360 degree feedback - what is it?

360 degree feedback is an important and widely used development tool. It allows you to assess your competences and design personal development plans. Feedback on your behaviours (submitted by your superiors, subordinates, peers and others) lies at the heart of the 360 degree concept. In order to develop competences, you need to assess them first. Enter 360 degree feedback.

The 360 degree feedback results are a valuable source of information about your strengths, weaknesses and your development needs.

Your feedback can be submitted by your peers, subordinates and superiors, but also by people from outside your company (clients, suppliers etc.)

360 degree feedback is sometimes called "MSF" or "Multi-source Feedback". This name reflects the concept of a multitude of sources of feedback needed to assess competences.

Each person seeking feedback should fill out his/her self-assessment in order to identify potential discrepancies between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you.

In most cases the self-assessment questionaire is identical to the feedback questionnaire.

If the 360 degree feedback is being used as part of the performance apraisal, your boss may want to use feedback about yourself as an additional source of information about your performance.

This page contains information about the 360 degree feedback, including a "Frequently Asked Questions" section. Your line manager or HR Manager can initiate the 360 degree process here.

When you ask for feedback...

The quality of the feedback you will receive depends on your choice of people who you will choose as respondents. The choice of respondents is crucial to the success of each 360 degree feedback - it is important that they should have been working with you for a longer period of time (3 months minimum, ideally not less than 6 months) so that they know you well enough to give meaningful feedback. We suggest that you discuss your list of respondents with your line manager or your HR Manager.

When somebody asks you to submit feedback...

Fill out the feedback questionnaire only if you know the feedback receiver well anough. Be honest and upright. When answering open-ended questions, be clear and constructive.

The 360 degree feedback report is anonymous - nobody can track answers back to their originators.

What else should I know?

If the 360 degree project has been configured so that your feedback report will be sent only to yourself, you may want to share it with your line manager or with other people. Remember that the value of your Personal Development Plan (PDP) will increase if you get other people involved.

The operator of the 360 degree feedback tool follows very clear and strict confidentiality and IT-security arrangements. The report that the individual receives is fully anonymous and there is no way to detect "who has given which response".

In the feedback report, you may be able to see your own replies, the response from your line manager and that the aggregated responses of the rest of the respondents.

A report is to be generated only if a minimum of 4 respondents excluding yourself have participated in the feedback exercise.