- Inflated self-esteem. In this case, the employee himself evaluates himself much better than those around him.
- Low self-esteem of the employee being evaluated.
- Categories with low and high scores.
- Differences in scores between different groups.
- In some cases, even determine the employee’s behavior pattern in some situations.
As a result, some problems can be solved. For example, if a person was sure that he was doing everything correctly, and now his mistakes were pointed out to him. He will be able to correct them and work in the right direction. Sometimes it happens that an employee lacked confidence to advance, but then it turned out that his colleagues value him much higher than he himself expected.
By analyzing the results, you can significantly improve the operation of the enterprise. However, it is worth remembering that this method is not suitable for rewarding or fining employees, since it is based solely on the opinions of other people. It will not show the full real picture. To evaluate job performance in action, it is best to use a ranking method, where workers will perform certain tasks and receive points for it. In this way, you can assess how disciplined, independent and, for example, productive an employee is. This will show his real qualities. Based on the results, some employees may be encouraged or even promoted.
It is important that the questions for the “360 degree” technique were compiled by competent specialists, otherwise the completed questionnaire will not have any meaning. Questions should concern only the most important competencies of the employee. In this case, you need to set priorities. That is, the more important the competency, the more questions about this there are in the questionnaire. You shouldn’t pay too much attention to unimportant things when filling out the form. It should be extremely useful and compiled as competently and concisely as possible. When conducting a survey, it is necessary to pay attention to even the smallest details; the questions should be:
"360 degrees" is one of the HR management tools used to employee development And increasing the efficiency of its work. This type assessments are used to find out how others evaluate an employee - to obtain a kind of photograph of the opinions of others. A 360 degree assessment is sometimes called a 360 degree assessment.
The main tasks solved through the “360 degree” assessment:
employee potential assessment
correlation of self-esteem and external assessment
creation of development plans and a basis for coaching
formation of a personnel reserve
study of climate in a team
What is the essence of the technique
An employee is evaluated not by one person, but by several:
and finally the employee himself
immediate supervisor
colleagues equal to him in status
subordinates
Thanks to the fact that a person is appreciated different people communicating with this person in various situations, greater objectivism is achieved.
Another advantage of this technique is that different people evaluate a person according to the same criteria. This makes it possible to compare the assessment of others with how he assesses himself.
A comparative analysis of the results obtained allows us to form a comprehensive, diverse picture of the personality, and guarantees a more objective assessment.
Evaluation criteria
The main question that a company must decide is: what criteria to evaluate employees by? After all, for a programmer the criteria are the same, but for a PR manager they are completely different. Typically, a list of professional and personal competencies (for example, initiative, leadership, teamwork, communication skills, etc.) is compiled for each position.
It is difficult to assess by eye how proactive or disciplined a person is. Therefore, all qualities need to be described using specific behavioral examples. It might look like this: Let's say a company wants to evaluate how its employees are doing with such quality as “business planning and organization.” The evaluator will be asked to put a certain point in front of five to seven statements describing situations where this quality is manifested: a person “effectively uses available resources”, “identifies areas of risk and takes actions aimed at minimizing them”, “uses the ideas and wishes of colleagues when forming a plan work”, “effectively distributes work based on available resources”, etc.
When selecting criteria, a manager must look for a reasonable balance. If he wants to cover everything at once and chooses 20 indicators, this is wrong because the focus of the assessment is blurred, and it is impractical because people will have to answer several hundred questions. I recommend identifying five to seven main criteria.
It is necessary to ensure that all wording is clearly understood by all participants in the assessment procedures. Otherwise, the assessment will be biased and inaccurate.
Rating scale
There are no restrictions here, and each company can independently develop an assessment system. There are companies that prefer a scale from 0 to 3. Some use a scale from 1 to 10. Some believe that for domestic personnel the most convenient is a five-point scale from 1 to 5, which everyone has been accustomed to since school days, and to everyone at once It’s clear how a three differs from a five.
Examples
1. Presentation of assessment results in tabular form
| Full name | Authoritarian | Liberal | Democratic | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | group | I | group | I | group | |
| Participant 1 | 3 | 4,5 | 1 | 1,2 | 6 | 3,7 |
| Participant 2 | ||||||
| Participant 3 | ||||||
| Participant 4 | ||||||
| Participant 5 | ||||||
| Participant 6 | ||||||
| Participant 7 | ||||||
| Participant 8 | ||||||
2. Presentation of evaluation results on a spider diagram:
360 degree assessment process
Stage 1. Preparation
Determine the goals and objectives of conducting a 360 degree assessment
Make a list of employees participating in the assessment
Identify groups of respondents and make a list of those who will evaluate
Determine what information needs to be collected
Create questionnaires
Determine survey form
Prepare interviewers (if necessary)
Determine how feedback will be provided
Ensure system security
Stage 2. Collection of information
Handing respondents questionnaires with behavioral examples and asking them to rate on a scale
It is advisable to guide respondents and participants through a short training session where the purpose and process of the assessment will be explained.
Organize filling out questionnaires
Collect completed questionnaires
Conduct an interview (if necessary)
Stage 3. Information analysis
Systematization of collected responses and analysis
Construction of tables and graphs
Stage 4. Feedback and future plans
Communicating results
Discussion of assessment results
Approval of the development plan and transfer of it for implementation by the employee and the personnel department
Stage 5. Evaluation of the results of the work done
Were the goals achieved?
Have development needs been identified?
Did the process fit within the specified time frame?
Did the assessment fit within the budget allocated for it?
Was the feedback process easy?
Was the feedback process comfortable for participants?
Regarding the assessment, was comprehensive and reliable information provided?
Advantages of the technique
The main advantage of the “circular assessment” is that it allows you to get a complete picture of the personal and professional qualities, knowledge and skills of the employee. Moreover, “360 degrees” shows not just the presence of these qualities, but also—which is much more valuable—how exactly they manifest themselves in work. If a person has a beautiful voice, but never sings, no one will know about it. It’s the same with business skills - when they are not used, they are of no use to the organization.
Another advantage of 360-degree assessment is that its conclusions are more objective than other forms of assessment. People's self-esteem is often inflated, and a leader, if he is biased, sometimes underestimates results. When several people participate in the assessment, we get a more objective picture.
The objectivity of the results is enhanced not only by a large sample. An employee is evaluated by people who have known him for a long time and see how he works every day. This is the advantage of “360 degrees” over another popular method - the assessment center. The result of the assessment depends on the professionalism of the consultants who conduct it. In addition, they see the person being evaluated for several days at most. Finally, assessment is a piecemeal technique, it is not entirely suitable for mass assessment, and it is quite expensive. Of course, if you resort to the services of consultants to conduct a 360-degree assessment, the costs will also be decent at first, but the finished technology can then be used independently for years.
How often to carry out
It makes sense to conduct “360 degrees” no more than once every six months, because a person needs time to think and work on his shortcomings. The advantage of regularly conducting 360 degrees is that the questions are “polished” with each assessment. In each position, you gradually arrive at exactly the questions that you really need to ask respondents.
Errors
A common mistake is to try to define respondents on the basis of "everyone evaluates everyone." As a result, 20 people are trying to evaluate one. Then another one, and so on 20 times - so that no one would be offended. It gets boring. The optimal number of evaluators is 1 manager (maximum 2 if the employee is seriously involved in a long-term project), 2-3 colleagues, 2-3 subordinates, and, of course, self-assessment. For key account managers, it makes sense to involve a couple of clients in the assessment by asking them to answer a few simple questions.
There is no need to try to ask all the questions about everything. After 15-20 minutes of questioning, a person either goes berserk or, if he is under pressure, does everything for show.
When using the 360 degree methodology, the main thing to remember is that the main goal is the further development of employees, and not punishment or any other administrative measures.
