360 degree reviews involve the reviewee receiving feedback from people (named or anonymous) whose views are considered helpful and relevant. The feedback is typically provided on a form showing job skills/abilities/attitudinal/behavioural criteria and some sort of scoring or value judgement system. The reviewee should also assess themselves using the same feedback instrument or form.
360 degree respondents can be the reviewee's peers, up-line managers/execs, subordinate staff, team members, other staff, customers, suppliers - anyone who comes into contact with the reviewee and has opinions/views/reactions of and to the reviewee. Numerous systems and providers are available - and all work well. However, as with any system - it's only as good as the user. Therefore, develop your tool in a word document first and foremost, decide how you want it to look and then decide if a system is right for you.
You can develop your own 360 degree feedback system by running a workshop (depending on extent and complexity of the required process) involving the reviewees during which process and materials can be created and drafted. The participative workshop approach will give you something that's wholly appropriate and 'owned' instead of something off-the-shelf or adapted, which could be arbitrary, and sometimes impracticable (in terms of criteria and process).
I would recommend against restricting the 360 feedback to peers and managers only – but in some cases, it’s the only choice you have. However, to use the feedback process for its fullest '360 degree' benefit involve customers, staff, suppliers, inspectors, contractors, and others for whom good working relationships and understanding with the reviewee affect overall job performance, quality, service, etc.
It is my view that no aspects of 360 feedback should ever be mandatory for any reviewee or respondent. Given more than three or four similar role-types being appraised it's not sensible to produce individually tailored criteria, in which case when it comes to the respondents completing the feedback not all the criteria will be applicable for all respondents, nor for all reviewees either. When designing the feedback instruments (whether hard-copy documents or online materials), it's useful to allow space for several 'other' aspects that the reviewee might wish to add to the standard criteria, and space for respondents to add 'other' comments. Open honest feedback can touch sensitivities, so be sure that reviewers understand and agree to the criteria, respondents (by type, if not named) and process.
Finally, the question as to anonymity of respondents is up to you. A grown-up organization with grown-up people should be able to cope with, and derive more benefit from, operating the process transparently - but you need to decide this. Some people are happier giving feedback anonymously. And some people are not able to deal particularly well with criticism from a named person. Either way pick what works best for you and your organization.
360 degree feedback process helps people understand how other employees view their work, This helps team members learn to work more effectively together, 360 degree feedback system.
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