Is the 360-Degree Appraisal System Truly Fair and Impartial? Let's Discuss Your Experiences

Dear All!

I have a question: Is 360-degree Appraisal a better appraisal system? How many of us are sure about the fair and impartial appraisal process if we go by the 360-degree format? Is there any foolproof method to restrict any kind of partial and unfair means in the whole appraisal process?

Request your inputs and comments on the same.

Best regards,
Vamsee Godavarthy

Hi Vamsee - Good question. 360 has many critics as well as adopters. The bottom line is whether the organization that decides to implement it has a culture that can use 360 to its benefit.

360 can put a lot of pressure on both the appraisers and the appraisees. In some cases, 360 has even led to serious problems like driving people to suicide. It's like a knife - you can cut a throat or an apple.

SK

From my experience with the process, three things make 360-degree appraisal more powerful.

1. Because more people are involved, there is a wider perspective of opinions, and therefore the feedback is not just - 'the manager thinks...'.

2. Managers generally are not very good at challenging poor performance, or indeed praising high performance. When there is a powerful 360-degree report on the desk, it makes life easier for the manager to challenge or praise.

3. The other people involved in completing questionnaires realize that they are scoring questions about someone else and maybe these are the behaviors that they themselves should be demonstrating.

The BIG danger is that people are scared of being honest in case they are challenged by the person receiving the feedback. So critical in the process is a mechanism to protect the anonymity of the more sensitive populations (those are the scores and the comments that really bring the process to life)... The best way to do this is to make sure that at least two people from each sub-group involved (e.g. direct reports of the person being appraised) complete the questionnaires so that they are not isolated.

A final observation is that when we have run a 360 process twice in the same company, providing that the people are not challenged for being honest, it is the second run of the process that provides the most valuable information.

Hope this helps -

Hi, I have to work on a project with the topic being the critical evaluation of 360-degree appraisal. Can anyone help me with this? I need some inputs urgently.

Regards,
Shruthi.