Ewing Change Consulting Resource Centre

Key Considerations for 360-Degree Feedback

There are a number of considerations that organizations take into account when thinking about using 360-degree feedback. For each of these considerations there are options to be chosen which will enable you to more effectively ensure acceptance of the process. Here are some of the questions to ask yourself:

A: Your company’s culture – how the process will be received
B: Overall Purpose of the process
C: How your organization plans to use it
D: Population (subjects) to be assessed
E: Distribution of results – who gets to see the reports
F: Responders and Categories
G: The 360 Questionnaire
H: Delivery of the results to the subjects – by whom
I: Technology
J: Communication
K: Ewing Change Consulting Services

A: Your company’s culture – how the process will be received
360-degree feedback can be successfully introduced in many different organizations with a range of cultures and in a range of industries and fields. There are ways to engender trust and acceptance.

Key questions:
How open and trusting is your culture?
How accustomed is your organization to providing and receiving feedback?
How regularly are performance reviews/appraisals conducted in your organization?

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B: Overall Purpose of the process
Organizations have many different reasons for conducting 360-degree feedback. These may include:

• A need for a more rigorous or fair process of providing feedback;
• A need to build a performance culture
• A need to raise the standard of feedback being given in the organization to overcome stereotyping of individuals
• To identify learning or training needs of your population

Whatever the reason, it’s important to identify the impact you want to make (and communicate it) so that you can pull all the levers to make it happen.

Key Question:
What are you trying to achieve by implementing 360-degree feedback in your organization?

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C: How your organization plans to use it
There are three primary ways that organizations use 360-degree feedback. They are:

• For development only
• To complement the performance appraisal
• To actually form part of the performance appraisal – the survey is written in such a way that this forms the major part of the performance appraisal and is looked at as part of the compensation considerations by senior management. Individuals are held accountable for improving their 360 results in the same way as they are held accountable for completing tasks.

Key Question:
How does your organization plan to use the results of the 360 process?

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D: Population (subjects) to be assessed
Organizations may decide to assess all employees or to limit the assessments to certain populations, for example, those who manage people.

Key Questions:
Whom will you assess and when?
Will you conduct a pilot or small test group first?

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E: Distribution of results – who gets to see the reports
Another key choice required for this process is that of how confidentially the reports are held. Organizations have a choice of the following options and these options all have different implications:

• Option one: Only the subject and the person delivering the results sees the report
• Option two: The subject, the deliverer of results and the supervisor only see the actual report. No one else.
• Option three: The subject, the deliverer of results, the supervisor and HR and/or senior management see the report.

Key Question:
Who will see the results?

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F: Responders and Categories
Responders are those who are invited to respond to a person’s questionnaire. Categories are groupings of responders. Typical responder categories include a supervisor, peers, direct reports (or staff), clients, internal customers, others and self. There is, of course, no need to include all of these but these are the usual categories. The tool is almost infinitely customizable so organizations can choose the categories and name them anything they like.

A question that often arises is the process of how a subject’s responders will be chosen. There are 3 possibilities:

1. The Subject: The subject may be allowed to choose their own responder list, unmonitored and with no oversight.
2. The Subject with Supervisor: The subject may be allowed to choose their own responders but must obtain approval of their supervisor.
3. The Supervisor or HR Professional: The supervisor or HR chooses.

Key Questions:
How will your subjects’ responders be chosen?
What categories of responders will be appropriate?

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G: The 360 Questionnaire
Some organizations have their own questions. Some want us to develop it. Some have one that needs revising. Ewing Change Consulting is skilled at advising organizations on the development of their questionnaires. The questions can be based on values, strategies or competencies that the organization would like to emphasize. They can also be focused on delivering a combination of appreciative and constructive comments (our favorite).

In addition, choices involve configuring the questionnaire with:

• Numerical questions: where responders rate the subjects with a number on a scale, for example, out of 10.
• Narrative questions (Qualitative): Open-ended questions with no numerical ratings so that the responses are all comments.
• Numerical plus Narrative or Qualitative: A mixture of the two above

Key Questions:
What kind of questions would best suit your needs?
What is the recommendation of Ewing Change Consulting, given those needs?

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H: Delivery of the results to the subjects – by whom
It is critical that the communication of results to the subjects is conducted in a sensitive, skilled and caring manner. This is one of the highest risks involved in a 360-dgree feedback process. If this delivery of results is not done well, there is a risk that people will feel threatened or hurt. Done well, the delivery of results can leave people energized and feeling positive about making constructive change.

Organizations have a choice of whether to use aninternal or external person. Ewing Change Consulting has a responsibility to support best practice in this area. Whichever option you choose, we will work to make sure it is done in the best way possible.
The options are:

1. External Option: As external consultants, Ewing Change Consulting professionals are safe, confidential and professionally skilled in delivering results and can come on site to deliver results.
2. Internal Option: Human Resources professionals. The internal HR department can deliver the results if they will be perceived as being confidential and objective enough.
3. Internal plus External Option: Ewing Change Consulting delivers the results in one-on-one sessions with senior management team members and then delivers a one-day training for senior management team members (and perhaps the next level down) to learn how to deliver the results to their staff. Then internal management delivers the results.

Key Questions:
Who will deliver the results?
If internal people, how will you train them?

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I: Technology
The 360 Degree Feedback system, provided by Panoramic Feedback™ is a user-friendly, secure tool which is accessed through the internet or with hard copy if necessary. Your participants can access the questionnaires on their computers at work/home/remotely, using a password which is assigned to them by the tool and which is unique, thereby preserving the security of the system. Or, we can provide hard copy for those responders without easy access to email or the internet and will transcribe the responses directly into the tool.
For those on internet, emails from your customized project can be delivered from the PanoMetrics server including instructions and reminders. We will work closely your IT department to ensure a smooth delivery of the entire process.

Key Questions:
Do you have an IT person whom you can designate as the IT representative to problem-solve if necessary?
Which potential participants have access to technology and a comfort level with an online format and are there any who will need hard copy?

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J: Communication
Best practice has taught us that communication is the key to success of your project. It increases employee acceptance of the process and encourages positive response to the constructive feedback. Ewing Change Consulting can help you determine the key messages you need to share with your employees. In addition we will work with you and your schedule to set up the entire project with appropriate deadlines.

Key Questions:
What kind of messages should be sent out about this process? And to whom?

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K: Ewing Change Consulting Services
We provide a full range of services to organizations wishing to undertake a process of 360-degree feedback. When we hear your needs and preferences, we provide a quote for our services based on your selection of the following components:

1. Sale of access to the tool – Ewing Change Consulting is not only a registered user of Panoramic Feedback™ but is also a distributor. Ewing Change Consulting provides a number of options for which they are happy to provide quotes:
   
   • Organizations can merely purchase credits from Ewing Change Consulting for the use of the tool. Ewing Change Consulting manages the access to the tool and administers the tool on the organization’s behalf.
   • Organizations can purchase access to the tool by paying one life-time access to the tool plus the number of assessments they wish to use. Ewing Change Consulting will train the organization’s internal person to administer the tool.
   • Organizations can purchase access to the tool by paying one life-time access to the tool plus assessments AND Ewing Change Consulting will administer the tool for you.
2. Administration – Organizations who have purchased their own registration for Panoramic Feedback™ may choose to administer the use of the tool themselves if they have a confidential support person whom they are comfortable seeing all the results. Ewing Change Consulting offers training for your administrator/liaison. Or, they may choose to contract with Ewing Change Consulting to administer the tool for them for greater internal confidentiality.
3. Advising on use of tool – as you can see from the above considerations, there are quite a number of decisions to make. We can guide you through this so that the process is as effortless as possible for you.
4. Delivering of results (sometimes only to the senior team, sometimes to everyone) – Ewing Change Consulting can provide skilled and sensitive professionals to work with your subjects to understand their results and to begin to develop their action plan. Some organizations ask us to do it with all their subject population and some ask us to do it with the senior team who then do it with their staff.
5. Orientation session for responders and subjects – Ewing Change Consulting has orientation training for all who will be involved – subjects and responders – which gives them an overview of your organization’s approach to the process (customized to your organization’s needs) and provides guidance on writing good feedback. We are also prepared to provide a document on how to give good feedback that can be circulated to your responders.
6. Train the trainer for senior team members or HR professionals on delivering results – Ewing Change Consulting offers training for your internal people on delivering the results if that is the route you wish to take.
7. Follow up coaching – Ewing Change Consulting offers coaching for individuals and would be glad to provide a quote on this service. It can be done either entirely face-to-face or in a mixture of face-to-face meetings and through telephone and email.

Key Questions:
Which Ewing Change Consulting services will you need?
Will you buy your own registration for the tool or will you simply purchase credits through our registration and pay for administration?

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EwingChange Consulting
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416-792-0971



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