The purpose of 360-degree feedback is for employees to be evaluated not only by their direct supervisors, but also by their colleagues and subordinates in order to find out the level of their skills and create individual development plans. A well-made 360-degree feedback strategy can help all team members improve in key areas in their career development and cooperation within the team. However, if managed and carried out poorly, it leads to a loss of trust, conflicts, and decrease in morale.
The most common causes of failure in 360-degree feedback programs were recently highlighted on the Training Zone website. Recommendations on what needs to be done better were mentioned too.
1. Unclear goals
The goals of 360-degree feedback must be measurable and understandable to all stakeholders. That is why you should start with your goals and only then start creating the content, communication strategies, and actions that will follow after analyzing the feedback obtained.
2. Irrelevant questions
Relevance in this case means connection with specific job roles and the organization's goals, values and culture. 360-degree feedback should be clearly linked to the aspirations of the company.
3. Lack of support
The active support and participation of senior managers is very important. If your program does not get support from the top, why should others be interested? Integrating the program with the corporate business strategy via top management is a clear demonstration that it is not only a useless HR product.
4. Starting too fast
After investing a lot of time in promoting the concept of 360-degree feedback and gaining the support of their superiors, HR people often make the mistake of starting the program too quickly. The process of collecting feedback starts without much preparation and important details are missed. This can destroy an otherwise good 360-degree feedback program.
5. Negative employee expectations
Do not run 360-degree feedback if most of your employees have negative expectations. The reason for their negativism may be a bad experience in the past, lack of information, or misleading information. Therefore, it is up to you to first ensure that the majority of employees have a positive attitude.
The second part of the article will be published next week.
-kk-