Introduction to 360 Feedback Surveys

Introduction to
360° Feedback Surveys

360° feedback surveys can be a very powerful tool to get detailed & well-rounded inputs from an employee’s seniors, peers, juniors & external stakeholders. These inputs can be about the employee’s skills & performance or other aspects like competencies & values. 360° feedback surveys are trusted by organizations across the world as an effective tool for facilitating employee performance & development.

Here are a few contexts in which 360° Feedback Surveys can be used effectively as a tool:

Leadership Development

Enabling managers and senior leaders in the organization to receive feedback on managerial competencies and use this feedback to create their personal development plans.

Talent Review or Skill Audit

Conduct 360° feedback process for large pools of employees to get more detailed understanding of collective strengths and development areas. The inputs are typically used as one of the inputs into the talent review or succession planning process using a framework like 9-box grid.

Participant Assessment in Learning Programs

Conduct 360° feedback process for participants at the start and/or end of a Development Program to understand their progress on key competencies covered in the program.

While 360° feedback survey is a powerful tool, conducting effective 360° surveys require careful planning and preparations.

Elements of the survey like Questionnaire Design and Post-survey Activities require careful thinking. At the same time, since 360° surveys involve many people across the organization, a structured communication plan becomes critical to ensure that all stakeholders are clear about the different aspects of the process.

This series of blogs explores key issues and questions one needs to think through while planning a 360° feedback survey intervention. Our focus has been on practical issues and considerations related to administration of such interventions rather than topics like how to design a survey questionnaire. We hope that you find this series useful in planning your own Intervention.