Frontline workers are best positioned to review their managers, but they’re unlikely to volunteer critical feedback. With a 360-degree review, you can solicit anonymous feedback from every subordinate, co-worker, or manager. Then, you can use this information to get a better understanding of the employee’s performance.

Do You Ever Conduct 360 Reviews With Feedback From Multiple Team Members?

At Asure, we recently conducted our 2024 HR Benchmark Report. As a part of our report, we asked 1,065 small businesses 40 questions about eight different HR topics. At the end of the survey, we asked each business what their growth was like for the previous year. 

While we noticed a 39-point spread between fast-growth and zero-growth companies overall, this spread increased significantly when we only looked at firms that had less than 25 workers. For these organizations, there was a remarkable 43-point difference between zero-growth and fast-growth organizations. 

22% of zero-growth businesses said they conducted 360 reviews with feedback from multiple team members.

65% of fast-growth businesses said they conducted 360 reviews with feedback from multiple team members.

These results show that conducting 360 reviews is strongly correlated with achieving faster growth as a company. While we can speculate about the many reasons for this difference, it likely stems from the fact that 360-degree reviews inherently involve a better quality of feedback. Thanks to better feedback, employees are able to reach higher performance levels.

What Is a 360 Review? 

As its name suggests, a 360-degree review involves getting feedback from everyone an employee works with. This includes all of the worker’s managers, subordinates, and colleagues.

The purpose of 360 reviews is to make sure the employee has feedback from all levels of the organization. This type of feedback is especially important for managers because many subordinates don’t feel comfortable speaking up about potential growth areas. Once managers and employees have access to information from their 360 reviews, they can develop into better employees. 

However, it’s important to note that 360-degree reviews are only effective if the employee has multiple colleagues, managers, and subordinates. If they only have one or two subordinates, they’ll immediately know which employee left them the anonymous review.

The Advantages of Using a 360-Degree Review

As a small business, there are many advantages to getting 360 feedback. With this kind of review, employees can get a full picture of their overall performance and unbiased criticism.

• These reviews can motivate workers to improve.
• 360 reviews encourage employee accountability to performance goals.
• These reviews are great for providing employees with unbiased feedback.
• Effective reviews can improve customer satisfaction. 
• Employees can get a deeper insight into their performance.
• Companies can demonstrate a commitment to employee development. 

 

For the business, 360 reviews lead to better workers and more proficient managers. In turn, these improvements help the organization have more satisfied customers, better revenue growth, and greater profitability. 

How a 360 Review Works 

To make the most of 360 reviews, there are a few steps you should take at your organization to prepare and correlate 360 review surveys. Additionally, you should be mindful of how this information is presented to employees since many workers struggle to accept constructive criticism.

1. Create Set Criteria for Reviews 

360 reviews are a formalized way to incorporate feedback from co-workers, subordinates, and managers. Typically, you’ll get this feedback through an online or offline survey. To be as effective as possible, this survey should be anonymous. 

Before you hand out the survey, you’ll need to decide on the criteria you want to assess. A good place to start is your company’s mission statement and values. For example, you may want to assess team members on their teamwork or competitive spirit. The following list includes a few things you may ask about. 

• Problem-solving
• Leadership
• Creativity 
• Time management 
• Positivity 
• Team spirit
• Approachability 
• Accountability 
• Empathy 
• Critical thinking 

Then, give the respondents a rubric for rating the employee on these qualities. Afterward, you will likely want to ask more detailed questions. Give respondents plenty of space to provide their answers. While the questions you ask will vary, the following are a few examples you can use.

• Is the employee accountable when their actions succeed or fail? 
• Do they contribute to team projects in a positive way? 
• Do you feel supported by this individual? 

At the very end of the survey, you may want to give workers extra space to write other feedback that they didn’t have a chance to address during the survey. 

2. Plan Your Review Format and Implementation

Once you’ve created your 360 review questions, you’ll need to determine how the review will be given. While some workplaces use paper reviews, there are many online survey creation sites that can help you create and email reviews. 

Beyond structuring the review itself, you’ll need to determine when the surveys need to be created and when the information will be given to employees. 

4. Decide Who Will Review Each Other

One of the most important parts of making a 360-degree review is deciding who will review each other. This is a careful balancing act. You want to include enough employees that you get better anonymity and a full picture of the individual’s performance. However, there’s a point where reviews become less effective because the respondent doesn’t work with the employee frequently enough to create accurate feedback. 

5. Send Out Surveys 

Once you have determined the design of your 360 review survey and who will be filling out reviews for which workers, it’s time to send the surveys out. Often, companies send out an email that informs employees about the 360 review process. 

In this email, you should emphasize that the reviews are anonymous, so employees can feel comfortable responding honestly. Likewise, you should clearly state any expectations for the review, such as the due date for completing each survey.

6. Review Surveys 

Once you have received all of the surveys, it is time to review them. If there are any stragglers, you can always send follow-up emails to remind workers about the importance of completing these reviews. 

As you review the surveys, you’ll want to make sure anything inappropriate is removed. If you used a survey app or site, the program likely collated all the data for you. Otherwise, you’ll need to gather the data and transform it into a useful format on your own. 

7. Give Them to the Employee 

Feedback from 360 reviews should be given to an employee in a formal setting. To make the most of these reviews, you should regularly give your employees constructive feedback and support. 

Additionally, you should take time to explain the purpose and benefits of 360-degree reviews to each worker. If the employee understands the advantages of these reviews, they are less likely to feel defensive. You can even share your own learning experiences from previous feedback and how they helped you grow. 

You may want to share the results of the 360-degree review with the employee’s direct manager or use it as a part of future performance reviews. At the very least, a paper copy should be given to the employee so that they can refer to it in the future when they have questions or want to work on their performance goals.

8. Track Progress and Follow Up

When you design your 360-degree review, you shouldn’t simply look at the survey’s questions or when you’ll release the results. You also need to consider follow-up techniques and timelines as well. The entire goal of a 360 review is to improve your employees’ performance. If you simply give them feedback and forget about it, you’re doing your employees a disservice. With regular feedback and follow-ups, you can help workers achieve their performance goals and become more successful. 

Use 360 Reviews to Prepare Your Workplace for Success

360 reviews help employees by finding areas where they can grow and develop. For workplaces, these performance improvements are strongly correlated to revenue growth. More importantly, they help your team members get a full picture of their performance. 

Using 360 reviews can help your company become a fast-growth business. To learn more about performance reviews and employee development, reach out to Asure’s team of small business HR experts today.