How to Set Up 360° Feedback

360° feedback gives employees a broad picture of their skills, working style and team relationships. It encourages open and honest communication between staff and ensures that performance conversations don't happen with just a supervisor. 360° feedback should be gathered for an individual from many different levels of the organization: from juniors, colleagues, supervisors and leadership. Recipients are able to see who provided the feedback to promote transparency, accountability and fairness in the process.

PeopleGoal translates this multi-step process to a seamless workflow in our 360° Feedback app. The app template is ready to go if you're looking for a quick implementation, or you can easily customize the process using our simple, no-code workflow builder. It is a completely flexible process, with both the employee and the manager being able to kick off the feedback request.

Following the steps below, install and launch 360° feedback in a few minutes:

1. Install the 360° Feedback app template

2. Customize the 360° Feedback app template (optional)

3. Configure the 360° Feedback app states (optional)

4. Manage your app participants

5. Set up access permissions

6. Launch 360° Feedback!

Let's get started.

1. Install the 360° Feedback template from the app store

• Open up any workspace, click Create a new app, the select Store template.
• Select the 360° Feedback app and click Add this to your account.
• Select the workspace (and workspace folder) you want this app to belong to from the drop-down menu, then click Install template.

It will take a few seconds to add install the app in your account, and you'll be taken straight to the app to get started.

All of the pre-built feedback questions and states are installed and ready to go. You can use the app right out of the box!

We have sections for Stop, Start, Continue feedback; a rated competency section, and general written feedback.

To skip the customization, jump to step 4 and set up your app participants and permissions.

2. Customize the 360° Feedback app template

If you wish to customize the template, click the Template menu, and then Edit template.

i. Edit existing elements

Elements are your individual form fields that make up the Feedback process, and each element is completely customizable and can be changed to suit your custom process and company culture.

• To change a field, hover over the right-hand side of the element and click the three dots that appear.
• Select Edit element (your element will have a name like "Text", "Date", "Rich-text area", etc.). The element editor will open up.
• Change any fields you need to and click Save changes to update.

ii. Duplicate elements

• Hover over the right-hand side of the element and click the three dots that appear.
• Select Duplicate element and an exact copy will be created below.
• Edit the duplicated element to change your question text.

iii. Reorder elements and sections

Reordering is easy - you just click and drag to change the element or section order.

• Hover over the left-hand side of the element (or section title) and click and drag your element or section to its new location.
• To move an element to a different section, hover over the right-hand side and click the three dots that appear.
• Select Change section and choose the new section you want the element to belong to.

iv. Create new elements and sections

At the bottom of each section, click Add element and select the element type you want to insert.

A new element that's useful to add to your first section is a display-only Description or Rich-text area. You can use this to remind employees and managers of the key feedback cycle dates, or give instructions on how to kick off 360° degree feedback.

• To add a new section, scroll to the very bottom of your template form and click Add section.
• Then click and drag your new section to where you want it to sit in the feedback flow.

In the below example, we are going to add a section for manager feedback in addition to the three peer feedback sections. We're going to duplicate the feedback form for Peer 1 so that the feedback questions are consistent across all participants.

3. Configure the 360° Feedback app states

States are the steps in your 360° Feedback workflow and each state has its own participant. The "Feedback Requestor" is one state and "Peer 1", "Peer 2" and "Peer 3" are other states. The "Feedback Requestor" is the person who is going to kick off the 360° feedback process; this could either be the employee who is requesting feedback about themselves, or it could be the manager who is requesting feedback about a direct report.

There's no limit to the number of states you can add to your 360° Feedback workflow, allowing you easily create a complex process where different stakeholders can weigh in. You can also control the visibility of sections (and individual elements) in every state, and select whether they are read-only, editable or hidden to the selected state participant.

i. Add a new state

• Click the + button in your workflow builder to create a new state.
• Enter your state name, define the participant, and choose a status flag.
• Toggle on/off whether sections are visible or editable by default (don't worry - you can override this later if you need to).
• Click and drag your state to reorder your 360° Feedback workflow and you're done!

In the below example, we are going to add another state for "Manager feedback" so that the manager can answer the section we just added. We are going to call this state "Manager feedback" and create a participant called "Manager". Select any status flag for the time being, we will come back to this later.

Next, we are going to switch the toggle off for "All sections and elements are visible by default" as we don't want the manager to see the peer feedback just yet - they'll be able to see this when all feedback is complete. Finally, we want this section to be editable by the manager so we will leave the toggle switched on.

ii. Remove a state

• To take out a state you won't be using, click the Template tab and select Configure states.
• Select the state you want to delete and you'll see the blue highlight bar appear to confirm which state you've selected.
• Click Delete state to remove it completely.

iii. Customize your status flags

Every state has a default status flag that indicates to all participants what stage of the process their item is in. Your 360° Feedback app is set up with default status flags which you can customize.

• In the Configure states menu, click on Manage status flags.
• Click a flag title to rename it, and click the color picker to choose a new flag color.
• Click Create a new status flag to add an additional flag.
• Select the state to which you want to assign your flag, choose which flag to give it and click Save changes to update.

Here, we are going to create a new status flag for Manager feedback called "Manager feedback pending".

It's a good idea to delete any unused status flags so that they don't clutter up your Item filter once your 360° feedback process is underway. If you take out a Peer Feedback state, you should also remove the relevant "Pending" status flag.

4. Manage your 360° Feedback app participants

Participants are the individuals involved in the 360° feedback app and each state has one participant. The first participant is called the "Feedback Requestor", and kicks off the process by selecting who the feedback is about. The process is flexible, with both employees and managers able to kick off the feedback request about themselves, a colleague or direct report. The "Feedback Requestor" must also select which three peers are going to give the feedback when they kick off the process in the first state.

i. Define the default participants

• Select Template from the top menu, then Configure states.
• Click Manage participants. This will bring up a list of everyone involved in this feedback workflow.
• Select the Default relationship drop-down for the Manager participant, and select the relevant relationship (you might call this supervisor, team lead, etc.).

This means that the manager participant will be automatically populated for a new employee feedback request. The peers will still need to be selected individually.

ii. Define the participant's visbility

Visibility defines whether a participant can see the feedback only in the state that they own (limited visibility), or in all states (full visibility).

We want the "Feedback Requestor" to have full visibility so that they are able to see the feedback they are given. The "Peers" however, should only have limited visibility because we only want them to see the feedback that they give.

However, if you want to change a visibility level:

• Select Template from the top menu, and click Configure states.
• Click Manage participants.
• Click the drop-down next to the participants name and choose Limited or Full visibility.
• Click Save changes to lock in your updates.

5. Set the 360° Feedback app Permissions

Nearly ready to launch! The last step in automating the Feedback workflow is to decide who can create, edit and/or view all the 360° Feedback in your account. To do this, we use Permissions.

Permissions control the access to your app within your PeopleGoal account.

• To set your permissions, click on the Settings menu, then expand the Permissions section.
• Click on Explain permission types to understand the access that each permission gives your account users.

i. App-wide permissions

For 360° Feedback we'd recommend you set the permission to Create only. This means employees can kick off the feedback process for themselves or others, but can't see any colleagues' feedback.

ii. Specific relationship, team and user permissions

The user who installed the 360° Feedback app template has Owner permission by default, and can assign specific permissions to other teams or users. Specific team and user permissions supersede the default permission type.

• To assign a specific permission, select Configure specific permissions, then under "User permissions" click Add user.
• Type your colleague's name to add them to the permissions list. In the "Permission type" column, select which permission level to give them.

You might want to give "View only" permission to your C-Suite, so that they can see all 360° Feedback for all employees but not change the app settings or edit states that they're not a participant in.

To give managers access to create feedback requests for their direct reports, you'll set up a sepcific relationship permission.

• Select Configure specific permissions
• Under "Relationship permissions", select the Manager relationship (or supervisor, team lead, whichever relationship name you have set up!)
• This will by default give managers the ability to create, view and edit items for their direct reports

6. Launch your 360° Feedback process!

You're ready to roll! All you need to do now is kick off 360° Feedback for your employees. Both employees and managers are able to kick off the process by either naming themselves or a direct report as the person receiving feedback.

• In both cases, click on the 360° Feedback menu and click New 360° Feedback.
• Select your own name, as you are the first participant (the feedback requestor).
• Insert your own name if the feedback is about you, or insert your direct report's name if it's about a subordinate.

Or, click Select team(s) of users and you can kick off 360° Feedback for entire user groups! But bear in mind you will still need to go into the 360° Feedback report to select the peer reviewers.

Next steps: set up your custom feedback analytics and reports

We know that every company has its unique ways of working, and the metrics you want to analyze are different to any other organization. We capture every single data point from your 360° Feedback in the Data table, to help you to build custom reports and automated charts. Head over to our Reports building article to learn how to create custom reports and analytics tracking.

Once you've got your 360° Feedback process up and running, take a look at other apps you can install within your Performance workspace. We'd recommend implementing regular check-ins to grow your employee/manager relationships, and performance reviews with multiple managers to evaluate employee performance. You'll find all these and more in our App Store.

Don't have a PeopleGoal account yet? Book a demo to see our no-code HR workflow builder in action!