Why 360 feedback is beneficial for employees at any level

Learning new skills at work is one of the top priorities for today’s employees, and feedback can be a powerful tool for accelerating professional development. But giving feedback—whether it’s positive or constructive—can feel awkward and uncomfortable if it’s not part of your company’s existing culture. Launching a 360 feedback program gives all employees the chance to practice giving and receiving feedback—and it can have other major benefits for your organization, which we’ll investigate here.

What is 360 feedback? 

360 feedback (which is sometimes also called “multi-rater feedback”) aims to give employees a robust understanding of their performance. It often involves a survey that’s sent to different types of reviewers: the employee themselves, their manager(s), coworkers, and direct reports (when the employee is a people manager). Generally, 360 feedback focuses on two areas: What is the person doing well? And what are the areas where they can improve?

The main reason companies choose to do 360 feedback is that—compared to a typical review that’s only conducted by a single person, the employee’s manager—this approach allows employees to gain better self-awareness by hearing multiple perspectives. A direct report, for example, is likely to have different observations than a peer or manager.

Today’s high-growth companies are more likely to be hybrid than to require all employees to be co-located—Accenture found that 63% of high-growth companies have already implemented a hybrid model. The increased complexity of the work environment means that communication and feedback are critical. In the hybrid setting, managers have less face time with their direct reports and may not have as much insight into their day-to-day performance. A 360 feedback survey can give employees the chance to hear from the people they work most closely with.

Who can benefit from 360 feedback?

To put it simply, everyone can benefit from 360 feedback. But let’s look at some of the specific benefits for different groups within your organization.

Individual contributors 

One of the main reasons for offering 360 feedback is to help employees develop their own professional development plans. When individual contributors hear about their strengths and areas of improvement from a number of people, they get a more complete picture of where they should focus in the future. Plus, collecting feedback from multiple people minimizes the potential for bias and helps recipients identify patterns. It also means that everyone in your organization has the opportunity to give and receive feedback, which is a critical skill to develop in your workforce. 

Managers 

Managers have a major impact on the employee experience—Gallup estimates direct managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Creating a culture of feedback with 360 reviews provides time and space for conversations with managers that can be tricky otherwise. Only 12% of employees say their manager is doing a great job soliciting feedback. And constructive feedback can help managers identify ways to change their behavior and build better relationships with their team. 

Senior leaders and executives 

As people move up the levels of seniority at work, they’re less likely to receive feedback from their direct reports, so a 360 feedback program provides regular opportunities for this. And since the 360 system means leaders hear the same message reiterated by multiple people, it makes the feedback much more likely to stick. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman write in Harvard Business Review: “When a dozen or more people collectively observe that the leader isn’t a good listener, for example, the message is louder and clearer. The 360-degree feedback process underscores the seriousness and credibility of the feedback.” 

Who should participate in 360 feedback surveys?

There are a few guidelines to keep in mind when choosing the reviewers to participate in 360 feedback surveys. Each employee can usually select or nominate the reviewers who they’d like to receive feedback from. Many companies take this approach because each individual employee has the best overview of who they work with most closely or which of their peers have the best sense of their strengths and areas for growth. 

Here are a few additional guidelines to keep in mind when selecting reviewers:

• It’s a good idea to select reviewers you’ve worked with for at least three months or have collaborated with on a significant project.
• Most companies ask employees to request between 4–6 reviews. This number can be adjusted up or down depending on the size of your company and whether the employee is a people manager or not. (People managers should aim to get reviews from both their peers and their direct reports.)
• There’s no definitive answer on whether feedback should remain anonymous or not. Some 360 review surveys attempt to anonymize feedback to encourage more honest responses. However, some companies believe that specificity is the key to giving good feedback and more important than maintaining anonymity. Culture Amp, for example, explains: “The best and most helpful pieces of feedback are often specific and with more detail, making it less likely that anonymity is preserved. But this is not necessarily an issue. Keep in mind that the primary purpose of 360s is to give coworkers a way to provide feedback in a more consistent and structured manner; not to create a way to provide anonymous feedback.”

The difference between 360 feedback and a performance review 

There’s often confusion about the connection between 360 feedback and more formal performance reviews. Here’s a quick overview of the distinctions between the two.

360 reviews

360 reviews are purely for developmental purposes. Reviewers can include the employee’s manager, peers, and direct reports, but all reviews are written directly to the recipient (as opposed to their manager or HR, for example). They focus on an individual’s strengths and areas for improvement and they are not tied to salary or promotions. 

Performance reviews

Performance reviews are generally conducted by the employee’s manager. They involve assessing the individual’s performance over a given amount of time (e.g. the past quarter or year). Depending on the organization, the performance review may go to HR/People and not be shared in full with the employee. Often the direct manager will pull out key points and themes to discuss with the employee in person. The performance review is likely to have an impact on salary and promotion decisions. 

Implementing 360 feedback surveys at your company

If you’re interested in implementing 360 feedback surveys at your company, here are a few key points to keep in mind.

Timing

Some companies opt to align 360 reviews with performance review cycles while others time them for maximum impact. For example, BambooHR recommends conducting 360 reviews every 6–12 months to allow enough time for employees to work on their development plan and managers and employees to discuss the employee’s progress.

You get out of it what you put into it

Like any other major change, if you’re introducing a 360 review process, you’ll need to consider how you’ll communicate and encourage participation. You might want to roll out a pilot with one team or department so you can collect feedback on what worked and what didn’t. “Organizations that take the process more seriously, of course, get much better results,” write Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in Harvard Business Review. Remember that conducting the surveys is only the first step—you’ll also need a plan for communicating and helping employees act on what they learn from the 360 reviews. 

Training and support for giving better feedback

Giving feedback is not a skill that comes naturally to people—regardless of the type of feedback. While 44% of people say giving negative feedback is stressful or difficult, 37% also admit that they avoid giving positive reinforcement, too! If you’re truly committed to building a culture of feedback in your organization, it’s important to acknowledge the awkwardness and give your employees tools and resources that will help. There are several Pyns that provide structure and examples for giving effective feedback. Be sure to check out: Do these 3 things when giving 360 feedback!, Expert tips for giving feedback that sticks, Positive feedback examples for colleagues, and Constructive feedback examples for colleagues.