Cross-functional feedback provides critical insights into strengths and improvement areas to support ongoing performance in role and career development. 360 Feedback can be a valuable tool in providing those insights, especially when specific growth areas are not already clear.
There are various ways to support team members' performance and growth. Timely and direct feedback is often the best way to course correct efficiently and improve performance on an ongoing basis. 360 feedback is a useful tool to support specific development goals or surface blind spots, often for those in leadership positions. A 360 is not the best investment of time for team members who already have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and an actionable development plan underway. Team members should take ownership of and leverage the tools that are most relevant and beneficial to them.
The optional 360 feedback cycle is timed after the Mid-Year Check In and after promotion calibrations to maintain the focus on development. Managers should check in with cross functional stakeholders informally when preparing for a Mid Year check in or Promotion Calibration vs waiting for a 360 feedback cycle.
A 360 can be a very helpful development tool, but it should not be a replacement for regular, ongoing feedback that team members receive throughout the year. There may be situations and points in team member development where a 360 can supplement development and individual growth plans, and times when development areas are clear and 360 feedback may not be needed.
Below are a few key points to think through when determining in which situations the 360 tool may or may not be useful:
For 360 feedback cycle we will only include team members with at least 6 months of tenure (start date on or before January 28th, 2023).
Participants should also ensure that they meet the requirements to participate in the process.
Team members who opt-in for the 360 feedback review cycle will be asked to:
The 360 feedback process will be ongoing from July 31, 2023 - September 22, 2023.
| Dates | Event |
|---|---|
| 2023-07-10 through 2023-07-28 @ 5pm PT | Sign Up Window |
| 2023-07-31 | Feedback Cycle Launch |
| 2023-07-31 through 2023-08-11 @ 5pm PT | Nomination Phase |
| 2023-08-14 through 2023-09-01 | Feedback Phase |
| 2023-09-04 through 2023-09-22 | Review & Discussion Phase |
IMPORTANT: Each phase needs to be completed by the due dates indicated in the table above. To keep this process on track, extensions won't be accommodated.
The FY'24 360 Feedback Cycle will be optional company-wide. To sign up, all team members must complete this Google Form to participate. There are a few important things to keep in mind before signing up:
Team members that sign up and meet the eligibility requirements will receive an invtation from CultureAmp at the start of the Nomination Phase. Team members that sign up and do not meet the eligibility requirements will be notified by their People Business Partner.
We utilize Culture Amp to administer 360 Feedback. The 360 Feedback cycle in CultureAmp consists of a Self review, Manager review and Peer reviews.
Managers will be assigned as the coach for their direct reports. Managers should review and send out the 360 feedback within 48 hours once the feedback cycle closes and you are sent the results. For more information on the role a manager will play as the team member's coach, please review Culture Amp Resources for Coaches
We have recorded a training overview of the 360 process via Culture Amp for your review and created a slide-deck to provide guidance on 360-Feedback, kindly review before you give feedback.
During this 360 Feedback cycle we will be using the Individual Effectiveness 360 Feedback. This follows a Start, Stop, Continue format. The questions included are:
To help guide team members in giving feedback, CultureAmp is offering options under the Start, Continue and Stop questions. When giving feedback you can select up to three options that you would say are applicable. If there are no options that match your feedback please use the option "Other". From there, you can elaborate in the comments section.
The options shown align with GitLab Competencies:
Direct reports of managers that participate in the 360 feedback process will be asked to rate where their manager should better focus their efforts in order to support the team. Specific areas for rating are related to GitLab's manager and leadership competencies. The rating scale is a normalized, 5-point scale from "much less focus" to "much more focus," with an option for additional comment.
Utilize this checklist to ensure all necessary steps are accomplished during the 360 process.
In Culture Amp, a reviewer is anyone who is requested to provide feedback for a team member.
If you are unsure who to nominate as a reviewer, consider saving your nominations as a Draft in CultureAmp. This will allow you to sign back in and add or delete your nominations.
Reviewers can be managers, direct reports or co-workers(no participants outside of GitLab). Here are some best practices for selecting reviewers:
Example of a reviewer selection of a Backend Engineer:
Remember you want to hear honest feedback so select reviewers you know will provide you meaningful data. In general, comments should be to the point and include specific examples. Helping your team member understand the impact of what they are, or are not doing, is an important part of making that feedback actionable. Feedback will be anonymous, however each team member is given a unique email link to provide feedback so please do not share. In Culture Amp reviewers are listed in 3 categories:
Feedback will not be tied back to a specific reviewer, however you only have 1 manager so you know that any feedback in that section came from directly from your manager. If you nominated 10 team members to provide feedback all 10 will be listed however any feedback is not tied directly back to a specific team member.
In addition to our Guidance on Feedback handbook page, we have a Feedback Training issue available for all team members interested in learning more about giving and receiving feedback, in addition to our 360 Feedback process.
We encourage all team members to complete this training, and recommend it specifically for those participating in the 360 Feedback process either requesting feedback for themselves or providing feedback to others.
General Tips:
Below are a couple of tips for team members who may have received a significant number of feedback requests to contribute to.
If you feel overwhelmed by the number of team members that have requested feedback from you, keep in mind that you are providing your team members with a gift: the ability to learn and grow from the feedback they receive.
However, you may not have feedback related to each of the questions asked. That is ok. If you don't have anything meaningful to provide, you can put not-applicable. Focus on the team members and the questions for which you have meaningful and helpful feedback. If you feel like you are not in a position to complete a meaningful review in general, please let the team member know, so they can possibly select another reviewer instead. Be mindful of your own bandwidth when providing reviews: Start with your core group, and expand from there as capacity allows.
Be open to engaging in the conversation. Your peers have taken the time to provide you with their feedback. And the purpose of this feedback is to help you develop and reach your full potential. The perception they have of you is important information for you to have and to build into an action plan.
Before going into the conversation and reviewing feedback, check out the page on receiving feedback.
Be accepting of positive feedback. Instead of deflecting compliments, hear and internalise them. They are strong indicators of where you have successfully developed your skills. Remember to maintain a focus on them so you can continue to develop the skill.
During the 360 Feedback meeting:
If you would like to learn more, we held a Receiving Feedback Live Learning course on 2020-02-25.
The feedback that your team member receives may reinforce excellent or under performance you have already observed, but shouldn't be the only data point you use in evaluating performance. In cases where you’ve identified your top performer, we should learn from what makes that person successful to share with others. In cases where unsatisfactory performance is identified, you should also address that timely and honestly. The feedback included through the 360 process may help in talking through examples of strengths or improvement areas, but you should not wait for the 360 Feedback process to address performance matters.
Once the feedback cycle closes, managers and team members will be able to review the feedback prior to meeting to discuss. Giving and receiving feedback can be hard for both the manager and the team members. Remember to be open-minded and calm. Be open-minded to the fact that others may see something that you do not. If you disagree with the feedback, others may be seeing something that you are not aware of- we called these blind spots earlier. Allow for the fact that others may be right, and use that possibility to look within yourself. Managers, feedback should never be a surprise! It is meant to guide, mentor, support, enhance, and help the team member grow. Try and maintain the model that feedback is a gift- it is data. More data is always better because it provides us with choices we wouldn't otherwise have.
This section outlines the conversation for a manager to have with their direct report after the cycle has closed. This dicussion should focus on leveraging peer feedback to accelerate the team member's growth and development goals.
The high level recommended process is as follows:
Some general guidance and tips for the conversations can be found below:
Once feedback has been delivered, we recommend the manager and team member agree on a resulting action plan which can be captured in the Individual Growth Plan for ongoing reference and accountability.
If a team member becomes a manager to direct reports after the 360 Feedback cycle has completed, and would like to see their new direct reports' 360 Feedback reports, the new manager must reach out to the direct reports directly to ask permission for either the previous manager to download and send the reports, or for the direct reports to download their own reports and send them directly to the new manager. Any approval should be in writing by email, not Slack.
Detailed instructions for sharing this report can be found here.
Troubleshooting for common questions during the 360 process.
#people-connect and request a coach update. Please provide the new coach's email address.#people-connect with the email addresses of your nominations.