360 Degree Survey
What is 360 Degree Feedback?
A 360 feedback program gives employers a comprehensive view of one employee’s performance. It captures how the employee works with managers, peers, direct reports, and external partners who interact with them every day. Retensa uses a structured process that collects performance information from all relevant groups to clarify strengths, identify skill gaps, and show how the employee contributes to team and business results. The program includes input from:
- Downward evaluation: A manager provides insight through the supervisory relationship
- Upward evaluation: Direct reports describe how the employee leads, communicates, and supports the team
- Lateral evaluation: Peers share how the employee collaborates, follows through, and contributes to group success
- Stakeholder evaluation: Customers or external partners offer perspectives that broaden the view of performance
A self rating adds an important comparison between how the employee evaluates their performance and how others experience it. This comparison increases awareness, builds ownership, and supports faster improvement on the job.
When employers launch a 360 with clear context and intentional communication, the process strengthens performance discussions. It creates shared expectations, increases understanding across teams, and accelerates development more effectively than most other feedback tools.
What Does a 360 Feedback Survey Accomplish?
Individual Development
- Use 360 insights to develop strategically important employee groups, such as high potentials for succession planning
- Increase awareness by giving employees visibility into how others perceive their performance, which prompts reflection and growth
- Reveal blind spots in behavior that encourage meaningful personal change
- Strengthen progress when leaders turn 360 results into development action plans
Career Planning and Growth
- Support talent attraction and retention by clarifying each employee’s career growth and development needs
- Guide career conversations with a fuller view of performance from multiple perspectives
- Identify possibilities for future career advancement or career change based on strengths, gaps, and behavioral patterns revealed through the feedback
Performance Management
- Provide leaders with accurate data from multiple sources to evaluate how well an employee performs.
- Encourage employees to understand others’ perspectives when they plan and adjust their behavior.
Promoting Organizational Culture Change
- Reinforce the importance of feedback from internal and external customers by showing that their opinions matter to the organization.
- Set high standards for employee behavior that align with the organization’s change strategy, and use 360 results to measure those behaviors in a consistent way.
- Build culture change from the inside by using feedback insights to guide actions, conversations, and expectations across teams.
Improving Employee Relations, Workplace Problem-Solving, and Retention of Key Employees
- Address workplace problems by identifying behavior that conflicts with the organization’s values and standards.
- Establish a clear performance "snapshot" that leaders can use as a baseline to evaluate progress over time.
Ready to launch 360 Degree Surveys?
Call an Retention expert at (212) 545-1280 or schedule a Retention Consultation today.
