360 – how often is too often?

Once people start to use a 360 questionnaire and realise the value of gaining the insight into how others see them, it’s sometimes easy for them to make the (incorrect) leap in thought process that the more 360s they do, the quicker they’ll develop and acquire the skills and behaviours they’re looking for.

So how often should we be utilising this tool?

Based on the experience both of our Head of Psychology and the feedback from customers as to what works for them, we’d recommend this to be every 12-18 months as a minimum. Any more often than this and you may start to see a less effective 360 feedback emerge.

Why is this?

People tend to get ‘rater fatigue’ when they're constantly being asked to fill in 360- degree questionnaires. 

You need to allow sufficient time between reviews for people to make the behavioural changes identified or to plan and engage with any personal development which comes out of the 360 feedback session.  There’s likely to be little shift in the behaviour and therefore the ratings in just, say, 3 months.

But even if it isn’t the time to complete a full 360 questionnaire, it’s worthwhile gathering on-going, regular feedback at critical points. For this reason, both our Talent Performance® and Talent Advance® modules from our on-line talent management Talent® system include a ‘Get Feedback' function. This enables people to get more informal, immediate 'pulse' feedback on things that have just happened or on areas they're developing. This is usually shorter, qualitative, aimed at a small number of people and related to one or two specific questions, which doesn't create the rater fatigue that 3 month full-360s would.

To talk about this more, let us know your thoughts below.

7 benefits of moving on-line for 360 review

Want to know what the key benefits to moving to on-line 360 as highlighted in our recent survey?  Some are obvious, some less so.  Read on.

1.     Reduction in administration time.  77% of organisations in our recent survey have observed this time saving. It seems that some of this time is 're-invested'.

2.     More time spent on development planning. 46% of survey respondents signal that they now spend more time on development planning. 

3.     Better individual understanding of own strengths and development areas: 91% have found this to be the case showing the improvement since going on-line.

4.     Greater commitment to the development plan: 73% reported that their people were more committed to their individual development plan after moving on-line. 

5.     Easier comparison of people across departments and the organisation with 55% commenting that this is easier since going on-line.

6.     Faster analytics: 60% of respondents say that the analytics are faster with the on-line system.

7.     Spotting of those with high potential made easier:  57% comment that is it easier to now identify those employees with high potential.

If you’d like to know more about our research or are looking to see how moving on-line with your performance review can bring these benefits, do get in touch.

Is your organisation ready for 360? Think again...

There is no doubt that a well implemented 360-degree review and feedback process will make a significant and cost-effective contribution to your organisation. But, is now the time? We share what we consider to be the main considerations for maximising the effectiveness of 360 feedback programmes. If you come up short on any of these, do think carefully about the timing.

1. Ask yourself – is it still a step too far?

360 should be approached as an evolutionary way to capture feedback. If there is no historical approach to feedback being a fundamental and accepted part of the culture it may encounter significant obstacles. It may be that a formalised review processes and one to one feedback needs to be introduced to lay the foundations for the full 360 and help to realise the value it can add to an open, honest culture with a genuine desire to improve performance. Perhaps a pilot in a certain part of the business (usually the top) might be a better starting point?

2. Can I create a ‘What’s in it for them’?

When positioning the 360 with the end-user it is imperative that a clear purpose is defined. Is the overall outcome designed to support Management Development, Coaching, Career Development or Performance Management? Are you introducing new competencies, ways of working or bonus schemes? It may be some or all of these. By exploring with the users it will help to sell the “what’s in it for me” gaining buy-in and provide clarity to how the organisation will use the results.

3. Can I deal with ‘emotional’ objections?

Explain how the 360 will be administered, who will ensure it happens, who will collate the results and how, when will they receive the feedback and who from? Ensure that the process is transparent and all can see what the desired outcomes are. It is useful to show at this stage that the 360 process will be revisited to allow individuals to see how they have improved based on feedback captured over time.

4. Can I create a ‘What’s in it for the Management population’?

Is there an overarching strategy or goal that the organisation is working towards? 360 can be extremely effective when clear links can be seen between the outcomes and the future vision of an organisation. Are there values or a core mission statement that the behaviours link to?

5. Can I enlist their support as opposed to just agreement? 

Identify the key stakeholders to act as “Champions” supporting the pilot of the process and promoting its worth and usefulness as a management tool. These may be a Senior Management Group or well respected members of specific business areas. This group would then define and promote the organisational need for the 360 i.e. to identify current skills against those required for future growth and develop training plans to assist this.

6. Are the questionnaires fit for purpose and considered relevant? 

Here possible ensure that the questions reflect the desired competencies. If the organisation does not use competencies ensure that the language used is common across the organisation, appropriate to the respondents and can clearly elicit the desired responses. It is useful to discuss the design of the questions and format with a pilot group of differing levels to ensure your format will deliver what is required and provide one clear consistent message of its worth. Do see our other resources on this subject.

7. Are these outputs aligned with other core Talent Management processes? 

Wherever possible align the feedback to the Personal Development and Career Planning process within the organisation (you do have those don't you?!). Formalising action plans based on the feedback and reviewing quarterly shows commitment to the users. It also ensures the feedback is revisited and discussed regularly keeping the process alive and helping to embed it into the organisations culture. The choice should be given to the individuals to discuss the action plans with their manager or a mentor. Sharing by choice in this way can then help to naturally encourage a feedback rich team who seek to adopt the process into every day operations.

8. Are those tasked with delivering and receiving the feedback ready, willing and able?

Be specific when and how the feedback will be delivered. Ensure that the individuals are briefed on the stages on feedback - shock, anger, rejection, and acceptance. This helps them to mentally prepare for the sessions and understand their emotions are natural and expected. In our experience individuals can move more quickly to acceptance (and therefore action) when they understand the stages and the reasons for their feelings. Thus helping the feedback to be digested and understood more fully. Ensure each individual understands that by being a willing participant in a 360 feedback process, they own the feedback. By accepting to be involved, make sure any ground rules are laid out in advance and that choosing to decline is 'ok'. It is only they that can act upon the feedback and use it to provide deeper self insight. Also explain that what they receive is in no way altered or edited - it is the views of their chosen respondents as provided on the forms.

Assessing Values as part of the Appraisal Process

Having just seen a post from a 360 service provider suggesting that there should be a separate section on the assessment of Values in an appraisal, I felt compelled to offer our thoughts on this.

Frankly, we don't agree with the idea of a separate section that prompts a manager and their employee to talk about 'values' so explicitly - how crass! It prompts rather theoretical discussions about personal values and people find this overly invasive and fear being exposed - hardly conducive to a productive appraisal meeting and could easily derail the process completely. Magnify that by how many people 'go through this process' and it could be a potential disaster.

We do however think that values, and more explicitly how values manifest themselves in the context of the work someone performs, is an area of assessment in an appraisal or 360 review. The skill is in developing the right questions or combination of questions that tease out how these values play out in the work place and the impact they have on the individuals colleagues, and this is the approach we always take.

I suspect that a 'simple values section' is the hinting at right direction but it is the wrong implementation and a short cut to doing the job properly.

If your provider simply says, 'we'll add a values section on at the end', ask them why the values aren't entwined into the rest of the assessment or questionnaire.

After all, that's how values appear and are observed in the work place.

If your service provider 'doesn't get it' or can't or won't do this, then our genuine advice is to walk away before any damage is done.

Employee engagement - a brief background

Employee engagement has risen in popularity over the past few years. Some enthusiastic pundits have made categorical statements that a more engaged employee leads to better business results and anecdotally there is evidence that this is so – intuitively this would of course make sense. However, there is also evidence that there is little or no correlation whatsoever with business performance – a recent study by Henley Management College concluded that in their research in the corporate world, no such relationship exists.

We have also seen commentary relating to engagement that focuses on the notion of how to get that ‘extra discretionary effort’, i.e. to create employees that are willing to put in more work for altruistic reasons. We think that this focus on singularly attempting to get more out of people is both cynical and short-termist. Having said all this, a more productive, motivated, happy and ‘easier to get on with colleague’ is better than one who isn’t and engagement studies have sought to attempt to analyse and decode what makes this ‘better’ employee. Consequently, employee engagement has developed into a complex and multi-dimensional concept that has gone much further than the simple notions of motivation, the psychological contract and employee satisfaction, yet it draws on elements of each of
these ideas. It also has much in common with the extensively researched concepts of commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). With these last two, there are some important differences – engagement is a two-way process: organisations engage people (intentionally or otherwise) through their systems and processes and they in turn choose the level of reciprocal engagement. Do read our article in our last newsletter ‘Are your Talent Management Processes Fair?

http://www.head-light.co.uk/Articles/Fair_Talent_Management.pdf

So what does an engaged employee ‘look like’? From an HR perspective, the typical behaviours demonstrated by the engaged employee are:
• A belief in the organisation and its purpose
• A desire to work to make things better
• An understanding of business context and the ‘bigger picture’
• Being respectful of, and helpful to, colleagues
• A willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ , and
• Keeping up to date with developments in their field.

Marketing and Internal Communications functions have pioneered the ‘employer brand’ idea, but this is just a part of the picture. As the concept of reciprocal and multi-dimensional engagement has developed, it has moved on from simple Employee Satisfaction or Employer Brand questionnaires and into the realms of personal alignment with organisational values and mission statements. This exploration of employee feelings, emotions and psychological associations requires a subtlety and deftness when asking for feedback in these areas - asking straight questions on the above list of areas directly would clearly not generate any useful results as they are too blunt and unsophisticated an instrument.

How do you find out if employees are engaged?

Engagement is typically measured via the use of a very specific employee survey, now predominantly delivered and scored electronically. To call it a questionnaire or survey would be technically correct, though greatly undervaluing what it could provide in terms of output and insight. An Engagement Diagnostic gathers relevant, structured feedback, both qualitative and quantitative in the areas that matter most (more on this in another blog), in language and terms that are unambiguous and universally understood. This is where Occupational Psychologists can add real value and develop (and validate) engagement oriented behavioural indicators, not dissimilar from those used in 360 reviews. Subtlety and deftness can be achieved with careful wording that ask the important questions in the right way and a combination of positive and negative statements together with some discretion as who to ask for feedback, makes for an insightful diagnostic.

Many organisations report success using the many well respected generic tools, though to our way of thinking, and supported by the findings from the Institute of Employment Studies, a tailored questionnaire reflects the behaviours in your own business context, profession and industry providing the essential organisational fit required to take purposeful action across the business as a result. There is a straight trade-off – is it more important to have an imperfect diagnostic, whose results that can be compared against similar and dissimilar organisations for benchmarking purposes? Or is it more important to have a sharp, insightful instrument whose results can be used to improve engagement levels and business performance in your own company?

We’ll let you decide.

Our next blog, will develop these ideas to help you identify the type of engagement diagnostic that will provide feedback you can act on.