V&A LOOKS TO THE FUTURE WITH 360 FEEDBACK

A full and rounded picture of how individuals are performing is the first requirement for developing people in their current role and for their future careers. 360 degree feedback, including peer review, is a powerful tool in meeting this requirement and forms the basis for developing talent for the future. The benefits can be seen in business excellence and success, as well as in job satisfaction and employee commitment.

Dr Ceri Thomas, Managing Director of TPMG, looks at how investing in leading edge internet-based 360 review software has helped the V&A to develop its management skills and cement its reputation as one of the world’s leading museums.

V&A history
Over the last 150 years the V&A in London has built a reputation for being one of the world’s greatest museums of art and design. It is a place where people can go to enjoy a wide variety of artistic treasures from throughout the world and to explore the cultures that created them. It holds unrivalled collections and it also employs some of the most highly regarded international authorities in the field of art and design. The aim of the Museum is to be a source of inspiration and enjoyment for people of all ages and backgrounds in the UK and beyond. Much of the success of the V&A can be attributed to the staff working behind the scenes at the Museum. This level of expertise and wealth of commitment from staff is something that is treasured by the Museum’s senior management.

In common with many public institutions the V&A has faced and responded to major challenges over the last ten years. Much more uncommonly it has developed and applied a long term people strategy that is now delivering real benefits at a time when the Museum itself is enjoying great popularity and critical acclaim – with visitor numbers doubled and the collections transformed through major developments such as the new British Galleries.

One of the biggest changes has been in the way that performance is managed. By recognising and managing the range of contributions that make for overall success, the Museum has been able to generate better understanding amongst staff whilst increasing the opportunity to encourage professional development. By embracing new technologies, and the changes they bring, the Museum has been able to build on its reputation for excellence.

Three years ago the V&A made the decision to introduce a 360 degree feedback process in order to focus on key skills and behaviours, starting with the senior management team. Following a review of the products available, the Museum selected the web-based orbit360 feedback tool from HR consultancy and software provider, TPMG.

Gillian Henchley, Director of HR, has worked for the V&A for thirteen years. She explains, “360 degree feedback has made a significant impact on personal development and training opportunities. The Museum isn’t just about the objects that are exhibited, it’s about the people who work with them and interpret them for the public.”

She added, “We have been quite contemporary in our approach to HR and performance management over the last few years, and have tried things that wouldn’t have been considered within the V&A a decade ago.”

The prospect of 360 degree feedback is often greeted with some anxiety especially when there is any suspicion that individuals’ pay or progression will be affected. The V&A elected at the outset to use 360 solely as a personal developmental tool and made this commitment clear to all staff who were invited to use it. HR, while facilitating the process made it clear that the information was for the benefit of the individual, to be used to raise their own self-awareness, and to be discussed with an external coach. The overall pattern of the feedback was then to be used to drive training and development programmes.

360 BASICS

Now a familiar tool to many HR practitioners, 360 degree or multi-rater feedback is, in essence, a way for an individual to gain the fullest picture of how well they are performing, contributing and interacting with their managers, peers, supervisors and increasingly, with customers and other external stakeholders. How that feedback is delivered to the individual and used by the organisation may vary widely.

The purpose of 360 degree feedback, much like any other form of feedback, is to raise an individual’s awareness of their strengths and weaknesses as perceived by their colleagues. Those perceptions are important because they tend to govern and influence how colleagues behave towards the individual. For example, if someone is generally seen neither to listen nor act on ideas from colleagues, it is likely that those ideas will dry up or be channelled elsewhere. If an individual is perceived always to agree with the last person they spoke to there may be a tendency for colleagues to question that individual’s integrity or independence.

There are a number of factors that drive the use of 360 degree or multi-rater feedback. For example, businesses are currently putting increased emphasis on managing behaviours, and in particular on behavioural competencies - how people interact with others as well as what results they achieve. In addition, managers are acknowledging both effective team working and recognition of individual style and strengths as important elements in ensuring delivery of results.

There is also the importance placed on being customer focussed, both externally and internally. Consequently, customers and other external stakeholders have been given a greater voice when assessing and improving performance.

Organisational flexibility is an equally important factor, with increasing emphasis on flatter structures, fluid teams and project working highlighting inadequacies in some areas of the more traditional “downward” style appraisal.

A further driver behind the demand for 360 degree review systems is an increasing need to engage with people. Such involvement is seen as a vital activity in the process of organisational change, with the end goal of helping staff individually and collectively to raise their game.

COMPETENCY AND EXCELLENCE AT THE V&A

The V&A has recognised for some years that to be successful in the long term it needs to focus not simply on what people achieve but how they achieve. The requirement for the Museum, for example, to be nimble and imaginative in managing major projects has dramatically raised the importance of effective team and project working across the different functions of the Museum. Competencies have therefore been designed and built into the Museum’s performance management process.

This focus on skills and behaviours built the case for using 360 degree feedback and the logical first step in developing the Museum’s 360 model was to review the existing senior managers’ competency framework and to tailor the competencies to the Museum’s circumstances and every day activities.

Working with TPMG, focus groups of senior managers identified key events, situations and challenges that best uncovered the critical attributes that lay behind an individual’s success. From here emerged the Museum’s 11 key competencies to be used in the 360 degree feedback process. They include the ability to see the big picture, customer focus, leadership, ideas and flair, and the ability to handle complexity.

The completed framework provides illustrations of behaviours and styles that indicate where an individual may have development needs, proficiency and clear strengths.

Need for 360 and how it works
The V&A considers 360 degree feedback to be one of the most important tools in the development of staff and future leaders. The first round of 360 degree feedback was undertaken in 2002 for the Museum’s senior management team.

The online method used to deliver feedback forms to the relevant colleagues allowed a secure, safe and easy first use, whilst also retaining the anonymity of people providing feedback. Having the feedback tool online also enabled the HR department to monitor and prompt the project’s progress rather than having to chase for paper-based forms, transcribe them or wait for them to be analysed. Results were generated automatically by the system and released to the appointed coaches and individuals as and when required.

The 360 feedback system has the aim of supporting personal development at all levels, rather than of rating one employee against another according to their perceived capabilities or potential. It aims to enhance the talent pool and raise people’s awareness of their own strengths and development needs. The removal of any link to pay was seen as key to ensuring honest and constructive feedback.

People considering 360 degree feedback often have the view that there is only one way that it can be implemented, sometimes reflecting an earlier experience. There are several key decisions to be made to ensure that the chosen process will suit the specific needs of an individual organisation.

One decision concerns which members of staff should be invited to give an individual feedback. There is no simple answer as different organisations will implement 360 degree feedback in different ways. Some organisations prefer to collect feedback without involving or informing the person being appraised, on the basis that this increases anonymity. The negative side of this is that the individual, and possibly their manager, may feel that 360 is being done to them rather than for them. This method offers little opportunity for moving the organisation towards greater openness, either in its feedback or internal communications generally.

Other organisations require individuals to start the process of selection along with line manager’s input. At the V&A it was decided that the individuals and their managers would agree which people would provide feedback in advance and send this list to HR prior to the nomination process to keep the HR department in the loop. The people identified where then invited to briefings on the process and the system.

Another question that people ask is how many respondents there should be for each individual - the larger the number the better the anonymity and the richer the data is likely to be. However this means that the overall time taken to complete feedback will increase. The V&A elected for a minimum of five respondents plus feedback from the line manager and the individual being assessed, with the norm being between seven and ten respondents.

It is also advisable to speak to everyone involved in 360 degree feedback in order to explain why the 360 method has been chosen and to guide them in using the internet tool. At one level, respondents have a very straightforward task. They receive an email inviting them to provide feedback along with a link and a password to open a questionnaire. They complete the questionnaire and their part is complete. However in practice, many other questions arise. Most people, before they will take part in such an exercise, need to be assured of anonymity, as well as a demonstration as to how their feedback will be shown in the results.

Textual feedback as well as click box ratings should be encouraged as usually this is the only way that individuals can effectively interpret their numerical feedback. Also, staff should be informed that the way they write feedback could reveal their identity.

In many organisations implementing 360 degree feedback tools, there will be a thoughtful questioning process and discussion about how the questionnaire should be completed. At the V&A it was important to stress that the purpose of the exercise was personal development, not pay-related appraisal. Respondents needed to understand that the main benefit to individuals lay in being made aware of how others saw their strengths and development needs, not how they compared with peers in terms of leadership or managing projects and so on. But 360 can be positioned differently in other organisations and the advice tailored accordingly.

Another choice for organisations that take part in 360 degree feedback concerns the timing of when the individual should see their feedback. This can depend on a number of factors, including the user’s familiarity with 360 feedback. At the V&A it was decided that the results would be shared first with the individual at a coaching meeting and that the results would remain private to the individual with the option to share with the line manager.

In other organisations different styles are used. For example some individuals see the results first on screen at the moment the results are compiled (in most cases this will be when the organisation has been using 360 degree feedback for a number of years and individuals are familiar with the process). Other organisations share the results with the individual and their line manager before meeting both in a coaching session.

At the V&A, in order to gain maximum benefit from the project a workshop was held for all senior managers following the completion of the first review. The workshop allowed managers to share their experiences and thoughts about development opportunities and what they had learned from their feedback. The management board subsequently agreed to extend the 360 degree review process to the next level of managers.

AFTER 360

Since the completion of the second review in mid 2003, 230 of the 700 V&A staff have provided feedback via the online orbit360 feedback tool – with a feedback completion rate above 90%.

The response has been very positive from those involved, with the ease of use being highlighted by most. Gillian Henchley used the tool herself and commented, “The thought of implementing such an intricate project on this scale using paper-based methods is terrifying. The online system is much simpler, and once people became accustomed to it, was very easy to use. The results were produced quickly. The quality of the feedback has been incredible and the analysis was quick and simple.”

The V&A is currently reporting back to the management board following completion of the second round of 360 degree reviews. The hope is that the system can be extended further across the organisation for other groups of staff with the added benefit of informing wider training and development plans. Gillian Henchley added, “The V&A was awarded Investors in People status between the first and second rounds of the 360 degree feedback project and although it’s not directly linked, I think that the project definitely contributed towards the accreditation.”

GETTING IT RIGHT

To summarise, there are six main steps to achieving effective 360 degree feedback.

First, an organisation should think about how it needs to prepare for 360. A common phrase used is “we are not ready for 360 yet” - that may be a clear signal that 360 is needed now, but people need to be prepared.

Second, an organisation should decide how it wants to position 360 – either as a purely personal development tool, with ownership of the data very much with the individual, or as part of an appraisal process. There is no right or wrong here and organisations quite often move from one position to the other over time.

Third, it is important than an appropriate and valid instrument or questionnaire is designed to gather feedback. It should be kept simple to use, without missing any essential aspects of behaviour of competency.

Fourth, there needs to be clarity about how the process should work, such as who should be invited to give feedback, who should see results first and what role the individual’s line manager should play.

Fifth, the individuals, and if possible the feedback providers, should be briefed about the purpose of 360 and how the results will be used. Following the feedback, a decision also needs to be made as to whether specialist coaches will be used to help individuals work through the feedback results or whether line managers will do this. This might be the first time that individuals have been given specific, honest and open feedback, so the feedback session needs to be managed skilfully.

Finally it is important to ensure that clear development actions are identified, recorded and implemented following feedback for each individual in order for the 360 degree process to be a well rounded and effective tool – for both the individual and the organisation involved.

Ends