The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

In the toil of everyday working and just staying abreast with the needs of a business, it is easy to lose track of the constantly evolving organism that an organization is. If you don’t stop to check what state your organization is in and where it is headed, the shape it takes on it’s own might surprise you, to say the least. Here are some thoughts for you to chew on.

First, some clear signs that your organization has lost it.

1. Lunch breaks keep getting longer, 5 minutes at a day.
2. Your company is in a race to make YouTube the most popular website with employees viewing and sharing links everywhere.
3. Your organization drifts from one idea to another instead of finding it’s small niche.
4. Team meetings are infrequent and anything but invigorating. All conversations end in a either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.
5. Keeping up with current affairs has become an activity in reading Page 3 news.
6. Performance appraisal is an almost alien term, or worse, there is no performance to appraise.

Here’s a clear test – Mission Statement – Who knows it?

Ask your team in the next meeting whether they know what the mission of the organization is, they don’t have to spell it out verbatim; look for signs where people feel it is absurd and irrelevant for you to ask such a question. If everyone answers satisfactorily – congratulations, people are in sync what the organization wishes to achieve. If not, well, it’s time you either re-think your mission (Is it too abstract? Something straight out of a book?), or get down to finding out why your people are not motivated by it. What does an organization do when it doesn’t know what it does?

OK, it’s broken! What now? Take your client’s help.

Setup an online feedback form and request your clients to fill it out for you. Bad feedback never killed anyone, but it does give you the knowledge of what you are doing wrong. Form questions that help you understand the gap in promised service to actual delivery, like:

1. Is there a gap in the service we promised to the one that is now being delivered? If yes, please elaborate.
2. If you could change three things at <name of the organization>, what would they be?
3. Is the representative appointed by our organization knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the work they do at <name of client organization>?

Avoid questions that might induce bias or negative action – for example if you know that things have not been going too well off late, it would be stupid to ask a question like “Would you recommend us?” The purpose is to get feedback that you can use to improve the level of service and find out hidden gremlins in operations, a copy-paste job will only serve to make things worse.

Lastly, and most importantly, involve the people.

A majority of organizational problems both begin and end with people. If people do not volunteer information, have a round of team building activities in order to set the tone for it. The information gathered from client feedback can be discussed as a team and further used to make an action plan with timelines.

If people seem to be losing steam and you sense a growing disinterest amongst them, conduct an engagement survey with targeted questions to find out what precisely is not working for them.

360° – An Overview:

360 degree feedback is arguably the most comprehensive feedback process involving an all-round assessment of performance of an individual by people at all levels. It is not just an appraisal method, but also a very powerful development tool. It can be instrumental in not just measuring the current performance, but also identifying the gaps in the knowledge/skills/abilities/attitudes/behaviours required for the job and those held by the incumbent. It not only reflects the judgment/opinion of those up the line, but also the opinions/perspective of those down the line. Professionally managed, 360 degree feedback increases individual self-awareness, and as part of a strategic organisational process can promote:

• Increased understanding of the behaviours required to improve both individual and organisational effectiveness.
• More focused development activities, built around the skills and competencies required for successful organisational performance.
• Increased involvement of people at all levels of the organization.
• Increased individual ownership for self-development and learning.
• Increased familiarity with the implications of cultural or strategic change.

360° as an Appraisal Tool:

360 degree feedback is a process whereby an individual (the recipient) is rated on their performance by people who know something about their work (the raters). This can include direct reports, peers and managers and in some cases customers or clients, in fact anybody who is credible to the individual and is familiar with their work can be included in the feedback process. This is usually in addition to completing a self-assessment on performance. The resulting information is presented to the individual with the aim of helping them to gain a better understanding of their skills and development areas. Each source can provide a different perspective on the individual’s skills, attributes and other job relevant characteristics and thus help to build up a richer, more complete and accurate picture than could be obtained from any one source. 360 degree appraisals involve the appraisee 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 judgment system. The appraisee should also assess themselves using the same feedback instrument or form.

As an appraisal tool, 360 degree feedback ensures more participation and involvement on the part of employees at all levels. It also gives a more balanced view of the individual’s performance as it eliminates some defects like halo effect, fear of persecution, political manipulation etc. inherent in traditional appraisal methods.

360° as a Development Tool:

360 degree feedback is also a powerful tool for training and development. Evaluation on the 360 degree model helps identify the gaps in not just the qualifications and technical aspects of the job requirement, but also in the behavioural and attitudinal aspects. This provides a basis for planning training and orientation activity. 360 degree is also useful in succession planning, career planning and leadership development. Giving an all-round assessment of the skills, abilities and attitudes of an individual, it helps in identifying his/her strong and weak traits. This, in turn, helps chalk out a person’s career path and also find out the likeliest successors for all positions. Also, taking the same test at different stages in one’s career helps to evaluate the training and coaching initiatives.

The benefit of 360 degree employee feedback is the identification of strengths, weaknesses, mentoring insights, and areas needing professional development

360° – Process:

1. Planning

Planning involves establishing the purpose and the process for the 360 degree feedback to be put into place. This means finding out whether the organization is culturally ready for 360 degree feedback to be implemented or not, whether the objectives are clear, the management is committed to the process and those who are going to take part are involved at the planning stage. Also, there has to be a clear process to identify the raters, the questionnaire has to be reviewed to ensure it is relevant, the structure of the feedback has to be decided and, where computers are being used, system security has to be ensured.

2. Piloting

Running a pilot is of vital importance to the process as it will help iron out any difficulties related to the relevance of the questionnaire, the effectiveness of the feedback survey, the efficiency and security of the systems as well as the responsiveness of the employees to the survey.

3. Implementation

Once a pilot run is done, the implementation becomes much smoother as the snags are ironed out in the pilot stage itself. For the process to be a success, it has to be ensured that clear and positive communication is open and everyone is made aware of the role that he/she is to play. It is beneficial to have a team constituted to administer the process. Also, a contact point, or ‘helpline’, should be established to whom queries can be addressed. Deadlines should be clearly and firmly communicated and the confidentiality of the process should be stressed.

4. Feedback

Feedback can be communicated to the individual in two ways i.e. in a face-to-face interview with a facilitator or as a report without any person-to-person interaction. The best practice, however, would be to take the help of a facilitator so that the feedback can be interpreted in the correct light and in a positive manner. The facilitator in question should be someone who is conversant with the process, the criteria and the policies. The facilitator can help focus the discussion on the future development planning.

5. Review

Reviewing the success of the 360 degree feedback is of vital importance as it will help to further smoothen and refine the process.

360° – Advantages and Disadvantages:

Advantages

As a tool for performance management and training and development, 360 degree feed back has the following advantages:

• It enhances performance quality
• Provides specific, itemized performance feedback.
• Identifies the target development areas.
• It can be a strong motivational tool.
• Facilitates performance improvement be pinpointing the areas that need improvement.
• Is useful in measuring the effectiveness of training programs.
• It enhances self-knowledge.
• It is supportive to continuous learning.
• It improves the reliability and validity of performance information.

Disadvantages

360 degree feedback is not, however, without drawbacks; some of which may be:

• It might result in the undermining of authority of managers due to the pressure of upward appraisal.
• Low evaluation might result in loss of credibility among subordinates.
• Managers may focus on trying to please subordinates in order to get higher appraisals.
• It cannot be used as an absolute measure of job-specific skills.
• Managers may be at a loss on how to interpret ratings from subordinates relative to those from superiors and peers.

Things to Be Aware Of

Given the nature of the 360 degree feedback and the level of participation required, certain things have to be borne in mind before the system is put into implementation:

• It is imperative to gain organization-wide acceptance of the system to ensure the fair and smooth functioning of the process.
• Prior information be given to all those involved and communication channels kept open so that all queries can be cleared.
• Ensure that the instrument in use is valid, clear, relevant and reliable.
• Selection of raters should be made carefully keeping in mind that they have to be familiar with the appraisee’s work and give them the opportunity of opting out if they are not.
• Proper training and guidance be provided to the raters to help them understand their role.
• Promote participation at all levels.
• Administer the process consistently and regularly.
• Be sensitive and respectful towards the employees.
• Ensure that offensive feedback by coworkers is not communicated to the employee.