What is 360 Degree Feedback? (Definition & Example Questions)

Do you have a system in place to keep track on your employee’s behavior and the overall picture of the work environment?

Such systems deliver excellent competitive advantages as these help create teams that function efficiently — effectively working towards achieving the organization’s goals and objectives.

360 degree feedback is an excellent system for linking employees’ behavior and performance to the organization’s vision and values.

In this post, we will help you understand the system from inside and out with useful 360 feedback examples. So let’s cut to the chase and dive right in!

Table of contents
What is 360 degree feedback?
When should you use a 360 feedback system?
What makes a great 360 degree feedback question?
Examples of amazing 360 feedback questions

What is 360 degree feedback?

360 degree feedback or multi-rater feedback is a system developed primarily to gather anonymous feedback about one or multiple members of staff, in the quest to measure their working relationships with other people on the team.

The system targets managers, direct reports, subordinates, peers, and more — which makes the term “360 degree” apt.

It is quite an effective system to collect opinions from a range of people in an organization, which helps produce a well-rounded assessment of the subject.

However, most companies use a 360 degree feedback system as an employee development tool to generate enough information about performance, behavior, competencies, and more importantly, the relationship it has with other team members.

The system is quite abundantly used across individuals working higher up in an organization’s hierarchy.

When should you use a 360 feedback system?

The use cases for a 360 degree feedback system are endless.

However, a manager at any organization should use the constructive feedback system to measure employees’ behavior, conduct a performance review, and discover competencies.

The 360 degree qualitative feedback examples in the post can be used to focus on individual skills and qualities.

Such feedback questions help the manager collect accurate and important perspectives of an employee from other individuals in the team.

The questions are self-sufficient only when you ask them the right way at the right time.

What makes a great 360 degree feedback question?

Business owners need to know about employee engagement and whether or not they are adequately supported and assisted by the management. More importantly, employees need to know the impact of their actions and how the team perceives their presence.

Collecting respective 360 degree employee feedback puts them in a position to learn more about their performance, and make changes to contribute to the team in a better way.

However, you need to understand the basics of creating highly effective and honest feedback questions. Here are the factors you should consider when writing 360 degree feedback questions.

1. Make sure the feedback questions are relevant to the employee

The manager should be looking to ask questions to employees that work closely with the subject. In other words, the questions should be asked to people that have relevant working relationships with the employee.

Other employees will most probably produce irrelevant data.

2. Make sure the questions focus solely on the employee’s attributes

When measuring employee behavior, it is crucial that the management adopt the non-KPI standards and focus entirely on employees’ ability to communicate within or outside the department, their interpersonal skills, and overall motivation for the work.

3. Make sure the questions help discover the employee’s blindspots

It is important that the management use the feedback exercise in a constructive way. In other words, the system should provide employee feedback without attacking, harassing, or intimidating employees.

The management should look forward to evaluating employee performance and behavior without bias. Besides these tips, you should make sure the questions are framed properly.

The questions should focus on one thing at a time. Most importantly, to get a better response, allow the 360 degree feedback to be multilingual.

Examples of amazing 360 feedback questions

Now that you have a fundamental understanding of how a 360 degree feedback system works, it’s time we go through several examples.

First, we’ll have to figure out the competencies we could be measuring through the surveys.

The seven most surveyed skills are leadership skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, organizational skills, efficiency, and overall motivation at work.

Here are some 360 feedback examples that will help you understand how to use the surveys to assess the employee skills mentioned above.

1. Leadership skills

Use these 360 degree feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s leadership attributes.

• Does the employee motivate other team members to perform better?
• How often does the employee reflect leadership qualities?
• Does the person create or face problems when carrying out their duties?
• What contribution does the employee make to solve customer-related problems?
• How effectively does the employee supervise overall work at the office?
• Is the employee able to overcome ego and ambition while working with others?
• Does the employee engage or contribute during team meetings?
• Does the employee reflect any role model qualities the team can look up to?
• Is the employee able to maintain accountability?
• Does the employee take enough responsibility for the results?
• Does the employee take leadership actions regarding completing assignments and projects?

2. Interpersonal skills

Use these 360 degree feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s interpersonal skills.

• Is the employee skilled enough to collaborate with other team members?
• Does the person collaborate consistently?
• Does the employee have conflicts with other members of the team?
• Does the employee care about resolving conflicts?
• How well can the employee function while working in a team environment?
• Is the employee able to acknowledge and praise co-workers’ accomplishments?
• Does the employee show respect to individuals in the team?
• Is the person able to keep a check on their emotions while dealing with a team member?
• Is the employee constantly running into clashes with others in the company?
• Will you turn to the employee in times of need?
• How well does the employee manage their stress levels at work?
• Does the employee discuss their stress levels at work?

3. Organizational skills

Use these 360 feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s organizational skills.

• Would you consider that the employee is fully aware of the organization’s goals and objectives?
• Is the employee able to reflect and represent the company values?
• Does the employee recommend other people to use the organization’s products and services?
• Does the employee acknowledge or comply with the organization’s strategic vision?
• Is the employee able to provide effective feedback regarding company-related activities?
• Does the person show any concern when it comes to managing the company’s customers?

4. Communication skills

Use these 360 feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s communication skills.

• Is the employee able to communicate with other members of the organization?
• Does the employee showcase excellent written communication skills?
• Is the employee able to convey their thoughts clearly and concisely?
• Does the employee showcase the ability to positively receive feedback from peers?
• Does the employee look forward to receiving suggestions during a project?
• Does the employee consider the suggestions during the project?
• Does the employee ask team members for clarity to prevent confusion?
• How well does the employee communicate with other departments in the company?
• Is the employee able to clearly express their emotions and feelings with other workers?
• Does the employee showcase excellent communication skills when interacting with customers?
• Does the employee encourage discussions in the team?

5. Problem-solving skills

Use these 360 degree feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s problem-solving skills.

• Does the employee show the ability to work under no managerial supervision?
• Does the employee showcase good decision-making skills?
• How well does the employee react when tackling unprecedented challenges?
• Is the employee able to contribute to team discussions while solving problems?
• Does the employee come up with creative problem-related suggestions consistently?
• Is the employee able to identify problematic circumstances?
• Does the employee encourage other team members to speed up working on a problem?
• Does the employee showcase the ability to solve problems without assistance?
• Is the employee able to evaluate project-related problems effectively?
• Does the employee consistently take initiative to solve problems?

6. Motivation at work

Is the employee motivated? Use these 360 feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s motivation at work.

• Does the employee seem enthusiastic about the project or overall work?
• Does the employee seem to enjoy the role?
• Does motivating the employee for a project seem like a challenge?
• Do you find the employee as an active source of motivation for the team?
• Does the employee regularly communicate their level of motivation with the team?
• Is the motivation in the employee enough to make them share their work with colleagues?

7. Work efficiency

Use these 360 degree feedback examples to measure and assess an employee’s work efficiency.

• Does the employee attempt the allotted tasks effectively?
• Does the employee seem to work towards completing the task at the right level?
• Does the employee consistently complete the tasks on time?
• Does the employee complete the tasks at a high standard?
• Is the employee surpassing the set expectations?
• Does the employee often contribute to improving the work processes?

These 360 feedback examples are essential questions that can be coupled with responses like Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree to collect a broader response range.

Final thoughts!

There you have it. We have shared everything you need to know about 360 degree feedback systems, especially examples that will provide you with the right foundation.

The feedback system is quite extraordinary as it gives a clearer picture of the employees working at an organization and helps the management figure out whether or not they are able to fulfill the set expectations and deliver to the set standards.

We suggest you drop everything and use the 360 feedback examples to write your own questions and use the feedback system to foster professional development, constructive criticism, proper communication, leadership, decision-making, and other qualities in the work environment.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments. Also, don’t forget to check out other informative posts on the blog!