Current Practices in 360-Degree Feedback: A Benchmark Study of North American Companies
January 28, 2009 (Berkeley, CA) – 3D Group Releases “Current Practices in 360-Degree Feedback: A Benchmark Study of North American Companies” - A new study of nearly North American companies that use 360-degree feedback, has found that 360 degree feedback programs vary widely in how they are designed – including survey content, selection of raters, use of feedback and the decision-making process – and in how they are administered. The latest benchmark study by 3D Group also compared benchmark data from 2009 to its previous studies from 2004 and 2002.
360-degree feedback involves gathering data and performance perceptions from the people reporting to you, the people within the organization who are your customers, your suppliers, and the manager(s) you report to. 3D Group, a human resource (HR) consulting firm specializing in 360-degree feedback, discovered that whereas many practices stayed the same, a number of companies are shifting their strategy to using 360-degree feedback in critical areas.
“While 360-degree feedback has become ubiquitous for most companies, they are changing the way they do the process,” said Dale Rose, Ph.D., co-author of the study and co-founder of 3D Group. “Whereas many companies use results from360-degree feedback for professional development and administrative purposes, the development focus is clearly the strong majority with two thirds of the firms using it primarily for this purpose. Compared to our previous studies this indicates a slight increase in using the results for administrative decisions, but clearly companies continue to see 360-degree feedback as primarily a tool for developing leaders”
Another interesting shift is that whereas only 51% of companies used the internet exclusively now over 85% of companies use only the internet. Of course, this also means that 15% of companies interviewed still use paper surveys. "It seems that the Internet is the primary method, but it is worth keeping in mind that not all employees have access to Internet surveys," says Dr. Rose.
As part of its ongoing benchmarking research, 3D Group conducted its most recent survey during 2008 using standard interview protocol modified based on their 2002 and 2004 studies. Telephone interviews consisted of seventy-four open-ended questions, which covered the interviewee’s role in their organization’s 360-degree feedback program, the development process of the 360-degree feedback tool, characteristics of the surveys used, process for delivering feedback, specifics of the feedback reports, and use of the feedback with types of developmental support offered to participants. Input came from 51 mostly large organizations in the United States in varying industries. A sampling of the participating companies includes: 3M, 7-11, Abbott Labs, Autotrader.com, Corning, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, Genentech, JC Penny, Pepsi, United Airlines, & World Bank.
The primary intent of the survey was to provide a complete description of the range of 360-degree feedback programs used by companies in the United States. Some of the key findings:
- 85% of companies indicated that the budgets for 360-degree feedback would be the same or bigger next year
- 52% of companies use the 360-degree feedback process on an enterprise-wide basism
- 89% of companies claimed strong support for the program from senior leadership
- 41% of companies implement 360-degree feedback on an annual basis
- 22% of the organizations use "off-the-shelf" or standardized survey content (a slight decrease from 2004)
- Half of organizations use a single set of survey questions across many jobs.
- Rating sources in nearly all programs include supervisors, direct reports, peers and self-rating.
- Despite the availability of web-based data collection, 10% of companies use only paper surveys
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
It is clear from the study that 360-degree feedback processes are fairly stable but with some shifting trends. The shift to Internet surveys away from paper was not too surprising, though the number of companies who still cling to paper only methods was notable. Companies also seem to be shifting this process from all leaders to mostly executives, suggesting the economics may be more compelling for using the tool with more senior leaders. According to Dr. Rose, "there were some encouraging trends. It was quite clear that even within the current economic climate companies see the value in 360-degree feedback and plan to continue using the tool to develop leaders.”
About 3D Group
3D Group specializes in 360-degree feedback and other employee assessment tools. They use their expertise in psychometrics — the specialized discipline of psychological testing and measurement — to deliver a wealth of objective, reliable, and easy to understand data that can be utilized in a variety of ways to improve manager and company performance. 3D Group is dedicated to helping businesses and nonprofit organizations of all sizes increase the effectiveness of their people and programs. 3D Group researchers have authored numerous publications related to employee assessment, including the “Benchmark Study of North American 360-Degree Feedback Practices, 2002 Study” and “Current Trends in 360-Degree Feedback”. More information can be found at: http://www.3dgroup.net.
More information can be found at: http://www.3dgroup.net
Available for interviews: Dale Rose, Ph.D., President and Co-Founder of 3D Group.