Your 360 degree feedback - Quick Start Guide

You can download the full user guide from here.

1. Initialising your account

You will probably start your 360 degree feedback by receiving an email from the person managing your 360. You may even be reading this page because you clicked the link in your invitation email.

Your first task is to create a username and password. Follow the Control Panel Link in your email and you will reach a page where you can enter a username and password for yourself. remember these because you will need them to access the system in the future. Click the <Save> button to store them and then log into the system.

2. Completing your questionnaire

Having logged in, your control panel will contain a message telling you to click a link to start the process. Click the <build questionnaire> link and you will see a list of the competencies that your questionnaire covers. Some questionnaires contain some optional competencies which you can select at this stage. In others all the competencies are mandatory. Either way: click the <Create> button at the bottom of the screen and once your questionnaire has been built you will be taken to your control panel.

Now follow the link to fill in your self perception questionnaire. You don't have to fill in all questions at one sitting, but you must complete them all before your report can be generated. This includes any free text questions. You do, however, have the option to answer 'Don't Know' to any question you feel unable to answer.

3. Choosing your respondents

It’s tempting to ask people you think will all say nice things about you to give feedback – but don’t! If you really want to use this opportunity to develop then look for people a) who really have had the opportunity to observe you sufficiently to have a realistic idea of how you behave and b) who you trust to give honest helpful feedback. Of course, it’s always possible that there’s someone you’ve upset at some time and you need to think carefully about whether or not to include him or her on your list.

4. Inviting Respondents

In your control panel you will see a space for your respondents. These are the people you wish to ask to give feedback - we recommend that you choose about six as experience has shown that this normally works best. Click on the <add> link next to the Add another respondent and you will be asked to give the name and email address of each of your chosen respondents. They will then each get an email containing a personalised link to your questionnaire.

If they lose the email you can resend it by clicking the <resend email> link. If you change your mind about your choice of respondent you can choose a different one by using the <remove> link (as long as they have not already finished the questionnaire) and adding a new one.

IMPORTANT: make sure that you do not use accents, or other non-UK characters when filling in names and email addresses

5. Reviewing progress

The progress of your 360 workset is shown in the Control Panel Alerts section.
Once your respondents start to fill in your question set their status on the control panel will change to <In Progress>. At this point you can no longer change your mind and choose a different respondent. As each respondent completes all the questions their status will change to <Completed>. Once all your respondents have completed and submitted their results and you have filled out your own self perception a link to your report will appear in a blue panel at the bottom of the control panel ready for you to view.

Inactive – means that the respondent has not yet started to fill in the questionnaire. You can still cancel the invitation and send it to someone else.

In Progress - means that the respondent has started to fill in the questionnaire but there still remain one or more unanswered questions.

Completed - means that the respondent has finished filling in the questionnaire and can no longer access it or change their answers.

6. Viewing and reading your report.

As soon as your report is ready a new link will appear in the control panel. Your mentor may have decided to release your report manually in which case you will only be able to access it once he or she has done so. This will allow you to look at your report online.

The top part of your report shows a summary of the competencies in the questionnaire and how overall your self perception compares to the scores you got through feedback. Your highest scoring competency (based on feedback scores) is shown at the top and the lowest scoring is at the bottom.

In the second part of the report each competency is broken down into its component questions showing how you scored yourself and how your respondents scored you. If you chose to allocate relationships to your respondents (e.g. boss, peer, junior) when you assigned them then these will be shown by the different colours in the report figures. The first figure in the individual feedback scores always represents the same person, the second and so on so that you can see if one person consistently scored you high/low or whatever. However, the order will change each time you call up the report to help preserve the anonymity of the respondents.

If your questionnaire included some free text questions then these will be shown at the end of your report.

7. Using your workbook

You can use the workbook available from the www.appraisal360.co.uk download area to examine your report and interpret the results – working alongside your mentor or trainer if you have one.

Advice for respondents

If you have been asked to give feedback on someone you will receive an email which allows you to access the questionnaire. This email contains a coded link which is specific to you so that only you can access the it. You should keep this email until you are sure that you have fully completed the questionnaire including any free text questions - but you do have the option to answer 'Don't Know' if you feel unable to answer any particular question. Once completed the questionnaire will be locked and you will not be able to access it again.

Remember: the purpose of a 360 feedback is to help that person to develop so it is in everyone's interests to be helpful but honest. Your feedback is compiled into a report along with a number of other people your individual response will not be identifiable as yours.