HUNEETY RESOURCES
What to Know Before Launching Your 360 Assessment Project
You are planning to perform a 360 assessment and the questionnaire has not been sent out yet. Below are some best practices to follow to make your 360-assessment project a success.
• Assess current position competency level vs career path: In this case High performers are usually in the priority lane to beassessed. The 360 must be presented as part of a premium and differentiatedtreatment that is provided to the employee to better support his/her careerpath.
• Assess Leadership competency: the assessment mayapply to all Line managers or to a targeted group among the C-suite.
• Assessing core competencies: In this case, allemployees presenting core competencies might be eligible for assessment.
• Assess other organizational development areas where360s are conducted in organizations: Assessment of change management, newcompetency model, company culture, team effectiveness. Such assessments areusually tied to core values and core competencies.
360 degrees for Individual Development is used when competency proficiency level is assessed. With this type of 360, there is no impact over the employee bonus or salary increase. The objective is to havea more accurate view about actual competency level VS expected competency level for the position. The results are used to make career decisions and to help employee develop professionally.
360-degree feedback may be used as a supplement to themanager's performance assessment. In this case, the ratings proposed shouldmatch the company’s performance management tool in place. Evaluating performance using 360s help to identify employees with high potential (HiPoprograms) and recognize outstanding and underperforming employees. 360 assessments for performance have an impact on salary increase and bonus.
360-degree feedback can be used to measure the effectiveness of training programs as reviews can be organized for specific groups and trackthe dynamics of changes over time. The usual practice is to form groups beforehand after training programs and compare results of each group over time. Thispractice is supporting the ROI of training programs and their link to performance. It is typically possible to measure impact of the training fromthe people that have followed the training VS people that did not attend.
• Before performing the questionnaire, the assessment must be 100% confident over anonymity. Explain that only an individual’s line manager is identifiable to the
feedback receiver in the final report together withHR, who will oversee rolling out development programs to support development.
• Reiterate that feedback from direct reports or peers will only be reported in groups of 2 or more.
The participant needs to create a list of people from whom he is requesting feedback. This is usually supported by Line manager andHuman resources but either way, the participant must know who will be chosen to provide feedback and make sure that he / she is comfortable with it.
The name 360 comes from the fact that participants receive feedback from many “views”. Feedback is coming from:
The most useful feedback will come from whomever you work with most closely. They don’t have to be dear friends or even people you like.Just look for colleagues who are in the best possible position to observe your behavior on a frequent basis.
Explain the initiative of 360 assessment (why and what is assessed) and ask for their support to participate in the evaluation. Encouragethem to be direct and honest in their responses when the survey arrives. This personal outreach will increase your response rate and invite the kind ofhelpful, actionable feedback you need.
⚠️ Important: provided guidelines about how to give feedback. It is key to make sure participants chosen can provide constructive feedback, fact based. Keep in mind too that the extent to which one is able to observe a colleague’s behaviors will vary depending on their business relationship with the person in question, so suggest that they base their feedback only on the behaviors directly observed.
Before the assessment starts, provide guidelines about how to fill the questionnaire.
Following these guidelines shall guarantee that the feedbackprovided is fact based. The objective is, for the one that receive thefeedback, to get useful insights about their strengths and development needs.
There are some common traps to avoid falling into when filling a 360-degree assessment questionnaire. We have summarized them below:
• Assessment based on the last event only: This meansthe assessor only takes into account the last event to provide feedback.Assessors should take into account the events that took place over a longerperiod (such as the last year).
• Over rating or under rating: Occurs when theassessor provides an answer that is much under or higher than the actual levelobserved on the job. If an assessor answerby choosing ratings at one end of thescale without specific explanation, it is possible they are either too harsh orelse too lenient.
• The Halo effect: Refers to “what is beautiful isalso good” principle. For example, people who are highly sociable can be seenas more intelligent. As a result, the perception of one quality may lead tobiased judgements of other qualities and may influence the judgment eitherpositively or negatively.
Most common practice is set up a first meeting with HR and line manager to debrief the report, before it is shared to the employee assessed. Then, line manager may share report to the employee during a dedicated one on one meeting. In some companies, the HR may also be present during the line manager debriefing meeting with the employee.
In case companies are using an external provider to perform360s, the vendor may take part in the analysis & debriefing with HR / Line manager or employee.
For the organization and the individual to maximize the effectiveness of the 360 assessment, there must be a clear next step with anIndividual Development Plan (IDP). For the development plan to be a success, it is key that the employee understands what his/her 360 assessment results is andwhat are the strengths, gaps to fill.
💭 Keep in mind : Employee development plans aim at developing skills and behavior of the employee.Progress must be followed up over the long term to produce real results.
Huneety splits its learning activities into 3 families names : Active Learning, Social Learning and Stretch Assignments.
🟢 Stretch Assignments : onboard managers to transform theory into practice.
• Link assignments with relevant competencies and business objectives. Projects are often a good way to push an employee outside of its comfort zone, have him connect to other departments, or prepare a presentation that will help her/him get visible across the organization.
• Produce a SMART action plan.
• Let employees know they are being given a chance to develop and that this is part of their learning journey. Many companies fail tohave employees acknowledge when they take part in a stretch assignment.
• This is a learning exercise. Have managers provideconstructive feedback and monitor progress more often.
🟢 Social learning: there is so much more toit than just feedback to subordinate
• Social learning can be about receiving feedback. But youcan think out of the box and going outside of the classic Employee/Subordinaterelation here. Constructive feedback can be equally offered by peers,customers, internal clients, or companies’ experts. Multiply opportunities togive feedback!
• Social learning can also include some type of networking component that will allow getting more exposure to a topic. How about beingpart of a discussion group, participate in peer conferences, or connect to people with similar challenges in other industries?
🟢 Active learning: have you considered alloptions?
• Always link training received with stretch assignments.
• Again, think out of the box: good training does not alwaysmean spending big bucks and classrooms. Think about all the other ways to passvaluable information to an employee to multiple Active Learning opportunities.Reading a book, listening to a podcast, or engaging with an eLearning cansometimes be as valuable to an
individual than a classroom session.
• Post learning assessments are often needed on ActiveLearning so that the individual deploys the needed focus on the task. Make surethose are embedded in Active Learning action plans. It can be as simple as atest embedded in eLearning, a debrief session, or writing a summary note.
Huneety Learning support companies in implementing your competency assessment project. Our integrated process involves :
Click here to see the overview of our full process.
Would you like to learn more about 360 assessments? Contact us to discuss your learning project and discover how to get started. Our team will guide youthrough every step of your 360 assessment project, from A to Z. For moreinformation, visit Huneety.com.
