Although it is an excellent employee review tool, there are still things that can cause a 360 feedback system to fail.

In order for your 360 feedback system to be successful, you must consider the factors that will reduce its effectiveness, and what steps you can take to avoid failure.

The 360 review system is not designed to arbitrarily tell employees that they are doing “good” or “bad”. It exists to analyze how specific behaviors impact performance and how they can be improved upon.

Make sure that your questions address specific skills and behaviors. For example, instead of asking employees to assess how well a person does their job, ask them to assess how well a person demonstrates a specific technical skill related to their job.

Feedback that is not 100 percent honest will reduce the ability of your 360 review to accurately assess an employee’s strengths and weaknesses.

As the OI Global Partners consulting firm said in a recent blog post, “If open communication and honest feedback is not valued or desired within the organization (360 feedback) will prove useless.”

You must actively encourage complete honesty from your employees by emphasizing the anonymous nature of a 360 degree system.

Only using 360 feedback with employees who are performing poorly limits its effectiveness. This is because everyone can improve; properly executed 360 feedback can identify where. When you target specific people, you are also creating the impression that 360 feedback is a punishment for bad workers, rather than a development tool.

Make sure that you are using 360 feedback to assess all employees within your organization, from executives to entry-level associates.

As Forbes contributor Eric Jackson said in a recent article, every employee, especially a leader “has to be a believer that this stuff helps the team.” This is because no matter how well designed your 360 feedback system is, it will ultimately fail without the support of your employees.

If, for example, your employees do not take the questionnaires seriously, they will give lackluster responses; this defeats your review system’s ability to effectively analyze an employee’s performance

Make sure that you take the time to help all employees understand that 360 feedback is not a run-of-the-mill employee review system. Emphasize the fact that it is a communication tool for them to help each other grow.

Grapevine Evaluations provides easily customizable online 360 degree software that can provide crucial feedback about employees from everyone they work with, including themselves.

To learn more about how our 360 degree feedback can help your company, or to set up a one-on-one demo, contact Grapevine Evaluations today.