Advantages and Disadvantages of 360 Degree Feedback

Performance assessment of employees is a vital part of every organization. It is essential to employ comprehensive evaluation methods to gather a holistic view of the work. A 360-feedback tool stands out as a well-rounded approach to fulfill this objective. 360-degree feedback is a multi-rater feedback tool for gathering structured and objective inputs to help assess an individual and help them build impactful developmental strategies. This method utilizes a typical 360-degree feedback system to collect insights from multiple sources, including superiors, peers, subordinates and clients.  

It shifts the evaluation responsibility to more than one person, reducing biases and errors and eliminating other limitations. Hence, there is more room for collective growth, targeted developmental plans and absolute fairness across all rewards, recognition, promotions, pay raises, etc. It aims to solve an organization’s multi-dimensional problems, providing an all-around report of an employee’s journey, including their strengths and challenges.

A 360-degree feedback method helps organizations evaluate employees’ potential and provide well-rounded feedback from diverse perspectives. Understanding varied perceptions about oneself contributes toward growth by boosting motivation to work better, addressing problem areas across multiple fronts, awareness of expectations and consequences of one’s actions, and empowering the ability to make appropriate behavioral changes to enhance interaction and relationships with others.

Adopting a holistic approach for performance review and training needs identification, succession planning, leadership development, and identifying hidden strengths and areas of improvement in employee performance and behavior is crucial for employee and business growth.

The 360-degree feedback provides a multi-perspective approach to identifying strengths and areas of improvement, facilitating personal and professional growth. Some of the purposes of 360-degree feedback are:

• Employee development: 360-degree feedback enables the employee and their leader to use the 360-degree feedback findings in identifying strengths that have made them successful and focus on areas of improvement in which they could close some gaps.
• Performance appraisals: The involvement of multiple feedback lends more credibility to the appraisal and promotion process. The 360-degree appraisal is designed to align with the company’s performance management system, enabling measuring the selected behaviors for performance management purposes. In this case, the data is input for the final performance rating.
• Succession planning: The 360-degree feedback tool is useful when preparing high-potential employees for new roles, especially critical leadership roles. The review helps familiarize the administration with a potential leader’s strengths and possible improvement areas that may hinder the company’s progress.

Advantages of 360-degree feedback

360-degree feedback tool focuses on both individual growth and organizational growth. It ensures a transparent feedback process, encouraging employee engagement. Some of the advantages of 360-degree feedback include:

Disadvantages of 360-degree feedback

A 360-degree feedback tool may lead to drawbacks when implemented incorrectly in the organization. Some disadvantages of 360-degree feedback tools include the following:

Mercer | Mettl’s 360View provides an easy-to-use platform requiring no prior training, coupled with expert support and insightful reports. It offers recommendations for identifying employees with exceptional potential and high motivation.

Mercer | Mettl’s 360-degree platform offers personalized development plans with a detailed summary and open-ended feedback. It provides actionable insights highlighting strengths, areas of improvement, hidden strengths, and areas of improvement. It measures professional skills and competencies, behavioral traits necessary to perform in a role, perceptions about the employee, subjective areas like leadership qualities, ability to work in a team, communication effectiveness, and employee performance in specific work scenarios and roles. The feedback is provided by peers, supervisors, clients, etc., thereby removing bias from a single feedback source.

360-degree feedback enhances the team’s trust and clarity toward expected behaviors and goals. A well-crafted 360-degree feedback tool boosts team performance. When implemented effectively, 360-degree feedback improves employee engagement and professional development significantly. The reviews are helpful for the employee as they provide a balanced view of their skills and a better picture of the employee’s demonstrated behavior.

Implementing a 360-degree feedback process in organizations is a wise business decision promoting self-awareness and transparency in communication.