Launching a 360 feedback round

A 360 round collects feedback about one person from several others. One round is launched per subject, and each round carries its own promise about whose names are shown.

Where it is

Choose Develop in the main menu, then 360 feedback — or Admin, then Development and 360 feedback. The screen lays out the order: build the form, wire the actions, choose who and when, then check and launch.

Launching one

1. Choose the 360 process — the workflow the round runs through.
2. Choose who it is for. A round is launched for each person you name, so ten subjects means ten rounds.
3. Decide who gives feedback — their manager, their manager’s manager, and whoever else the round nominates.
4. Set when it closes.
5. Decide whether names are shown.
6. Check and launch.

The audience is fixed at save, exactly as on any launch page — see How workflow launch works.

The anonymity decision, which is the one that matters

A round records whether respondents are anonymous, who may see identities anyway, and how many responses must arrive before results are revealed.

The promise is frozen the moment the first person responds. From then on it cannot be changed for that round.

That is deliberate and it is the single most important thing to understand here. Somebody who answered on the understanding that their name would not be shown must not have that decision reversed afterwards. If you get it wrong, the round has to be cancelled and run again — there is no correcting it in place.

So decide before you launch, and say the same thing to respondents that the round says.

The reveal threshold

Where responses are anonymous, results stay hidden until the number of responses reaches the threshold set on the round.

This is what makes anonymity real rather than nominal. With two responses and a named manager, the subject can usually work out who said what; the threshold stops results appearing until there are enough answers to hide inside.

Set the threshold against the size of the group you are asking. A threshold of five on a round with four respondents means results that never appear at all.

Free text is where anonymity leaks

Names are hidden; writing styles are not. Somebody describing an incident only two people witnessed has identified themselves whatever the setting says.

The product warns respondents about this, and it is worth repeating when you ask people to take part: anonymous means their name is not attached, not that they cannot be recognised.

Who can see what

A round distinguishes between what the subject sees and what administrators see. An administrator may be able to see identities the subject cannot, which is a separate permission from viewing the round at all.

Check who holds that permission before promising respondents anything. The honest sentence is “your name is not shown to the person you are reviewing”, not “nobody will know”.

After it closes

Results open once the round closes and the threshold is met. A round that never reaches its threshold closes without revealing results, and the feedback stays collected but unseen.