Some general information.
360 degree feedback can be gathered in a number of ways. Face to face,
using paper questionnaires, using PC driven questionnaires, group
meetings.
1. You need to be clear about what you want the information for. IMO the
mechanism is best used for getting feedback for the purposes of developing
a performance improvident plan. I do not like questionnaire driven
processes for 'Formal Appraisal'
2. Managers need feedback on performance so that they can improve.
TYpically this does not happen at appraisal time. At appraisal, in my
experience, most time is spent looking backwards, racking over last years
problems, rather than focussing on what and how to do better next year.
3. Different ap roaches suit different people. Some prefer face to face
others the apparent impersonality of a PC questionnaire. THis needs to be
considered.
4. THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT OF ALL. How do you process all the information
with the recipient. Too often systems generate lots of information and the
manager is left to work out for themselves what it all means. This is not
acceptable practice to me. A manager needs to be guided through their
information and helped to develop an appropriate development plan. I would
advise you to be confident that you can manage this aspect (in terms of
skill and more importantly time) before embarking on an introduction of
360.
Hope this helps.
Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Harnessing change for business advantage
tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk
--tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Saunders)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>