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Choosing 360 Feedback Software

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Filed under: Employee 360 softwareTagged with: ,

360 Degree Feedback is about making a complex process into something easy to for everyone involved. Your 360 Feedback Software should help you do this.

Whether it’s for development or performance, getting all round feedback is no small feat. Therefore, simplicity and effectiveness of the software you use is extremely important. Here, we take a close look at a couple of key things to consider when choosing 360 feedback software.

When reviewing performance, 360 Degree Feedback software can span a whole department or the entire company.  There may be a need to refine or tailor the questions for different groups.

With so many people involved in a process of review, the software needs to simplify and order data gathering. Thank, it needs to crunch the information into meaningful information in a way that is easy to understand. It requires an intuitive presentation, both for those entering the information into the system and for those accessing the results. This post covers what to look out for, and top tips for choosing 360 Feedback Software.

Critical things to look out for when choosing 360 Feedback Software

  • Simplicity and ease of use for ratees and raters
  • The ability to configure and customise the 360 questions to match the organisations needs
  • Presenting the data in a coherent, useful way that can be easily interpreted

Simplicity and ease of use for ratees and raters

The software should offer a questionnaire format to help focus the feedback. It  must be straightforward to use and ensure you use the same question and therefore criteria, when there are multiple reviewers. For example, the ability to show certain questions to different groups of raters. So you would be able to show strategic questions only to senior raters, for example, and not to juni0r colleagues who would not be in a position to respond.

By entering rating scores, (usually out of five), with the click of a button, it should be easy to complete and feels like an objective review, rather than  ‘incriminating’ or personal. This can make it a more honest review. The questions can be around specific areas of performance that are relevant to the organisation, meaning the feedback will be relevant and meaningful. The questions will draw out strengths and reveal any unchallenged weaknesses around performance in a way that seems fair, holistic and reasonable. Here’s an example:

image of sample 360 feedback form

 

Presenting the 360 Degree Feedback results

Once the feedback is in the system, simple graphs should be generated that show the range of views around someone’s performance. The graphs can demonstrate where someone under review is not aware of performance issues they may need to work on and it can also highlight strengths.

an image showing an example of 360 degree feedback results
You can comprehend in seconds from this screen that there may be differences in how you perceive your own performance. This is in comparison with others’ views. In the example above, the ratee believes (having entered a top score of 5 for every response0 that they have no need to develop. We can compare this with the views of the line manager, peers and direct reports that tell a different story.

To check the data, you can glance at the far right of the screen. This will show you how many responses were logged. In this example, you have 1 for Self and 1 for Line Manager. There are also 3 Peers involved. Rather than a long, possibly highly subjective assessment, these simple charts give a very succinct and easy to digest overview.

In conclusion, to collate a large amount of feedback and present it effectively requires a considered presentation.

What the screenshots show:

  • The ease and simplicity of the system to use
  • Loading the reviewew with relevant feedback data
  • Providing raters with anonymity to encourage honest feedback
  • Providing ratees with valuable and consistent feedback messages

360 Degree Feedback can change and develop work culture. It does this by providing a higher understanding of real performance issues in the company. By doing so in a holistic way, this dilutes any personal bias and brings out truth to the fore. When you see feedback from multiple sources, you can compare your own opinion to the team’s. You can quickly see the trends in the feedback and understand the measurement of your performance

If you would like to see a more in-depth demonstration of this powerful appraisal tool, or find out more about choosing 360 Feedback software, or you would just like to ask a question about it, please contact us and we would be happy to help.