1. 360 performance evaluations
Employee development as a science. Consider employee development as a pro-active
competency building process that is human resource smart! Integrating your performance
appraisals with performance-based 360-feedback will connect and reinforce the
competencies and behaviors that can build the effectiveness of your employees and
strengthen the ability of your organization to thrive.
Performance appraisals have become much more relevant in recent years. Yet, many
appraisals simply do not work. Most are biased or have little or nothing to do with
performance. They are ineffective as a motivator to improve performance.
Comparing PA with 360.Typically, the immediate boss is the primary evaluator and key
rater (and rating) on a performance appraisal. That rating may not be as accurate as some
employees would like, but the boss is the boss and generally his or her rating prevails.
Other appraisals include feedback from the employee. Still others include the direct
reports when the employee is in a managerial role.
Performance-based 360-feedback measures what people do on the job and how
effectively they do it. The 360-degree process includes feedback from the employee or
participant and those who surround the participant and interact with him or her on daily-
weekly basis--the immediate boss, and depending on the role or position, the direct
reports, peers, team members, and customers (internal or external).
Some advanced 360-systems provide employees with directional feedback. Employees
clearly understand the strengths they can build upon, what behaviors they need to do
more of or less of to become more effective and influential with those they interact with.
Typically, performance appraisals do not provide directional feedback.
Performance appraisals have often lacked a developmental component. There is little or
no prescribed follow-up and progress-checks to help the employee stay on any identified
performance improvement track. Employees receive a performance ranking, yet without a
developmental component they may not know which higher priority areas to build upon,
nor which areas they need to resolve first to minimize identified weaknesses.
Performance-based 360-feedback fills that void.
Aligning feedback with compensation. This can be scary to some folks. Linking a single
feedback source with compensation should not be done lightly. The behaviors and
practices measured through the feedback process should be treated as a baseline and not
as a sole input to the reward process. Nor should employees be compared with a national
or industry. If you consider your organization to be unique, then comparing your people
with folks from organizations that are not unique, however you define uniqueness, is
2. pointless. Keeping these suggestions in mind can help you avoid problems associated
with using subjective criteria for a substantive decision.
Pre- and Post-Assessments. 360-feedback can help you connect multiple feedback
sources and developmental processes with compensation. Consider implementing two
assessments to employees within a thirteen month period. The pre-assessment acts as a
baseline and identifies strengths and areas for development. Training, coaching, and
mentoring can help the employee accelerate their developmental efforts.
If your performance appraisal includes ethics and integrity, for example, include them in
your 360-assessment and training program(s). Connecting observable behaviors with
feedback appraisal processes reinforces those behaviors and underscores their importance
to employees.
Monthly follow-up meetings with the immediate manager can reinforce progress towards
self-directed action planning efforts. The post-assessment can identify how effectively
the employee has applied what they have learned from their developmental efforts.
Employees create subsequent action plans based on their post-assessment feedback.
Compensation is not based upon the first or pre-assessment, but a combination of
assessments over time.
Compensation Entitlements. You can align and link your performance appraisal process
with a pre- and post-assessment process and compensation. The mindset of many people
is to expect a raise each year, regardless of their performance. This is a difficult attitude
to let go of regardless of the title or function of the employee. People go quiet when they
realize that their salary or wage is their compensation for simply showing up at work and
performing acceptable or average results. Compensation should not be linked to
mediocrity, but to exceeding expectations, for performing beyond expectations. If you
reinforce mediocrity you may actually achieve it.
Separate the feedback-appraisal event from the reward-compensation event.
Providing additional compensation, how much and how often, is an important decision
for each organization. Consider the following to get you thinking: "Do you compensate
people for improving performance? If so, how much do they have to improve? What if
they improve, yet are still considered performing in the ineffective range. Should they be
given compensation anyway? What if the employee was and continues to be highly
effective? What compensation is due to them?" The critical point is to identify why you
compensate at all. Is it to reinforce average performance and mediocre performers or
performance and performers who consistently exceed expectations?
Door No. 1 or Door No. 2. Some employees get all funny when they hear about 360-
feedback or any appraisal process. Consider giving employees a choice with respect to
their performance appraisal process. For example, they could remain with the present
performance appraisal system (which may or may not be primarily boss-driven
3. feedback). Or they could choose a 270-degree or 360-feedback process along with
feedback from other sources, such as your performance appraisal. Once the employee and
boss decide which option is appropriate, the employee lives with that option and the
feedback results for that appraisal cycle.
The world of performance appraisals has changed. There is a need for a more balanced
way to assess performance. The boss may still be the boss, but the employee is becoming
more of a partner with that boss. That partnership requires not only top down feedback,
but bottom up and side to side feedback as well.
Credible, relevant feedback can help individuals recognize competency and behavioral
areas that need improvement. Performance-based 360-feedback can help people
understand the consequences of their actions. It can act as a catalyst for change. It enables
your employees to create self-directed action plans that guide them in the direction of
exceptional performance.
The competitive trend in the marketplace is not simply to appraise performance, but to
accelerate and maximize it. Multi-rater feedback helps eliminate bias by providing more
balanced feedback from different sources.
http://performanceappraisalebooks.info/ : Over 200 ebooks, templates, forms for
performance appraisal.
