Is 360-degree feedback anonymous?
If you've ever wondered whether 360-degree feedback is truly anonymous, you're not alone. Many HR leaders and trainers have the same question. The answer, unfortunately, is not always simple. It depends on several factors, including the type of 360-degree feedback system being used and the policies of the organization administering it.
Anonymity encourages honest feedback
360 reviews provide an invaluable opportunity for honest feedback, and anonymity often helps to ensure that people can express their honest opinion without fear of judgment or retribution. Anonymity is a powerful tool in 360 reviews because it removes the potential for personal bias - whether positive or negative - based on relationship status. What's more, 360 feedback helps remove unconscious bias and provides everyone with a safe platform to speak up.
Feedback from Peers, Direct Reports, and Others should always be anonymous
Anonymity for Peers, Direct Reports, and others are protected by not displaying any data from each of those rater groups until at least three people for a specific rater group have responded. We then average that data together making it impossible to determine the scores from one specific rater.
When there are not enough responses to produce an average score for a specific rater group (peers, direct reports, others) the responses are included in an 'Overall Score' which included all responses except the self. That way, all responses are included while protecting anonymity.
Feedback from a Supervisor / Manager is not anonymous
A supervisor's / manager's feedback is not anonymous. People need to know what their manager thinks so the manager's scores are always displayed alone.
STAR360feedback always protects the anonymity of raters
When you work with STAR360feedback you never need to worry about rater anonymity. We understand the importance of promising anonymity and keeping that promise. Our systems have safeguards built in to ensure that feedback from peers, and direct reports is anonymous.
We communicate to managers that their feedback is not anonymous so the managers.
Whether or not feedback is anonymous depends on the vendor you chose for your 360 assessment process. Work with us an anonymity will always be protected.
