Recognise This! – Avoid the games and get more benefit from 365-day, 360° performance appraisals with strategic recognition.

I’ve yet to meet an HR pro who will say with 100% conviction, “Our annual performance management process works perfectly now that we’ve implemented a 360 assessment element.”

Most readily admit the traditional annual performance review process is flawed, largely because it’s the opinion of one person given at one point in the year in a highly stressful meeting. For decades now, organisations have tried to overcome this challenge with 360 assessments. Dan McCarthy explained these in an excellent post, 10 Ways to Sabotage a 360 Assessment, saying:

“For those new to management or leadership development, a 360 assessment is a questionnaire designed to solicit feedback on leadership and management capabilities from a manager’s employees, peers, and manager, and includes a self-assessment as well. 360 assessments are usually used for “development”, and sometimes used as input to performance appraisals or to identify high potential talent.”

Be sure to read Dan’s post for the details on 10 ways to sabotage the results. Sadly, Dan goes on to say:

“I did not make up a single one of these! Each and every one is based on actual experience with real managers (even the one about writing your own comments).”

There must be a better way to capture the feedback of many. In fact, my CEO Eric Mosley joined Josh Bersin in a webinar on just this topic.

Click over to a summary of the webinar on the GloboBlog, to find out how to use strategic recognition to get 365-day, 360-degree performance assessments without all the games and with these three benefits:

1)      Remove the Bias of Traditional Reviews

2)      Give More Frequent Feedback for Better Performance

3)      Help Employees Keep Up with the Speed of Business

Have you ever participated in a 360-degree review? Do you think the process is easily gamed as traditionally implemented?