Are 360s more appropriate for assessment or development or both?
360s are most commonly used for development purposes. The reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly this stance tends to be the most warmly received by those involved. For those being rated it encourages buy-in to the process and an openness to the feedback messages they will receive. For those doing the rating this encourages honesty in the feedback and helps to create a sense of involvement and responsibility for the development of others.
Secondly, from the point of view of gaining accurate feedback, those doing the rating need to have had an opportunity to see the person they rating in action. With this in mind we typically recommend that someone has been in role for at least 6 months before they go through a 360 process. Using the 360 for assessment of new candidates is therefore unlikely to yield useful information.
Organisations do use 360’s to assess current employees, however the information is still mot typically used for development purposes. If it were to be used for assessment purposes our recommendation would be that it be used in conjunction with other measures such as psychometrics, role-plays, interviews or presentations.
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