360 best

practices
© 2021 Qualtrics LLC
 Table of 3 Introduction

Contents 5 Before you begin

12 Administering 360 programs

17 Post-administration of 360 programs

23 Interpreting development 360 visualizations

28 Quickly identify development gaps across your organization

31 Next steps

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Introduction
 Introduction Qualtrics 360 Development helps you develop all levels of talent across your organization
to close talent gaps and accelerate organizational performance. Employee development
has never been more critical. Significant market and business trends such as new business
models, automation, digitalization and of course, hybrid work are fundamentally changing
the skills and behaviors employees at all levels need to be successful.

Setting up a successful development program takes the right expertise, experience

and technology. This best practices guide has been written by our highly experienced
and knowledgeable I/O psychology professionals and will help you get the most out of
your initiative. Following this guide, you will be able to successfully deliver actionable
development programs that empower your employees to quickly identify and close their
talent gaps so they can become better leaders and drive greater business impact.

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SECTION 1

Before you begin

 Before Set clear goals

you begin It is critically important to identify clear goals when starting a 360 assessment program for
leaders, managers, or individual contributors. Qualtrics’ point of view strongly recommends
that usage of a 360 assessment should be purely for developmental purposes.

When feedback is tied to performance rating, pay, or promotion, it can negatively affect
the fidelity of responses from raters or sometimes be viewed as a political tool. The reason
for this is often the scarcity of promotion opportunities and rewards in organizations.
Peer feuds can be created by feedback mechanisms and a phenomenon known as
“sandbagging” can take over where self-interests trump the investment in development
of others. When the purpose of 360 programs is purely developmental, such conflict of
interests can be averted.

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 Train raters

Our I/O psychologists also recommend that adequate training is carried out for raters to
ensure consistency in how feedback is provided. For instance, refrain from using terms like
“always” or “never” but rather provide specific examples of when a ratee has demonstrated
(or not demonstrated) the behavior. When communicating internally, position feedback not
just as a passive gift but as an active investment.

If raters are trained to operate from a standpoint of providing feedback that will positively
impact a person’s growth, the exercise can be strengths-based and create positive
momentum for engagement, productivity, and better, more honest relationships with
colleagues, leaders, and direct reports. To elaborate on this point further, we recommend
a strengths-based approach to development where the primary focus is on an individual’s
natural strengths rather than areas that do not come most naturally. Focusing coaching
on only developmental areas will give only incremental results while focusing on people’s
natural talents can provide exponential growth.

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 Research is abundant that supplementing performance management systems with a
feedback program that includes multiple raters has a positive impact on employee’s growth
and progression. Development plans that capture multi-rater feedback are particularly
effective when an organization is trying to invest in minority groups and women. When
feedback comes from a number of individuals in various job functions, the possibility of
discrimination because of race, age, gender, and so forth is reduced. Additionally, the
“horns and halo” effect, in which a supervisor rates performance based on his or her most
recent interactions with the employee, is also minimized. (The Balance Careers, 2021)

What to ask and how to ask it

Ideally, your 360 assessments should not exceed 30 to 40 total items to avoid survey
fatigue because it is likely that a rater could be providing feedback to multiple subjects.
Also note that no more than 8-10 competencies should be included in the assessment.
This helps subjects understand the most critical competencies to their success in the role.
The new 360 Development framework from Qualtrics exemplifies this approach.

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 360 Competencies

Core Competencies
SELF OTHERS RESULTS DIRECTION

EX KPIs
Communication Recognition Innovation

Engagement

Authority & Performance & Managing

Respect Employee
Empowerment Accountability Change Experience
Gap

Strategic Intent To Stay

Training Work Process
Alignment

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 Instead of “agree to disagree” scales, we encourage you to use frequency scales
(Rarely > All the time). This will help evaluators focus on the consistency of important
behaviors. If you are using open text items, phrase them in a way that it leads direct
evaluators to identify concrete examples of demonstrated behaviors or provide
actionable feedback for improving.

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 Here are some recommendations if you
are designing your own items to ask
on the assessment –
+ Focus your question on a single behavior
+ Start with an action verb (e.g., motivates,
listens, etc.)
+ Do not include jargon or overly
technically language
+ Capture an important aspect of a
key competency
+ Can be acted upon if identified as
an opportunity/ weakness
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On the other hand, here is a list of
considerations to keep in mind and refrain
from asking questions that –
+ Focus on multiple behaviors
(double/ triple barreled)
+ Include too many/ unnecessary
adverbs (e.g., efficiently, effectively)
+ Do not match the rating scale
+ Are too technical or hard to understand
+ Are culturally biased
+ Loosely or fail to measure an
important competency
+ Measure an unrelated
competency (contamination)
SECTION 2

Administering 360 programs

 Administering Create buy-in and trust in the development program

360 programs It will be critical to engage senior leader champions for a 360 development program. Take
the time to educate and reiterate the importance of feedback and how it helps to address
future skill needs of the organization as well as provide development to employees.
Development is considered one of the top benefits provided by employers. Stress clarity
of roles and hold all stakeholders accountable for their roles (Subjects, Managers,
Evaluators) while entailing what is expected of each of them.

Qualtrics has “built for purpose” technology which means that confidentiality and
anonymity are top considerations when designing a feedback solution. Convey this
to participants of the 360 program so that they can provide feedback that is honest,
authentic, and actionable without the fear of attribution back to the rater. Provide
assurance to subjects that the 360 program’s primary purpose is growth and
development of employees so that it can mitigate any associated fears related to career
development or reputational cost. Use 360s for development only and allow participants
to choose their own evaluators so that they can co-create the process.

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 Personalize the program to your organization

One of the biggest advantages of using 360 Development from Qualtrics is that you can
design a program by and for your organization. You can use your own competency model,
an external consulting model, or a hybrid of the two. The 360 Development solution affords
the flexibility to ask exactly what is required for the organization.

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 With Qualtrics technology and services, you can customize your survey as well as
your internal communications, such as invites, reminders etc. The program should also
consider if different competencies and items need to be asked at different organizational
levels and roles.

To offer a more seamless experience to your employees, it is also recommended that your
feedback programs be directly linked to your talent management processes so that the
employees can act on the feedback and development ideas provided by the assessment.
Ultimately, 360 programs should be treated like two-way communication where the
organization is highlighting the competencies that are critically important to the culture
and employees can see how they are doing against the criteria.

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 Involve managers and leaders

Wherever possible in the process, involve managers and leaders to convey clearly what
is being asked of their teams. Encourage them to spend time with each of the subjects
through both formal and informal “check ins”. Managers must be supported and informed
in advance about how to communicate the results by specially focusing on desired
behaviors on the job. It is also important to coach them on setting behavioral goals for their
team members while setting up the program.

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SECTION 3

Post-administration
of 360 programs
 Post- How to make sense of results and socialize them

administration To effectively make sense of the results and increase engagement with the

of 360 feedback, always start with a simple summary at the beginning of the report –
include visuals, when possible.
programs
Try to make sense of the results from
Your Competency Summary multiple perspectives by paying attention
This page provides a high level view of you competency ratings (excluding self) ranked from

to the high and low scoring themes rather

highest to lowest. Use this page to get a sense of how you were rated across all 10
competencies. It may be useful baseline information to help you identify themes emerging
from the feedback.
4 Responses
than just the aggregate score. Refrain from
Authority & Empowerment 4.25

Managing Change 3.25 over-orienting on individual comments

but rather form a holistic picture of the
Performance & ... 3.25

Work Process 3.00

Innovation 2.75 individual by identifying trends in the report

Respect 2.75

Strategic Alignment 2.5 rather than one-off statements or scores.

Training 2.5
When socializing the results with subjects,
Communication 2.25

Recognition 2.25 train managers/ coaches to pay attention to

What do your scores mean?
Each rater was asked to evaluate the frequency that you exhibit certain behaviors. The frequency was rated on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being
large discrepancies across rating categories
“Never” and 5 being “Always” (see p3 for detail).
The number shown in the chart above is the average of all of your rater evaluations.

+ Score of 1-2: Significant developmental needed. This behavior is rarely demonstrated and should be a top priority for
(e.g. manager vs. peers) to see if there
development.

+ Score of 3: Some development needed. The behavior is inconsistently demonstrated and should be a priority for
development. is any evidence of the subject behaving
+ Score of 4: Strength to be leveraged. This is a strength that is often demonstrated but there is some room for growth. It is

inconsistently with others.

not a priority for development.

+ Score of 5: Signature strength. No development needed. This behavior is demonstrated often and in the right contexts,

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 Drawing comparisons

Because the programs are focused on individual development, whenever possible,

compare ratings to internal benchmarks or historical scores to give subjects a reference
point of where they need to focus or relax their efforts the most. If it is important to draw
comparisons between team members to identify potential, we recommend that you focus
comparisons at the competency level rather than comments or individual items. It is also
worth noting that comparisons should be contextualized against other available talent
metrics (for instance, if using for performance management, see this as a data point not
the only data point). Do not make decisions related to performance, pay, or promotion
based solely on 360 feedback programs but rather use a multifaceted lens to determine an
individual’s potential and performance.

Open-ended comments

Sometimes, comments help elucidate the story behind the numbers and that is where
open-text questions can provide value to the subject. It is, however, important that you
interpret comments in line with the quantitative feedback. For instance, if you have
identified communication as an issue, which comments can help the subject identify
specific situations where they could have communicated better.

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 Specifically, pay attention to those
comments that are highlighting specific
events and are actionable to drive change
in behavior rather than over-orienting the
subject on blanket statements like “you
never...” or “you always…” It is also key to not
just focus on developmental comments but
also celebrate compliments and where the
subject has demonstrated excellence and
earned positive reviews.

Tips for Development 360 subjects

Remember that 360 assessments are one of the best approaches to helping individual
employees gain a well-rounded view of their performance and behaviors. When speaking
to subjects, it is important to remind them not to get defensive about the feedback – treat
areas of opportunity as “golden opportunities” to grow and develop. Also, it is important to
not focus or try to figure out who gave what scores and comments –remind employees to
focus on the behaviors that have been identified and can be changed moving forward.

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 Encourage each employee to engage their manager/ mentor in frequent discussions
about their development plan and progress against the feedback provided. When creating
development plans for an employee, hyper-focus on one to two areas of opportunity at a
time – asking an employee to take on too much at once will feel overwhelming and will not
likely lead to lasting behavior change. Also, anticipate obstacles/ roadblocks to engaging in
desired behaviors and discuss ways each employee can overcome those by working closely
with their manager/ mentor.

When assessing discrepancies between rating groups, operate under the assumption
that these discrepancies are meaningful, not that there were problems with the items or
assessment. Reflect on the scores and think carefully about how the employee interacts
differently with different people throughout the organization if the results demand it.
Encourage subjects to think of specific examples of how they have engaged with others
at different levels across the organization (e.g., peers vs. subordinates) and how those
interactions could have been perceived by others.

Even after the project is complete, encourage the employee to maintain an ongoing dialog
with their mentor or manager through follow-up meetings. Research suggests that 360s
are most effective when there is more frequent and better-quality communication between
an employee and their manager. Build trust and encourage subjects to tell their manager/
mentor when they perceive obstacles to engaging in desired behaviors – employees should
be encouraged to ask their manager or mentor to help remove or overcome obstacles.

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 General tips for managers and mentors

+ Ask managers to deliver feedback as soon as individual subject reports are available –
research shows that the timeliness of the feedback is an important predictor of
lasting behavior change

+ Create a collaborative environment – remind managers they are working together

with their employee to help them improve!

+ Encourage managers to be transparent about how the data from the 360 will be used
and set clear expectations

+ Be clear about your role (as the Manager) in this process

+ Ask managers to start by acknowledging their employee’s strengths – what areas did
they receive the highest ratings and what should they continue to do?

+ Encourage managers to move to discussing areas of opportunity – what areas did they
receive the lowest ratings and what behaviors need to change - after reviewing strengths

+ Discuss discrepancies between self and others’ ratings – what might be

causing these discrepancies?

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SECTION 4

Interpreting development
360 visualizations
 Interpreting Rating Scales

development It is better to use a frequency scale for 360 programs rather than a simple agree to

360 disagree scale. This is to provide clear guidance to the raters on how often a subject has
demonstrated the measured competencies. The suggested frequency scale is
visualizations
1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Half of the time, 4 = Most of the time, 5 = Always

Scoring Interpretation

The scores on competencies can be left to interpretation by subjects and introduces risk in
the process. Therefore, it is important to delineate what specific scores suggest about the
subject’s proficiency on the competencies in question. Here is a recommended approach
that can guide a subject to read their report accurately as well as a manager to have
strengths-based conversations with their team member -

Score of 1-2: Significant Development Needed. This behavior is rarely demonstrated

and either should be a top priority for development, delegated, or not identified as a
priority for the job.

Score of 3: Some Development Needed. The behavior is inconsistently demonstrated and

should be a priority for development.

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 Score of 4: Strength to be leveraged. This is a strength that is often demonstrated but there
is some room for growth. It is not a priority for development.

Score of 5: Signature Strength. No development needed. This behavior is demonstrated

often and in the right contexts and should be maintained.

Authority & Empowerment Communication

All (excl. Self) 4.33 All (excl. Self) 2.08

Direct Reports 4.33 Direct Reports 2.00

Manager 4.33 Manager 2.25

Self 4.67 Self 4.00

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00

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 Statistical phrases and visualizations

Mean score is the average score of evaluators within a source (e.g., Peers, Subordinates,
Others) and Standard Deviation is a measure of how spread out the ratings were with each
source; larger numbers indicate a larger spread of scores. Associated with these metrics
are the most used visualizations - bar charts, visual representation of the mean ratings
for each source (e.g., Self, Others) and whiskers, visual representation of the standard
deviation of scores within each source.

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 Understand the gap chart
Dig Deeper
Positive Gaps - This section summarizes The Gap Chart and Agreement Chart are additional visualization options for expressing
differences in how the subject views themselves and how evaluators view the subject.

the items where others’ ratings were higher Gap chart by Competency

than the subjects’ self ratings. The items Authority & Empowerment -2.44

are rank ordered based on the magnitude Communication +0.14

+0.22
of the gap and items with a gap larger than
Innovation

Managing Change +0.11

1.5 are highlighted in green. Consider these Performance & Accountability -1.37

areas hidden strengths. Recognition -0.06

Respect -1.17

Negative Gaps - This section summarizes Strategic Alignment -0.41

the items where others’ ratings were lower Training -0.67

Work Process -1.11

than the subject’s self ratings. The items

1 2 3 4 5

are rank ordered based on the magnitude Self All (excl. Self)

of the gap and the items with a gap greater The gap chart indicates the +/- difference between two rater groups.

than -1.5 are highlighted in red. Consider

these areas blind spots that may need to
be worked around in the job or prioritized
as learning needs.

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SECTION 5

Quickly identify development

gaps across your organization
 Quickly While Development 360 is used to develop individual employees, 360 Dashboards which
are unique to the Qualtrics’ solution, give HR and People Analytics leaders the opportunity
identify to identify areas of strengths and deficiencies across the organization as a whole.
development
gaps How are our people rated across
our core competencies?
Do we have gaps in people skills
across or departments?

across your Competencies to the right may indicate a need for organization-wide
development as these behaviors are demonstrated less frequently.
Look for competencies that score universally low, or departments that may
have additional development needs.

organization
10 Core Competency Scores Competency Scores by Department

Strategic Alignment 3.9

Authority &
Empowerment
Performance & Accountability 3.8

Training 3.8

Communication
Authority & Empowerment 3.6

Managing Change 3.6

Innovation 3.6 Performance &

Accountability
Communication 3.6

Recognition 3.5

Training
Respect 3.3

Work Process 3.2

2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0

Sales IT Operations Marketing Finance Human Resources

360 Dashboards aggregate subject scores over time. Key decision makers or analytics
leaders can filter data in real time to identify development gaps across an organization
based on job level, role, tenure, geography and other embedded data. As an example, after
360 responses are collected, you could identify development gaps based on the role of
“manager” to determine if this scaled group of employees require more training around key
competencies such as transparency in communication, or building an inclusive team. Such
insights can then directly feed into your learning and development strategies and help you
make development decisions with greater speed and confidence.

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 Which talent segments are improving or declining?
Drilling into specific cohorts will help you identify trends within your organization that may require further attention.

Work process competency trend by level Work process competency trend by department

Leader Sales
4.0 4.0
Manager Finance

Senior Leader HR

Mid Manager Operations

3.8 3.8

Senior Manager Marketing

IT

3.6 3.6

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Tracking improvement as a result of developmental interventions is also critical.

Development 360 addresses this problem by longitudinally importing scores for trending
over time visualized through the 360 Dashboards. Given that L&D professionals spend
immense time, effort, and available resources to develop employees, these historical
metrics can be a game-changing reference in assessing the benefits and direct impact of
developmental programs.

The 360 Dashboards are best used for tracking effectiveness of programs over time and
driving action at the organizational level. Dashboards or results can be shared internally
with business leaders and senior managers so that they can, through coaching and
mentoring, provide on-the-job development alongside L&D initiated programs (please
note that 360 Dashboards are not a replacement for individual subject reports). Such an
exercise can drive clarity in discussions with the business and create synergies between
business and people functions.

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SECTION 6

Next steps
 Next steps
360 feedback when done following best practices can
be a powerful tool to develop and retain your talent pool.
Qualtrics is here to help! Using this guide in combination
with the 360 Development solution should enable you to
quickly and efficiently launch or expand your development
program to all levels of talent without additional
administrative overhead.

If you find you need additional support, the Qualtrics

Partner Ecosystem includes partners across every area of
360 Development expertise. As needed, we can help you
identify the right partner to support your development
program with implementation, consulting, managed
services, and beyond.

GET STARTED

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