http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/rss/iesnews.xml This is an extract from research in 2005 which confirms what we, as practitioners of development, appraisal and performance management, have discovered through trial and error. Briefly, the research shows that
- The developmental value appears to erode over time and people can tend to lose commitment to the process
- 360 Degree Feedback that's used for both appraisal and development can be confusing
- Employees and managers need consistent support with the process, and
- 360 Degree Feedback needs to be continually assessed and challenged to ensure that the organisation is still getting benefit from it.
On the face of it, this sounds like bad news for 360 Degree Feedback, but I disagree. The findings are completely in line with what we say to our clients, and where we try to lead them, even though sometimes they may not want to listen! We say:
- Be clear on exactly what you want the 360 Degree Feedback to do, and how it's going to help employees and managers (the old "what's in it for me")
- Communicate, communicate, communicate - you have to keep explaining what it's for and how it will work, even if you think you've already told everyone, lots of times
- Provide loads of advice, information and support. Online, by phone, in e-mails. Don't just set it up and hope it will run itself. Effective 360 Degree Feedback needs a lot of support and visibility.
- Make your 360 Degree Feedback specific to your people. Align it to their roles, make sure it's totally relevant to what they do. Sounds hard, but a good online system will be able to identify role profiles and do this for you.
- Consistency review the results, individually and in the organisation, and tweak and upgrade regularly, so that people can see the benefits.
So don't just set up 360 Degree Feedback in your organisation, leave it alone and expect it to produce benefits - take the time to do it properly and it can really pay back in employee motivation, development and engagement.