For those completing the 360 feedback process outside of a leadership programme.
Please note that if you interested in completing the 360 feedback process, your department will need to cover the cost of this (£75). Please contact leadership-development@york.ac.uk for further details.

Guidance for delegates

In order to get the most out of your 360 you need to think carefully about which raters to pick. There are five different categories of raters, the first of which is self and the second of which is manager. The other three will require a little more consideration:

Report: These raters will be individuals who report to you. You should pick between two and seven individuals from this category; any less and the anonymity of the raters may be compromised and any more could start to dilute the quality of the results.

Peer: These raters are ideally the colleagues whom you work with on a day to day basis. In addition they may be individuals who you work regularly with as part of your role and who can confidently give you feedback on your leadership. Again you should pick between two and five raters from this category.

Other: These are the raters that don't neatly fall into the other categories. They may be your peers, but are not people you work with day to day. For example they might be a colleague who you work with on a committee once term or an external person you work with regularly. You may pick up to three raters from this category.

When making your choices call on people with whom you have fairly regular contact; people who will be able to draw upon a series of interactions that they have had with you.

Try not to stick with the safest choices. If there is an individual with whom you don't always see eye to eye, don't shy away from inviting them to take part. Remember that the 360 provides a forum for issues to be bought to the surface and explored in a safe environment with a member of Learning and Development. If you take risks when selecting your raters then your 360 results will be all the more valuable.

Approaching your chosen Raters

Once you have chosen your raters it is recommended that you have a face to face conversation with each individual. This will allow a more open exchange in which you can explain your reasons for choosing the individual, explain the wider context and invite them to be open and honest in their feedback. It will also give the individual an opportunity to ask any questions they may have about the process. It is likely that anonymity may be your raters biggest concern, reassure them that the feedback given by raters will be anonymised, as the input within each category is combined to maintain confidentiality. There is also a guidance document available for raters which you may decide to offer them as part of this discussion.

Your line manager will be one of your raters, so you may wish to have a similar face to face conversation reminding them about the process and their involvement. You may even find it useful to bounce ideas off your line manager about who would be the best people to choose as raters. However it is completely up to you how much you engage with your line manager throughout all stages of the process.

Once you have chosen your raters you will input all of their details into the system. Then at midnight, following your input, emails will be sent out to all of your raters inviting them to login to the system. Therefore it is important that you choose and input all of your raters at the same time, once the automated email has gone out you will not be able to add any more. For more guidance on navigating the system please see the FAQs.

During the 360 process

The 360 will usually be open for a period of four weeks to allow all raters sufficient opportunity to give feedback. During this time you will not be able to see which individuals have or haven't given feedback, but you will be able to see the number of raters in each group who have already completed.

The system has in place automatic email reminders which will go out to raters if they have not logged into the system within one week of getting their password. If you feel that your raters need an extra nudge you can also send out an email reminder. Remember that you will not know which individuals have and haven't completed, so if you do decide to send out a reminder email it will need to go to all of your raters. In the email thank those who have already completed the feedback and remind those yet to respond that you really value their input and would be very grateful if they could spare 15-25 minutes to aid you in this developmental exercise.

After the 360 process

At the start of the process, you will be given a variety of dates where a Learning and Development facilitator is available to give you 1-1 confidential feedback on your 360 responses. You will be asked to select the date and time which suits you best and then you will be notified who your facilitator is.

During your feedback session the Learning and Development facilitator will discuss the 360 report with you. They will help you think about your reaction to the results, discuss differing perceptions that may have arisen and help you to build an action plan to enable you to move forward. You will receive the only printed copy of the 360 report which will be yours to take away.

The feedback session will also be a safe place for you and your facilitator to plan follow up discussions. Your facilitator will help you to identify if there is value in approaching certain groups of raters to have a follow up discussion. Remember that the 360 is a developmental tool and can often provide a much needed platform for self-revelation and for dealing with challenging situations and relationships. However your facilitator will not pressure you to have any conversations that you do not wish to have. You will have full control over the disclosure and follow up of your 360 results.