Traditionally, 360-degree feedback has been a company-wide practice, but it’s always a good idea to take your career into your own hands and decide when and on what skills you want to get well-structured feedback from your colleagues.
Choosing a tool for gathering feedback is not as simple as you think – there are plenty of services out there, but it’s difficult to select one to go for. What makes a 360-degree feedback service perfect for personal usage? Which features are “must-have” and which are “nice-to-have”? You’ll find it out in this article.
1. Easy to use self-service
A service should be easy to use without spending a lot of time reading documentation even for those who organize 360-degree feedback for the first time. Quick check – you should be able to set up your first test survey in less than 5 minutes.
2. A comprehensive skill model with survey templates
Survey templates are a good start to set up your first 360-degree feedback review. For example, if you are a first-time manager and not sure where to start – a “Leadership skills” template may be a good choice. Pay attention to behavioral indicators – they should be written in human language as you don’t want to confuse your colleagues with too formal or unclear questions.
3. Flexible options to invite reviewers
All 360-degree feedback services allow inviting people to give feedback. But what if you don’t want or can’t leave their personal data on the service without their permission? It may be critical, to make sure that a service provides a way to invite reviewers without asking for their personal information.
4. Insightful results
360-degree feedback results are usually full of numbers, sometimes it’s not clear how to analyze them. Check if a service provides tools to get the whole picture of your skills and hints on what to pay attention to.
Don’t forget about qualitative feedback – ideally, your colleagues should be able to comment on every question if they want to.
5. Skill progress over time
360-degree feedback is best if it’s used regularly. Identifying your strengths and weaknesses is a good way to start, but your macro goal is your skills development. Gathering structured feedback from your colleagues every 3-6 months and analyzing your progress in the service chose will help you to focus on what matters most.
6. Affordable price
The service cost may vary from $0-$500+ depending on many factors. Typically, the most expensive services provide professional consultant assistance while free services are universal and not focused on 360-degree feedback. Pick what you are comfortable with.
7. Bonus: personal development plans
A Personal Development Plan is an essential tool to help you focus on your personal growth. Combined with 360-degree feedback, Personal Development Plan will let you work on your skills regularly with tracking progress, especially if a service recommends development activities to add to your development plan based on the 360-degree feedback results.
8. Bonus: customization
Usually, customization is not so important for personal 360-degree feedback tools, but sometimes you want to reword invitation messages, change a rating scale, or use your skills model and behavioral indicators for review.
9. Bonus: customer support
No matter how perfect the service is, it’s good if you can get professional advice or prompt answer to your question from customer support, especially if you conduct the survey for the first time.
If you plan to organize a 360-degree feedback survey for yourself, check Wystra out!
Wystra has been designed with individuals in mind who want to gather structured feedback from their colleagues and track progress on their soft skills.
The first 360-degree feedback survey is free. Wystra also has a free personal development plans service that is connected to 360-degree feedback.
