Continuing along our suggested approach to a 360 degree appraisal project I turn my attention to design.  Design covers many areas, and today I wanted to consider the report design.  I have deliberately started at the end of the exercise as I believe that thinking about the report - having already thought about the strategic intention of the 360 degree feedback - allows you to 'begin with the end in mind'.

When designing the report, Bowland Solutions have the following biases (we like to call them principles!) in mind.  First, we believe that 360 degree appraisal is a method of consolidating feedback rather than averaging it.  Second, we believe that narrative offers the richest information - the rating scales simply tell you where to look.

With these principles in mind, we use the following checklist as a guide that influences us in designing the reports.

• What is the purpose of the feedback.  In particular we are heavily influenced if the 360 is linked to an annual performance appraisal.
• Who will receive the report : the recipient, their manager, HR ?
• What experience has there been of 360s within the organisation?
• What is the culture of the organisation?
• What icons, symbols, other literature exists within the organisation that should influence the design of the report

With this framework we are able to build a highly tailored report.  We do of course use building blocks that have worked in the past and which we consider to be best practice, but a report that works for the company and the recipient is what we are looking to achieve.

We have found that in many cases there is a template for the structure of the report.  We often follow this structure

• Summary table of where feedback came from
• Overall, by competency, tabular summary of feedback (not averages)
• For each competency, a tabular summary of feedback
• Within each competency, graphical representation of feedback for each behaviour with a summary of the narrative comments received

We use various graphical reports to meet specific client requirements but this structure holds fairly well and supports a organised, clear debrief.


Brendan