360 degree feedback, also known as 'multi-rater feedback', is the most comprehensive

appraisal where the feedback about the employees’ performance comes from all the sources
that come in contact with the employee on his job.

360 degree respondents for an employee can be his/her peers, managers (i.e. superior),
subordinates, team members, customers, suppliers/ vendors - anyone who comes into contact
with the employee and can provide valuable insights and information or feedback regarding
the "on-the-job" performance of the employee.

360 degree appraisal has four integral components:

1. Self appraisal
2. Superior’s appraisal
3. Subordinate’s appraisal
4. Peer appraisal.

Self appraisal gives a chance to the employee to look at his/her strengths and weaknesses, his
achievements, and judge his own performance. Superior’s appraisal forms the traditional part
of the 360 degree performance appraisal where the employees’ responsibilities and actual
performance is rated by the superior.

Subordinates appraisal gives a chance to judge the employee on the parameters like
communication and motivating abilities, superior’s ability to delegate the work, leadership
qualities etc. Also known as internal customers, the correct feedback given by peers can help
to find employees’ abilities to work in a team, co-operation and sensitivity towards others.

Self assessment is an indispensable part of 360 degree appraisals and therefore 360 degree
Performance appraisal have high employee involvement and also have the strongest impact
on behavior and performance. It provides a "360-degree review" of the employees’
performance and is considered to be one of the most credible performance appraisal methods.

360 degree performance appraisal is also a powerful developmental tool because when
conducted at regular intervals (say yearly) it helps to keep a track of the changes others’
perceptions about the employees. A 360 degree appraisal is generally found more suitable for
the managers as it helps to assess their leadership and managing styles. This technique is
being effectively used across the globe for performance appraisals. Some of the organizations
following it are Wipro, Infosys, and Reliance Industries etc.
Arguments Against 360 Degree Performance Appraisal
 
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Despite the fact that 360 degree appraisals are being widely used throughout the world for
appraising the performance of the employees at all levels, many HR experts and professionals
argument against using the technique of 360 degree appraisals. The main arguments are:
 360 performance rating system is not a validated or corroborated technique for
Performance appraisal.
 With the increase in the number of raters from one to five (commonly), it become
difficult to separate, calculate and eliminate personal biasness and differences.
 It is often time consuming and difficult to analyze the information gathered
 The results can be manipulated by the employees towards their desired ratings with
the help of the raters.

 The 360 degree appraisal mechanism can have a adversely effect the motivation and
the performance of the employees.

 360 degree feedback – as a process requires commitment of top management and the
HR, resources(time, financial resources etc), planned implementation and follow up.

 360 degree feedback can be adversely affected by the customers perception of the
organisation and their incomplete knowledge about the process and the clarity of the
process.

 Often, the process suffers because of the lack of knowledge on the part of the
participants or the raters.

What is 360 degree feedback?

360 degree feedback is an employee development feedback which comes from different level
of employees in the hierarchy of the organization; includes managers, peers, subordinates and
staff, apart form the internal sources, the feedback can also source form the external relevant
relations like customers and suppliers. Since the result is concluded from multi-groups inside
and outside the company therefore it also known as 'multi-rater feedback'. The purpose of
using the 360 degree feedback is to comprehend how the others think and feel about you, it
always involves a neutral third party in the feedback so it makes the result more reliable and
objective. The feedback usually used by human resource managers to plan and develop
trainings for the staff. Sometimes managers also use the data to make decisions on
promotions and payments. Therefore, these feedback results are important to recipients since
they provide critical information for the organization to plan and set its strategies for the
future.

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How does this system work?

To do an internal 360 degree feedback, the company needs to gather a small group of
employees within the department to complete an easy questionnaire. An individual would in
charge of designing the survey and usually people are able to finish it in a very short period
of time, such as around 20 minutes or even less than that. In most of the case, the feedback
only involves a relatively small group of people, 10 to 15 people, for example. After the
surveys are done, they will be sent to an external organization directly. Feedback
questionnaires can also be done on paper or via phone. However, many paper feedbacks have
become on-line feedback and via the internet instead since the technology has improved
rapidly in recent years. The external company then conducts all information from the survey
and generates a feedback report. The external company will send back the repost to the
organization and then the organization would organize meetings with its employees to discuss
the report in order to help them to develop their future plans and further training programs.

The advantages and disadvantages.

Every appraisal method would have some advantages and disadvantages, so do the 360-
degree appraisal method. For the 360-degree appraisal, here are several advantages and
disadvantages of this appraisal method.

About the advantages, it is included:

1. It provides a more comprehensive view of employee performance than other appraisal

method.

As the procedure of carry out the 360-degree appraisal need to have a lot of people to do the
evaluation for the staff, it may include the staff in the company, from the top (manager) to the
bottom (colleagues), even some external sources such as the customers. If it is conducted
well, this can give the employee a more comprehensive and accurate view for the evaluation
and also it is good for the staff’s self-development. It is more comprehensive than other
appraisal methods since they may only need the manager to do the evaluation.

2. It increases the credibility of the appraisal result.

Since the 360-degree appraisal methods need a lot of people to finish it, as mentioned before
it may include of the manager also other staff, it can reduce the unfair of the result. It is
because it contain everyone’s point of view, not only the manager or any single staff, then
they cannot give some comments that show the evaluated employee is very good or not, then
help the staff easily get to promote to higher position or make the staff lose the job. It can
show that this appraisal can help to increase the credibility of the appraisal result.

3. The feedback from the peers can help to enhance the staff’s self-development.

Not every appraisal methods will also include the feedback from the peers, that may only
judge by the manager, so it is not easily show the real performance of the staff since the
manager may not observe the performance of the staff in every single minutes and they may
only have a blurred impression of the staff. By the way, if there also include the feedback
from the peers as they have more communication and cooperate experience with the
evaluated staff, they must know more than the manager about what the staff can improve,
also help to motivate people who are undervalue themselves, so the feedback from the peers
can help the staff to have a better self-development than other appraisal methods.

4. A chance to complain their manager without following the normal complaint procedures.

Though the 360-degree method, if the manager does not do well in his job and make the staff
feel discontent, they can compliant the manager during the appraisal without following the
normal complaint procedures. This can help the staff a chance to voice out their discontent
and what they want.

About the Disadvantages, there also have several points:

1. Time consuming and more complex on administration

It is no doubt that include more people to do the evaluation can give a more comprehensive
view of the result, but it also very time consuming since everyone need to do the evaluation,
after that the company need to find more staff to help to find out the result, it will increase the
complex on the administration, so the company cannot have the appraisal frequently on the
same people. It is very important to choose a right timing to conduct this method that can
minimize the impact of the organization.

2. May generate the environment of suspicion and cynicism

This method can be threatening both the staff is being assessed and the people doing the
evaluation. From the management level, the manager may feel this method could undermine
their authority and so they will not cooperate well when they do the appraisal. About the
staff, if they do not have a good result of the appraisal, they may suspicious that who give
them some bad comments and may things that other staff will cynics them because they
cannot get a good result. As the result, it will generate a worse atmosphere in the working
environment. So it is very important that the 360-degree appraisal should conduct in an open
and honest environment.

3. Risk of confidentiality.

It is the biggest risk of the 360-degree appraisal because many company may outsource the
360-degree process to other company that can used to make the staff who are being evaluated
feels more comfortable that the information they give and receive will in a confidential
environment. However, some information is very sensitive but the company discloses the
information to others carelessly, that will affect the whole company.