Avoid Going in Circles with 360 Reviews

We at Trakstar are completely devoted to performance appraisals, so when we’re having our morning coffee and NPR has a news segment  about peer reviews and the appraisal process, we turn it up. This particular piece focused on the positives and negatives with utilizing a peer review and the possible impacts it could have on employees. Employees may find value in understanding how their colleagues view them and their performance, but there is also a possibility that the peer review forum could be used in a negative manner.

Full of woeful tales of hurt feelings, abuse of an anonymous system, and employees with less than friendly agendas, NPR cautioned that the peer review process could cause problems and disruptions in the workplace. On the other hand, according to NPR, many organizations have used the concept of peer reviews, or ‘Multi-Rater feedback’ as we call it, in very positive ways that have allowed employees to identify problems, work collaboratively through disagreements, and provide helpful advice to their peers.

Whether you’d like to keep Multi-Rater as an open form of communication or understand anonymity to be an important part of the process, it’s important for HR to take an active role in leading employees and managers in the direction that best fits your company. Using performance appraisal software that allows for customization of the review process, like Trakstar, will help with that. Here are just a few ways you can tailor Trakstar to fit your needs when it comes to 360 reviews.

Use the settings under the Processes tab to decide whether you’d like Multi-Rater feedback to be anonymous on a company-wide basis:

Build a Multi-Rater specific section to give employees and managers an appropriate place to leave feedback. For your organization, maybe that means omitting any scores from peers and only asking open-ended questions. Choose your language carefully to guide employees and managers in the direction of constructive feedback:

Teach your managers how to utilize Multi-Rater Groups in order to have customized instructions and score-able elements if needed:

These are just a few examples of how you can customize your Multi-Rater feedback process in Trakstar to best fit your organization’s needs. There are all sorts of options available for you to customize the Multi-Rater feedback process, and our support team is always ready to jump in and help you accomplish your goals!