360 degree feedback is provided by key stakeholders in the business who have regular contact with the employee and receive confidential and anonymous feedback from their colleagues. This typically includes the employee’s manager, peers, and direct reports and is usually supported with a self-assessment at the same time.  

The aim of 360 degree feedback is to understand the employees strengths and weaknesses as well as highlight areas of potential improvement and develop insights into how the individual works and their ongoing development.

Using 360 degree feedback within organisations allows managers, leaders and even the participant a better understanding of the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Automatically tabulating the results from the feedback (from stakeholders in the process), the recipient will have gained a development plan. All the responses from the process are combined and remain anonymous to give the employee a clear picture of his/her overall strengths and weaknesses. 

The good thing about the 360 degree feedback process is that it can work with any individual in a business and when used correctly, be the basis for career development which can be analysed over the period of a year and worked upon each quarter to understand where the employee is on their development path.

The 360 feedback system is a process where employees are engaged to provide anonymous feedback on an individual in a business and give them rounded evaluations as to strengths and weaknesses and what can be further improved over a period of time following a development plan. 

Using technology which includes questionnaires, surveys and evaluation tools online, the process of 360 degree feedback is committed to by stakeholders in a confidential manner. Presented with these questions, responders provide thorough feedback without fear and give insights into areas which may be unknown to the subject and managers at the time. 

Based on the feedback, management takes the data and information provided and creates a structured approach to perform the 360 degree feedback (usually done in a formal meeting manner).

A series of different information points are presented in a report that is used to help the manager go through with the employee and create a tailored plan to get key skills, strengths and weaknesses aligned with the organisation and what can be improved moving forwards. 

The Thomas International 360 degree feedback solution combines science and years of HR experience to create a format that is easy to understand and implement across the organisation. The Thomas 360 Bespoke allows you to choose the areas required for your business, either by selecting from the eight questionnaire templates or selecting from the bank of 31 competencies.

Completely scalable to your current employees needs, the Thomas 360 Bespoke can be tailored to your business requirements and introduced into your organisation’s HR system quickly and easily. 

The Thomas 360 Bespoke provides qualitative and quantitative data which both the department and the wider organisation can use throughout. It also helps identify and reinforce links between competencies, behaviours and values for the role. 

Another key benefit of using the Thomas 360 Bespoke is that it can create a development plan where the employee and manager can work together and produce a long term development plan that sits within a wider suite of the Thomas International platform or it can be used separately to help with assessments.

Being able to effectively evaluate staff, bring other key stakeholders into the process and give the employee an opportunity to assess their development is a key element to retaining staff and professional development. 

For many years, organisations have been found lacking when it comes to developing the careers of their staff. The perceived notion is that if staff were better skilled they would eventually leave. In return the bulk of career development has been at the hands of the employee where employers have effectively taken a back seat on their staff development. 

By introducing a 360 degree feedback system, employees and managers have a platform that can identify strengths and weaknesses and find ways to enhance their careers by working on the elements that have been raised. 

Additionally, it is felt that 360 degree feedback is more accurate at reviewing performance and competency when done by peers and stakeholders who regularly work with the employee, over a manager that will rarely see them working. 

Combining development and a sense of responsibility and wellbeing allows the employee to not only feel valued but helps in reducing turnover and increasing staff retention.

The Thomas 360 degree feedback gives key colleagues the platform to give feedback that helps spot performance gaps, and raises individual awareness of the employee’s impact they have within the organisation. Identity vs Reputation is one of the best descriptions of this product as it helps individuals assess how they are actually performing over how they think they are performing - as well as creating the framework to learn, develop and get better at their job. 

The 360 Elite system concept was developed by Sarah Hamilton-Gill over 15 years prior to this as a means to manage complex projects and cohorts. The Thomas 360 degree feedback provides individuals with a better understanding of their performance because the respondents provide a rounded '360 degree' perspective on the individual’s competencies in a confidential and anonymous process. This creates a platform for employees to engage freely and in an open and honest way.

The Thomas 360 degree feedback platform allows you to create a questionnaire and framework that has 31 different competencies where respondents rate the individual’s performance on each competency on a scale of 1-7.