OPINION
P
eople need managing, motivating, monitoring and mobilising – never mind directing, driving and delighting! And they may indeed delight you with their creativity and determination, but at the same time they may frustrate or even worry you with their independence and lack of strategic understanding. Yet, they are critical to your business and your future success is dependent on how well they operate as individuals and as a whole body. They form and control the organisational culture you have and they deliver the results at the end of the day. The latest technology and great analytics will only take you as far as your people will allow… so the key
question is how do you take them to the next level? We are not born knowing the answer to this question but a lot is now known about how to motivate and encourage performance and the good news is that HR is there to help you. HR can support you in managing and transforming your people, to assist you in achieving an ‘upgrade’ of skill and aptitude if you will allow them to. 360 degree feedback – a process whereby data is gathered from all around the employee (including the boss, direct reports, peers, customers and others), is one of the main ways HR can do this with and for you. A 360 initiative is a potent transformational intervention that can give you access to the gearchange you need but, as
with any powerful tool, it is one to be treated with respect and care. This overview will guide you through what is required to successfully implement a 360 project, how to use the insights and ‘truth’ that your organisation will get to see for the best results and how to track progress for continued and embedded behavioural changes. Successfully implementing 360 360 degree feedback can tell you how people are behaving, how they feel, what they like, what they don’t like, how well someone is rated, what they think the priorities should be, what should be maintained, what is special right now, what needs to change and what your current culture really
looks like. However, if you want to design your 360 for transformation and painfree success, then there are some key principles to work to and things to avoid. First, get clear on your purpose and vision for this exercise, making sure you have stakeholder commitment. Next, choose your point on the assessment: development continuum, as your position on this will determine the structure, size and type of 360 tool. If accuracy and consistency is important, you will want a longer, validated instrument with trialled content and robust benchmark comparisons. On the other hand, if your focus is learning and development, you will want a survey that is on-brand, as short as it can be, with the process fully ‘driven’ by the
Jul - Sep 2016 International Finance Magazine
101