The 360 Degree Review

Does your company include 360 degree reviews in their employee appraisal process? The popularity of this approach to employee evaluations continues to grow. There are clear benefits of this approach to the complete evaluation of employee performance. Oftentimes, the result is a more holistic view of the employee's work, as their peers may see strengths or areas for improvement that their manager may overlook.

The 360 degree review process can be designed to align with and reflect your company and its values, and the review process and look different for one type of role than for another type. One type of position may benefit from the thoughts of customers or vendors for another role that might not make sense.  One important decision to make is how to ultimately put the results of this tool to use. Will your company use the review as simply an employee development tool or to actually tie it to compensation? Some agree that if it is a more holistic view of the employee, then it is the perfect metric to use in determining increases in compensation. However, there is the concern that employees may hesitate to be completely honest about their co-worker if they fear that their co-worker’s compensation may be tied to what they say.

The 360 degree employee review is a powerful tool to monitor and improve the most valuable resources your company has. Do you plan to use 360 degree reviews in your company’s performance management portfolio?