These four sets of questions will help your design team ensure they cover the crucial issues in 360 planning.
Fundamental questions
- Do we intend to run the survey every 6 months, every year, or less often?
- Would an Internet-based tool be valuable to us?
- Will some employees need paper versions?
- Do we want to provide administration or hire a service bureau to manage the service?
- Do we need consulting support to design the project or questionnaire, provide training, coach Subjects and responders, and/or provide statistical analysis?
- What is the budget in money terms?
- What is the budget in effort terms?
- Do we wish full 360-degree feedback, upward feedback only, self-only, or supervisor-only?
Questionnaire
- Do we want to use benchmarked, validated questionnaires or questionnaires that reflect our organization’s culture, location, industry, and employee group?
- Should the questionnaire force a reply to each question or allow a “Not enough info” response?
- Do we want to use a second scale to ask how important each skill is for the Subject’s work?
- Do we want to invite unstructured (or narrative) comments?
- Do we want everyone invited to offer them?
- Do we want them displayed in the Subject’s report, or reserved for a coach to see?
- Do we want to offer questionnaires and reports in languages other than English?
Subjects and Responders
- Who will and will not be within the group of Subjects being assessed?
- How large a responder group do we want, per Subject?
- When will we schedule introductory training workshops: The Art of Receiving Feedback (Volume 2) and The Art of Giving Feedback (Volume 3)?
- If we were to upload Subject and responder data from our HRIS, spreadsheet, database, or contact program, would it make for easier administration?
- Who should select responders for each Subject: administrators, supervisors, Subjects?
- How do we want to gather that information?
- Do we want automatic emails sent to responders inviting them to answer the questionnaire?
- On what dates should pre-announcements, catalysts, and reminders be dispatched?
- Should recipients who don’t want to participate be allowed to opt out from receiving further emails?
- How will we get notifications to those without email access?
- How will we encourage high response rates?
- How will we deal with inadequate response rates?
Reports
- Who will generate reports?
- How will we maintain the confidentiality of reports?
- Do we want to merge responder groups that have few responses, in order to maintain confidentiality of responders?
- Do we want reports to provide a summary of best-rated and lowest-rated skills, or encourage Subjects to discover them for themselves?
- When will we schedule The Receptivity Workshop for Feedback Subjects (Volume 4)?
- Will we use Coaching Sessions for Individual Subjects (Volume 5)?
- Would a guide to development available to all Subjects increase their opportunities for positive change?
- Do we want to provide support to help Subjects comprehend their reports: workbook, supervisor, external coach, etc.?
