360-degree feedback is a common type of workplace feedback that can improve employees’ productivity, skills, and work ethic. When done in the right way, it can speed up employees’ development by making them aware of their strengths and weaknesses. 

Since it is done anonymously, 360-degree feedback often results in honest and objective reviews of a person’s work. It can also be used for performance appraisals; that is, to evaluate an employee’s performance and make employment decisions. 

What is 360-Degree Feedback? 

360-degree feedback is the process of giving anonymous and confidential feedback to an individual by people who have some kind of relationship with him or her in the workplace. These people include co-workers, subordinates, team leads, and even customers, in some cases. The 360-degree workplace feedback process stems from the Johari window model. 

The whole idea is to gather all-around unique insights into the individual’s skills, strengths, weaknesses, and workplace competencies from different points of view. This is why it is called 360-degree feedback, multi-source assessment, or multi-rater feedback. 

Besides gathering feedback from others in the form of peer assessment, workplace evaluation, and customer feedback, multi-rater feedback also includes self-evaluation. This means that the employee in question can also assess and review his or her performance, and highlight any areas that need improvement. 

You can create a simple 360-degree feedback survey on Formplus and share it with respondents to help you gather anonymous responses. In the end, the responses are organized, interpreted, and presented to the employee to provide a clearer picture of his or her work competencies. 

Types of 360 Degree Feedback 

In a broad sense, 360-degree feedback is classified based on its uses. In this article, we’ll talk about 360-degree feedback for performance analysis and 360-degree feedback for employee development.

360 Degree Feedback for Employee Development 

This is a type of 360-degree feedback that aims at developing the competencies of the employee. Here, the employee receives anonymous feedback from others that helps him or her to identify their strengths and experiences and become more effective. 

360-degree feedback for development allows other people in the workplace to evaluate the employee’s behavior; that is, how he or she interacts with others. It also helps the employee to have a fair idea of how people perceive him or her in the organization. 

Since the feedback process is anonymous, the co-workers can freely provide unspecified feedback that communicates how they feel about the employee;  with little or no bias. This creates an objective feedback culture that benefits everyone in the workplace. 



360 Degree Feedback for Performance Appraisal 

This is a type of 360-degree feedback that is used for employee performance evaluation and it is typically referred to as 360-degree feedback. Here, the feedback provided plays a crucial role in employment decisions such as remuneration and promotion. 

It is difficult to assess performance with a 360-degree review because it focuses on behaviors and competencies instead of the employee’s skills and key performance indexes. Hence, 360-degree feedback for performance appraisal doesn’t yield the best results and this is why experts do not encourage it. 

Another way to determine the types of 360-degree feedback is to view the entire process as a continuum that flows from left to right. Based on this, we have the following types. 

1. Bare-Bones 360 Degree Feedback: This is a stand-alone feedback process that allows for a simple evaluation of the employee. It can be done in the form of a rating scale that allows you to measure the competencies of the employee in question. 
2. 360 Degree Feedback with Report: This takes the feedback process a step further by putting all the information gathered in a report that is then presented to the employee. The entire process is almost automated as it excludes the expertise of a facilitator. 
3. 360 Degree Feedback with Facilitator: Here, a trained facilitator is involved in the evaluation process and he or she also compiles the feedback into a concise report. The advantage of this type of feedback process is it allows the facilitator to provide professional guidance for everyone involved in the assessment process. Hence, it results in an objective assessment of the employee. 
4. 360 Degree Feedback with Mentor: This type of 360-degree feedback includes a mentor that helps the employee to understand his or her assessment result and take practical steps for improvement. After the facilitator conducts the evaluation and compiles the result, the mentor steps in to help the employee interpret the information accurately. 
5. Comprehensive 360 Degree Feedback: This involves all the major stakeholders including the mentors and facilitators. Here, everyone is trained on what to expect, how to participate in the process, and how to interpret and act on the feedback given. After the feedback process, the mentor, supervisor, facilitator, and employee come together to map out a comprehensive employee development plan for action. 

360 Degree Feedback Questions 

There are different kinds of 360-degree feedback questions depending on what they are being used to evaluate. 

360 Degree Feedback Questions for Development

1. How would you describe your relationship with the employee? 

2. How would you rate the employee’s problem-solving skills? 

3. Does the employee respectfully engage with others? 

• Yes
• No

4. Does the employee professionally conduct herself?

• Yes
• No
• Prefer not to say

5. How often has the employee motivated you to achieve your goals? 

• Very often
• Seldomly
• Never 

6. How would you rate the employee’s communication skills?

7. How would you rate the employee’s time management skills? 

8. Does the employee work well with others to get things done?

• Definitely
• Not sure
• Not at all

9. How would you describe the employee’s relationship with other people in the workplace?

10. Does the employee seek the opinions of others and use this input when resolving issues?

360 Degree Feedback for Performance Appraisal

1. How would you describe the employee’s quality of work?

• Excellent
• Average
• Poor

2. In your opinion, what is the employee’s greatest strength?

3. In your opinion, what is the employee’s greatest weakness? 

4. How likely are you to recommend this employee for a promotion? 

• Very Likely
• Somewhat likely
• Very unlikely

5. Does the employee actively assist others to achieve their goals? 

• Yes
• No 

6. What is your relationship with the employee?

• I am a colleague
• I am a customer 
• I am a supervisor

7. To what extent does the employee create an environment where others can succeed? 

• To a large extent
• Not at all
• Others. Please state.

8. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the employee’s time management skills? 

9. How would you rate the employee’s problem-solving skills? 

10. Please state 3 specific contributions of the employee to your team. 

Other Question Samples for 360 Degree Feedback 

1. Would you describe the employee as an effective leader?

• Yes
• No
• I’m not sure

2. Is the employee a team player?

• Yes
• No

3. On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the employee’s customer relations skills?

4. Does the employee adhere to all the organizational rules? 

• Yes
• No

5. Is the employee easy to approach?

• Yes
• No 

6. To what extent does the employee tolerate the views of others? 

• To a large extent
• Not at all
• I don’t have information on this. 

7. How would you rate the employee’s listening skills?

8. Does the employee communicate well with others?

• Yes
• No
• I’m not sure

9. How would you describe the employee’s interpersonal skills? 

• Excellent
• Average
• Poor

10. Please provide suggestions to help the employee improve on her conduct in the workplace. 

360 Degree Feedback Form Templates

On Formplus, you will find numerous form templates that can be used for 360-degree feedback in the workplace. Formplus also allows you to modify form templates so that they serve the unique needs of your organization—for instance, you can list questions for only customers or supervisors in the 360-degree feedback form.

Let’s look at some of the 360-degree feedback form templates that you can find on Formplus.

• Annual Employee Review Form: Use this form to easily gather feedback on an employee’s performance from different members of your organization. This annual employee review form helps you to save time and allows you to seamlessly collaborate with other stakeholders to organize and interpret responses.  

• Employee Attitude Survey: This simple online survey allows you to understand what different people in the workplace think about the conduct of another employee. With the employee attitude survey, you can understand people’s opinions and perceptions about the attitudes of their colleagues, and leverage this information to provide objective feedback for improvement. 

• Employee Motivation Survey: The employee motivation survey can serve as a method of self-assessment in 360-degree feedback. With this form, you can gain insight into an employee’s level of motivation in the workplace and identify any demoralizing factors that may be responsible for low motivation levels.

• Employee Peer Review Form: This is an easy way to carry out a peer-to-peer evaluation in your organization. Employees can review each other’s conduct in the workplace and also suggest areas needing improvement. You can also modify this form to include more form fields in our easy-to-use drag and drop form builder.

• Employee Review Form: The employee review form is a simple way for you to conduct objective performance appraisals of your employees without any hassle. You can easily collaborate with stakeholders by using the Formplus teams and multiple users feature which also helps you to save time. 

Advantages of 360 Degree Feedback

360-degree feedback yields a lot of benefits in the workplace; especially when it comes to enhancing productivity and employee efficiency. While it is almost entirely subjective, it can help you to uncover useful bits of information that you can piece together to create a more valuable organization for everyone. 

Some common reasons you should consider make 360-degree feedback a part of your work culture include the following: 

1. It is a fire-proof way to build employees’ level of self-awareness. Self-awareness is an important skill for potential leaders and it empowers employees to take ownership of organizational tasks and deliver on them effectively. 
2. It promotes useful dialogue in the workplace by encouraging different stakeholders to pay attention to each other’s conduct in the workplace and to also identify and communicate any areas needing improvement. This creates a mutually-beneficial working relationship for everyone.
3. By conducting 360-degree feedback, employers can encourage personal development and boost workforce productivity and efficiency. 
4. One of the greatest strengths of 360-degree feedback is it allows you to see the employee from different points of view and perspectives. This reduces bias compared to a situation where the organization only depends on feedback from a single person to monitor an employee’s conduct and behavior. 
5. 360-degree feedback is a great way to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different employees in your organization. 
6. It boosts workplace transparency and establishes a culture of openness in your organization. 
7. A 360-degree feedback process serves as an effective means of holding employees accountable for their actions. Hence, it is one of the best ways to improve employee accountability which is key to the success of every business. 
8. Multi-rater feedback helps you to identify skills gaps that can become roadblocks for business growth, development, and overall success. 

Conclusion 

Using Formplus forms for 360-degree or multi-rater feedback allows you to save time and to also gather data seamlessly. In this article, we have discussed the different types of 360-degree feedback and shared different templates that you can use as they are or modify in the form builder to gather responses to your multi-rater feedback questions. 

Prioritizing 360-degree feedback as an employer or business decision-maker substantially can be the game-changer for your organization. This is because multi-rater feedback supports a holistic assessment of an employee’s behavior while his or her highlighting strengths and weaknesses. 360-degree feedback promotes workplace transparency and boosts employee performance. 

However, this process is time-consuming and subjective, which is why you should not solely depend on it for appraising an employee’s performance. To get the most out of 360-degree feedback, there should be facilitators and mentors to coordinate the process, interpret the results, and create a unique development roadmap for the employee.