What Is 720 Degree Performance Appraisal?

Dear Friends,

Can you guide me on 720-degree performance appraisal? I am familiar with 360-degree performance appraisal, but what exactly is 720-degree performance appraisal? One wild guess that crossed my mind is that it is just double the 360-degree performance appraisal...!!!!

So, friends, please help me.

From:
Hiren Sondarva
3rd semester MBA-HR
Faculty of Management Studies
Baroda.

Hi, Hiren,

After conducting a 360-degree appraisal for an employee, if they are still unable to perform up to the expected level, it is important to understand their actual problems. Conduct a training needs analysis for the employee and provide appropriate training. Subsequently, closely monitor their performance over the next 3-6 months. After this period, conduct another 360-degree appraisal.

By conducting 360-degree appraisals twice a year as needed, the approach is akin to the 720-degree method.

Thank you,
Ramakanta

Hi!

So, that is how the so-called "720 Degrees Appraisal" should be understood? That you conduct the 360 Degrees Appraisal twice per year!

If this is the way things will be improved in this world, I am wondering how far we can go in our pursuit of knowledge and professional advancement.

I am now beginning to doubt the similarities of the "Six Sigma" and the Japanese "Five (5) S". When I heard of Six Sigma, I wondered why its creators did not choose another letter of the Greek alphabet to completely disassociate it from the Japanese system. As we all know, the word "sigma" is a Greek letter that stands for the English letter "S". Are the proponents of Six Sigma (literally meaning SIX (6) "S") saying that their system is only an improvement of the Japanese Five (5) "S"?

Indeed, there are people who try to play smart and try to play on concepts in this world. Maybe these people are thinking that many people around them are gullible, if not stupid.

HR practitioners must realize that performance assessment and evaluation (whether the old and traditional one stage PA or the complete PMS) can be implemented by an organization at any desired frequency — provided the organization has the capability to implement and administer them.

However, those of us who have really implemented PAs/PMS in large organizations (with 300 and more employees) know that implementing an appraisal twice a year is a lot of work for HR, especially for those with a one (1) man/woman HR team.

Also, those of us who have designed PAs/PMS know that implementing a performance evaluation goes beyond the accomplishment of the forms by the raters. We know that after the forms are collected, HR must process and announce the results within specified timelines, especially if the PA/PMS are used as a basis for promotion and/or reward.

My problem with the 360 Degree Method has always been the assignment of weights relative to the raters encircling the employee. I have always believed that the raters who are in contact with the employee cannot be given the same weight as the immediate superior. Given its weight consideration complexity, I am wondering whether HR (regardless of its manpower size) can implement the 360 Degree Method twice per year in order to have the so-called 720 Degree.

And lastly, isn't it funny that an appraisal system will have to change its name just because it was implemented semi-annually?

Suppose an organization is capable of implementing the 360 Degree Method every quarter? How would we call it? "The 1,440 Degree Method"?

Best wishes.

Ed Llarena, Jr. Managing Partner Emilla Consulting

Hi,

When we discuss things, we are supposed to cite an example. Ramakant called it "annual 360," emphasizing that it should not be done twice or thrice in a year. This approach involves doubling the frequency within the same time period.

Ed, Six Sigma practitioners are not attempting to deceive gullible individuals. Sigma is a mathematical symbol used to signify one standard deviation in statistics. Six Sigma denotes the level of probability of finding a defect using their system. It is not a reference to the 5S system.

Les Allan
Author: Managing Change in the Workplace
www.businessperform.com

Hi Ed,

Your views posted on the 720-degree appraisal are highly commendable. It really cleared my understanding of the same even better and is even thought-provoking. Good work.

Les,

Hi! Thank you for your comment/reaction to my post.

The word "sigma" cannot be claimed by mathematics or statistics as its own original invention. In fact, it is mathematics and statistics that borrowed the lowercase (small letter) of the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet and used it as a symbol for standard deviation.

If you look at linguistic history, you will realize that the word "sigma" was derived from the Phoenician alphabet called "sin", although it is alleged to have actually originated from "samekh". The word "sigma" in Greek numerals connotes a specific value of 200 and not probabilities of the number of defects per process.

In today's science and math, the word sigma is being used in many ways, e.g. sigma bonds in chemistry, sigma algebras, sign of division function in number theory, sigma factor of RNA, used as a symbol of electrical conductivity, symbol of normal stress in continuum mechanics, etc.

Six Sigma is now understood worldwide as a quality improvement tool. However, it did not exist in the early 1980s when great minds like Deming, Juran, etc. were already implementing quality improvement tools worldwide.

The Six Sigma concept started at Motorola (not GE as some claim) in 1987 when the company embarked on a "process improvement methodology" to counteract the emerging Japanese manufacturing concepts that were threatening even the memory chip market in 1985-1986.

According to Alan Ramias of PDLab, Six Sigma is simply "a repackaging of tools and techniques already in place". Hence, the achievements at Motorola in 1988 that gave them the first Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award (in 1988) were not primarily due to Six Sigma, but "were a result of all TQM and BPI efforts". According to A. Ramias, there was "no such thing as a single comprehensive program called Six Sigma" during that time. By the way, A. Ramias claims to be part of the original team that developed the Six Sigma concepts together with Geary Rummler.

Moreover, if you look at Six Sigma's two main methodologies today (DMAIC & DMADV), they are not far from the Japanese TQM concepts that include the concepts Kaizen and Five "S". This is the reason why I raised that point in my earlier post.

To intrigue you more, I challenge you to look at today's CMMI concept in the software industry that is being popularized by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. Try to examine CMMI and compare it with the "ISO QMS" and Six Sigma methodologies. Can you see similarities?

Or, why don't you compare ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) with the Japanese concepts Kanban and JIT (Just-in-Time) inventory management system popularized by my previous employer Toyota?

I hope this clarification and exchange of ideas will help people grow professionally and intellectually. Indeed, when it comes to knowledge, many of us will do well if we use some historical analysis in understanding things in this world.

And many of us will do well if we avoid being "copycats" regardless of where we are on this planet.

Best wishes.

Ed Llarena, Jr. Managing Partner Emilla Consulting

Hello Ed. Without dissecting everything you say, I can agree with a lot of what you say about sigma and TQM. I suspect you may be reading into what I wrote a lot of things that are not there. I did not say that statisticians invented the symbol sigma. I did not say that for the ancient Greeks, sigma meant probabilities of the number of defects per process. That sigma is a letter in the Greek alphabet is common knowledge, and you will need to credit me with a bit more intelligence that you seem to be doing.

Nothing in what you say appears to address the point I was making; that for the proponents of Six Sigma, six sigma refers to the level of probability of finding a defect using their system. What I am saying is that there is no mystery in why they chose “six sigma” to describe their system, as you seem to imply when you say, “I wondered why its creators did not choose another letter of the Greek alphabet”.

On another point, I see you questioning the weightings given to the different rater groups in 360 degree appraisals. If you are using 360 degree surveys as a way of apportioning salary increases and bonuses, then I can see that weighting will be a problem.

However, I do not encourage the use of 360 degree appraisals for anything other than employee development. In this case, weightings don’t make sense. The primary idea behind the 360 degree appraisal method is to get a wider view of how the employee is *perceived* to be interacting with others. It’s not a case of finding who is right and who is wrong, or whose opinion is worth more than others’ opinions. The point is to find out how an employee is interacting with others and to have a discussion about how they perceive themselves compared with how others perceive them. There are immense learnings in this for the individual and for the organization. In the end, it’s not the number that is important, but the discussion and the insight gained.

Les Allan
Author: From Training to Enhanced Workplace Performance
www.businessperform.com

Hi Jyoti,

You can download Form 19 & 10C from the official website of the PF Department, i.e., EPFO, along with details of Form 3A and Form 5 & 10, and also Particulars of NCP Days/Break of Service if any during the course of your employment. The same has to be submitted along with the above details to the EPFO Office of your concerned area to withdraw your accumulations from the PF Department.

This is for your information.

Regards,
Rao

I am amazed that clever people like you post such queries without checking the web first. Had you searched the websites using the Google search engine (I do not have a share in Google), you would have found the following post by Roberta Hill of Business Coaching Worldwide. What Is a 360-Degree Feedback Assessment?, Assessment Corner - Business Coaching Worldwide eZine (Volume 2, Issue 2) This could have avoided all the heat generated.

Dear Friends;

Can you guide me for a 720-degree performance appraisal? I am aware of 360-degree performance appraisal. But, what is 720-degree performance appraisal? One wild guess that came to my mind is that it is just double the 360-degree performance appraisal...!!!! So, friends, please help me......

From: Hiren Sondarva, 3rd sem MBA-HR, Faculty of Management Studies, Baroda.

Have a nice day.

Narasimhan

Hi Guys,

As far as I know, a 720-degree appraisal is different from what you mentioned. Here in the 720-degree appraisal, the same method is followed as in the 360-degree appraisal, but some extras have been added to enhance it. In the 360-degree appraisal, work-life balance doesn't interfere, but in the 720-degree appraisal, it becomes a part of the evaluation.

Does anyone know who introduced this 720-degree appraisal? If you have the answer, please email me at venkatram.55@gmail.com. I am interested in knowing how many companies are currently accepting this method.

Thank you.

Dear Les & Ed,

I truly appreciate your views, however different they may sound. The bottom line is, we need intellectuals who can appreciate and at the same time be open to such discussions in whatever form or shape they take. Good show! We look forward to more views and counter-views. Keep it up!

Loshua Sapriina
Manager - Human Resources

Documents required for PF withdrawal include:
- Bank passbook photocopy attested by the bank manager
- Cancelled cheque from the same bank
- PAN Card photocopy attested by the bank manager or Driving Licence attested by the bank manager
- Form No. 19 and 10C

Make sure to have all the necessary documents in order to facilitate the PF withdrawal process smoothly.

Dear All,

I have some doubts. Doing 360-degree appraisals twice a year seems like a waste of time and money. Moreover, if a second appraisal is required, the first one seems like a waste or a failure of the process.

Understanding 720-Degree Appraisal

As per my knowledge, a 720-degree appraisal involves conducting a 360-degree appraisal for the current year and incorporating inputs from the previous year's 360-degree appraisal. However, I still have doubts about it. Can any of you please share a clear and authoritative explanation of 720-degree appraisal in theory and practice?

Thank you in advance.

With regards,
Sudheer