A word of caution here: questions about implementing 360 feedback are easy to ask but not so to answer. Often times, management assumes the answers but does not openly discuss them with the result being much chaos and confusion down the road.
Among these are some of these questions are:
· How ready is your organization ready to handle 360 feedback?
Among these are some of these questions are:
· How ready is your organization ready to handle 360 feedback?
Often times, organizations may be willing to pay consultants to assist them in implementing such a system, but the organization needs to be prepared. At times, "soft skills" training in communication, leadership, management style, meeting management etc. is useful in preparing management. Teambuilding activities might also be useful, as well as a general organizational climate survey to determine the context of implementation and find any additional issues beyond management style that might be a problem.
Who needs to agree? Who will be the decision-making body about 360 feedback? Will it be the head of the organization, or Human Resources, or a cross-section of employees from a variety of levels?
Who will be involved? Which employees are to be the focus of the 360 feedback, and who will provide it to them?
Is this voluntary or mandatory? Will some employees be offered the "opportunity" to receive this feedback, will everyone receive it, or will just management receive the feedback?
What methods and measurements will be used? Will employees just fill out numerical surveys, or will this information be supplemented with observations and interviews? Will the report be just a graph, a summary of high need for change survey items, or will there be a written report with recommendations? To what extent will this report be personalized and hand-crafted vs being automated?
To what extent will the data be collected anonymously and/or confidentially? While the intent may be to keep the survey data anonymous, if written comments or interview data are also included, the data may have to be altered to avoid making obvious conclusions about who communicated what. In addition, management must answer questions about personal, confidential data that might be accidentally revealed during interviews.
What will be done with alleged violations of laws, ethics or policies? Though this may not be the intent of 360° feedback, on occasion information is gathered that suggests violations of legal, ethical and company codes of conduct. A horrendous example of this with one of our clients several years ago were allegations made that a single woman had become pregnant by a manager and received a promotion to keep her from making a fuss.
What information will be public? At first blush, you might think that all data will be private, but does that mean that one's own supervisor can't see the data and the report? Will group and company averages be made public without them being broken down into individual scores?
What consequences will there be? Will they receive additional coaching and counseling, training, or be terminated or re-assigned? Will the 360° feedback be the sole determiner of this decision?
What logistics and support will be necessary to make this successful? To what extent will the data be collected electronically (via the Web or intranet) or on paper? What administrative and technical support will be necessary?
What systems changes will accompany this organizational change? As stated before providing feedback on management style in and of itself can only be part of organizational change and can rarely stand on its own. As a result, one must ask how and when will 360 degree feedback be incorporated into training, selection and pay decisions?
Who needs to agree? Who will be the decision-making body about 360 feedback? Will it be the head of the organization, or Human Resources, or a cross-section of employees from a variety of levels?
Who will be involved? Which employees are to be the focus of the 360 feedback, and who will provide it to them?
Is this voluntary or mandatory? Will some employees be offered the "opportunity" to receive this feedback, will everyone receive it, or will just management receive the feedback?
What methods and measurements will be used? Will employees just fill out numerical surveys, or will this information be supplemented with observations and interviews? Will the report be just a graph, a summary of high need for change survey items, or will there be a written report with recommendations? To what extent will this report be personalized and hand-crafted vs being automated?
To what extent will the data be collected anonymously and/or confidentially? While the intent may be to keep the survey data anonymous, if written comments or interview data are also included, the data may have to be altered to avoid making obvious conclusions about who communicated what. In addition, management must answer questions about personal, confidential data that might be accidentally revealed during interviews.
What will be done with alleged violations of laws, ethics or policies? Though this may not be the intent of 360° feedback, on occasion information is gathered that suggests violations of legal, ethical and company codes of conduct. A horrendous example of this with one of our clients several years ago were allegations made that a single woman had become pregnant by a manager and received a promotion to keep her from making a fuss.
What information will be public? At first blush, you might think that all data will be private, but does that mean that one's own supervisor can't see the data and the report? Will group and company averages be made public without them being broken down into individual scores?
What consequences will there be? Will they receive additional coaching and counseling, training, or be terminated or re-assigned? Will the 360° feedback be the sole determiner of this decision?
What logistics and support will be necessary to make this successful? To what extent will the data be collected electronically (via the Web or intranet) or on paper? What administrative and technical support will be necessary?
What systems changes will accompany this organizational change? As stated before providing feedback on management style in and of itself can only be part of organizational change and can rarely stand on its own. As a result, one must ask how and when will 360 degree feedback be incorporated into training, selection and pay decisions?
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