How to Create an Employee Satisfaction Survey – Employee 360 Feedback Survey

360 degree employee feedback provides performance feedback from an employee’s supervisor, peers, reporting staff members, co-workers and customers.

The employee will often be given the opportunity to respond through a self assessment. 360 degree feedback provides the employee with a view of his or her effectiveness as an employee, co-worker, or staff member.

Feedback should be based on viewable skills and behaviors desired in the organization to accomplish the mission, vision, and goals. For consumer oriented employees, the feedback should focus on skills and behaviors related to customer expectations.

Those who provide feedback generally interact routinely with the employee receiving feedback.

The benefit of 360 degree employee feedback is the identification of strengths, weaknesses, mentoring insights and areas needing professional development.

360 degree feedback provides many positive outcomes, including:

• Improved Feedback From More Sources, including peers, reporting staff, co-workers, and supervisors.  It is important to understand how co-workers view their work.
• Team Development: What can the employee do to work more effectively with co-workers?  Team members can provide this feedback and help the employee to be more accountable to the team for their communication and performance.
• Organizational Needs Assessment: 360 degree feedback helps the company understand the need for understanding personal and organizational developmental.
• Mentoring Needs Assessment: What does the employee need to do to enhance his or her career?  Career and personal development information are provided by peers and supervisors.
• Supervisor Risk Control: Feedback from a broad number of individuals in a variety of interfacing positions can help manage problem employees, as well as help minimize discrimination based on race, age and gender.
• Training Needs Assessment: Aggregation of employee and rater information provides an encompassing view of the organization training needs. Training priorities, scheduling of classes and performance goals can be clearly identified and measured.
  
  
• Interpersonal Skill Assessment: Frontline employees struggle with meeting the needs of the customer and the needs of the company. Employees need the valuable feedback about the quality of service they provide and how they can improve their reliability, promptness, and quality of their services.

360 degree feedback processes are not, however without problems.  The following are identified as points of caution and concern.

• Managing Expectations of a Magic Bullet: 360 degree feedback is exactly that… a feedback system.  It must be integrated into a complete performance management system.
• Building the Process: 360 degree feedback must be based on those performance goals important to the organization.  The strategic goals of the organization must be translated into job performance measures that include competencies, descriptions and duties.  These competencies must be measured as part of the 360 feedback and tracked as part of the organizations growth process.
• Evaluation and Supervisor Training: Individuals who provide feedback need training about how to provide constructive feedback.  Feedback must be detailed, constructive and actionable so that appropriate actions can be taken by the employee. Additionally, the supervisor must be capable of understanding the feedback so that clarification can be given. Supervisors, HR staff, and other critical managers must assist the employee to understand and develop action plans based upon the feedback.
• Focus on Strengths: Great managers focus on employee strengths, not weaknesses. The key to growing valuable employees through feedback is to chip off a few rough corners and then help them do what they do best.
• Avoid Data Overload: Multi-rater feedback in the form of 360 degree feedback systems must be well organized so that feedback is easily collected and accessed so as to save time and increase the quality of the process.

360 feedback surveys will promote employee growth and development in a supportive organizational environment.  When properly used, 360 degree feedback increases positive, powerful problem solving and develops productive employees.