360 feedback is a way of evaluating employee performance by collecting input from an individual’s manager, peers and subordinates. This method has been used since the 1950s, and remains popular among many HR professionals, however, in recent years this method has become outdated and ineffective. This is because when compared to continuous performance management, it simply doesn’t measure up.
There are a number of reasons for this. It takes a lot of time and effort to gather all of the feedback needed to complete 360 feedback, with HR or managers having to reach out to the employee’s peers, superiors and subordinates and ask them to provide feedback on the individual. If this is an exercise being carried out across the company as part of the review process, it could take weeks for everybody involved to respond to the request.
Then there is the question of reliability. Due to the usual anonymous nature of this feedback method, the end results can often be vague, unclear and generally unhelpful. Some people could also use anonymous feedback as an opportunity to harshly criticise an employee, in a way they might not do if they were being held accountable for that feedback.
Finally, there is the issue of a lack of development. The focus is on evaluation of performance, and not used to gain insight on how the employee can improve and grow moving forward. This means the employee will be told what they have done well or not so well, but with no clear goals for improvement, which really is what feedback should be used for.
You can now hopefully see why HR professionals should be starting to move away from 360 feedback, but what can they replace it with? What could save them time, be more reliable and help to develop their staff? Well, here at Clear Review we have seen the challenges of using traditional 360 feedback and made it our mission to create a solution! That’s why we’re pleased to introduce you to Feedback Circles.
Feedback Circles is a new feature in our performance management platform that allows employees to take control of the feedback process. It enables HR to create feedback templates that fit the individual needs of the company quickly and easily. Once these templates are created, employees can use them at any time, as often as the want, to get the feedback they need. They can simply send the templates round to relevant co-workers, and a report is generated instantly. This report gives insights into the feedback provided that can then be used by the employee to set goals, develop and grow. With Feedback Circles the employee is empowered to ask for feedback when they want it, as much as they need, and not just as a tick box exercise during reviews.
If you’d like to find out more please get in touch with us for a free demo.