360 Reviews
Introduction
PerformYard offers robust performance review capabilities and for reviews to include review forms assigned to specific employees, managers, direct reports, and contributors. It is also possible to enable self-service 360 feedback from peers and other employees in an organization using 360 Review Forms as part of your review cycle.
Overview
360 review forms enable gathering performance feedback about an employee (subject) from anyone across the organization. Depending on your preferences, a review subject can nominate other employees to provide 360 reviews on their performance, a manager can nominate reviewers, or individual employees can volunteer to provide feedback. PerformYard provides flexibility to define one or more forms that can be used to provide performance feedback about a subject as part of an active review cycle.
The basic steps to leveraging 360s as part of your reviews are as follows:
- 1
- Create one or more forms to capture performance feedback from 360 reviewers about a subject
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- Add the above forms to your review template as 360 Forms
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- Create a review cycle using the above template (or add forms as 360 forms to an existing review cycle)
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- Nominate and assign one or more employees as reviewers.
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- Incorporate 360 review forms into annual, semi-annual, or regular performance management discussions.
Create a 360 Review Form
Creating a 360 Review Form is the same as making other forms in PerformYard. You will likely want to tailor the questions you ask of 360 reviewers vs. those you may ask of an employee's manager or contributor by creating a specific form for such reviews. You can learn more about creating forms here.
A recommended best practice is to name the form in relation to the roles or people who are expected to author them, for example, "Peer Review Form" or "Upward Review Form."
Add one or more 360 Forms to a Review Template.
Review templates support three form types: forms to gather required input into the review process from assigned participants, 360 forms to get performance feedback from potentially any employee in the organization, and external forms to get performance feedback from individuals outside the organization.
Choose who should be allowed to add 360 Form to a Review.
The ability for employees to add new 360 review forms for a subject can be controlled and scoped to include just the Subject, the employee's manager, or opened up to any employee in the organization. The available options include:
| Any Employee | When the Any Employees option is selected, the form will be available to any employee to add and author the 360 Form for any review subject. |
| Subject | When the Subject option is selected, the subject can add the 360 Form to their review. A secondary option will be offered to control what authors the Subject can nominate to complete (author) the form:
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| Manager | When the Manager option is selected, a manager can assign the 360 Form to any employee in the organization. This option is helpful for peer review and project review scenarios. |
| Admin | When the Admin option is selected, only administrators are allowed to assign 360 forms, and they can choose to give them to any employee in the organization. |
Optionally, specify who should sign 360 Forms.
When this option is selected, any 360 Forms will go through the standard authoring and signing workflow. As with other types of forms, you can specify multiple signers.
Specify the due date for the 360 Forms.
You have the option to specify a fixed due date or a relative due date. When selecting a relative due date for the author on a 360 review, the date is relative to the assignment of the form. The signer's due date is relative to the author's due date.
Optionally, allow for a 360 Request Message.
The employee adding the 360 form can provide a message that will be shown to the nominated reviewer when this option is enabled.
Optionally, require Approval.
When this option is enabled, the subject's manager or an administrator will need to approve any nominations for 360 feedback. There are three options with regards to approvals:
| None | No approval is required to add the form to the subject's review. |
| Managers & Administrators | The employee's manager or an administrator will need to approve adding the form to the subject's review. |
| Administrators | Only administrators can approve adding this form to a subject's review. |
Lastly, if applicable, elect to Redact the Author.
The option to redact authors will hide the name of the authors of the 360 forms. The reviewer's name will be hidden from the subject and their manager. The subject will be able to see the feedback and form answers but will not know the author's name.
Please note, however, that administrators can view this information for other employees.
Creating a Review Cycle with 360 Review Forms
Once you have defined one or more forms for peer feedback and have optionally created a Review Template that includes one or more 360 Review forms, you can create a review cycle that provides 360 feedback.
The example below creates a review cycle using a review template that includes two types of 360 forms.
When adding 360 Forms into an existing review cycle, administrators can use fixed dates for due dates for authors and signers, as opposed to relative dates that are relative to when the form is assigned. Fixed dates are helpful for limited-time review processes, while relative dates allow forms to be added at various points as long as the cycle is still active.
Once a review cycle is created with one or more 360 Forms, the review cycle will be shown as being 360 Enabled and will, depending on the options selected above, enable a subject to nominate other employees to provide 360 feedback as part of their review.
Add 360 Forms to a Subject's Review
When an employee (subject) is part of a review cycle that includes 360 Forms, a new button will appear on the employee's dashboard. Depending on the settings selected for the Review Form above, the Add 360 Form button will only be shown to the subject, admins, managers, or all employees.
A 360 Form can also be added to a review directly from the employee's Reviews tab.
Once you select Add 360 Form, you'll be prompted to choose the review for the 360 feedback and the form to be filled out by the nominated 360 reviewers.
Depending on the selected settings for who is allowed to nominate employees and add 360 forms to a review, you'll either automatically be assigned as the author for the 360 Form, or you will be prompted to nominate and select employees to author 360 forms.
Approval of nominated 360 Reviewers
When a 360 Form was defined as requiring approval, a manager or admin, depending on the settings for the form, will first need to approve any nominated reviewers to create the review forms and assign them as authors. When approval is required, a message will be displayed stating that the requests were submitted for approval.
Managers can approve any 360 Forms awaiting approval by opening the subject's review and choosing to approve individual or all requests.
Authoring and submission of 360 Review Forms
Once a nominated 360 reviewer has been assigned a form and, if applicable, that request has been approved by the subject's manager or an administrator, that form will appear on the list of review forms they need to author, and those forms are authored and submitted like any other review form. Once submitted and optionally signed, the form and its captured information are available for viewing and use across the PerformYard application like any other review forms, including within Reporting & Analytics.
Other 360 Review Scenarios
While 360 reviews are often leveraged for team peer reviews, they can also be used for 360 manager feedback and post-project reviews.
Post-Project Completion Reviews
The 360 Review Form functionality can be used to implement a post-project review. The example 360 Form settings below show a review that allows a subject to nominate other employees to provide feedback about their performance on a recent project.
| Who can add this form? | Subject |
| Who signs off on this form? | Employee's (Subject's) Manager |
| Author Due Date | Seven (7) days from the form assignment date |
| Signer Due Date | Three (3) days from the author's due date |
| Approval | No Approval |
| Redact Authors | Not Redacted |
| Active | Yes |
Upward Reviews
The 360 Review Form functionality can be used to implement a redacted-author upward review. The example 360 Form settings below will enable any employee in the organization to provide feedback about a subject (presumably a manager, which an admin can manage via approval.)
| Who can add this form? | Any Employee |
| Who signs off on this form? | Employee's (Subject's) Manager |
| Author Due Date | Seven (7) days from the form assignment date |
| Signer Due Date | Three (3) days from the author's due date |
| Approval | Require Approval from Admins |
| Redact Authors | Redact Authors |
| Active | Yes |
Team Peer Reviews
The 360 Review Form functionality is often used to implement peer feedback, either open to any employee or designated by a Subject's manager. In the example 360 Form settings below, a manager will initiate the selection of peer reviewers and gather feedback that is not intended to be shared with the subject.
| Who can add this form? | Manager |
| Who signs off on this form? | Employee's (Subject's) Manager |
| Author Due Date | Fixed Date (if the manager wants all to be completed by a specific day) |
| Signer Due Date | Fixed Date (if the manager wants all to be completed by a specific day) |
| Approval | No Approval |
| Visible to the Subject | Not visible to the subject |
| Redact Authors | Not Redacted |
| Active | Yes |
1:1 Check-ins
The 360 Form functionality can also be used to create ongoing 1:1 check-in forms to be completed by an employee or a manager to capture notes from a check-in conversation. In the example 360 Form settings below, a manager would initiate a form to be filled out by either the employee or the manager.
| Who can add this form? | Manager |
| Who signs off on this form? | Employee or Manager |
| Author Due Date | Relative |
| Signer Due Date | Relative |
| Approval | No Approval |
| Redact Authors | Not Redacted |
| Active | Yes |