How I did the 360-degree assessment and why

What is a 360 degree assessment? ?

The “360 degree” method is a comprehensive personnel assessment that allows you to obtain a comprehensive portrait of an employee’s business qualities. The essence of the method is that the assessment is carried out by everyone with whom the employee interacts at work: the manager, subordinates and colleagues, i.e. a 360-degree environment, plus self-assessment.

The result of the assessment is a detailed description of the employee’s professional (hard skills) and personal (soft skills) competencies, his personal qualities (behavioral features), as well as identifying growth points, summarizing training results, etc.

In Ulya, assessment is used to build individual training programs. Something like measuring the level of English to understand the most suitable group. Well, and after training, there is also an assessment to understand what has changed and where to go next.

My Experience of Taking a 360 Degree Assessment

We use a point-indicator evaluation system. To put it simply, there is a point assessment (indicate at what level the competence is developed from 0 to 10), there is an indicator assessment (how exactly the competence is manifested), and sometimes it is necessary to measure the level of manifestation of the indicator with points. For example, to assess the “Planning and Organizing” competency, there are several behavioral indicators, one of which is “Sets clear, understandable tasks and goals that are synchronized with the company’s goals, decomposes a large goal into separate subgoals.” The manifestation of this indicator can be rated from 0 to 3. Where 0 means no rating/not relevant, and 3 means exceeds expectations. Indicator assessments help to avoid subjectivity in interpretations.

There are explanations for the name of each competency. Also to avoid discrepancies.

In addition to soft and hard, our HR evaluates purely human qualities. Not everyone has this, but we practice it. And this is usually the most interesting thing.

After passing the assessment, the HR writes a text report, sometimes accompanied by the immediate supervisor. It is important to say that Ulya has a super-reverent attitude towards people, so the reports are always super-careful and, despite the fact that there is room for development, it is rather pleasant to read the results of the assessment. High standards of corporate culture, if you know what I mean.

Competencies assessed and behavioral indicators

Soft skills

• Planning and organization (forms goals, gives a vision and creates effective routes)

  • Sets clear, understandable tasks and goals that are synchronized with the company’s goals, decomposes a large goal into separate subgoals

  • When setting tasks, it gives an understanding of what goal it is for, and introduces it into a broader context.

  • Determines reasonable deadlines for completing tasks and sets priorities appropriately based on their importance and urgency

  • Considers and provides resources to complete tasks

  • Considers possible changes and risks in the planning process

• Control (ensures high-quality execution of tasks and brings them to fruition)

  • Establishes clear and measurable criteria for assessing the success of the outcome and the work done

  • Uses a variety of control tools and methods, such as reports, audits, team meetings, etc.

  • Carries out regular monitoring, adapting its frequency and format to the individual characteristics of employees, using micromanagement in case of emergency

  • Regularly provides employees with constructive feedback, highlighting both successes and areas for improvement.

  • Timely identifies deviations from the plan and takes the necessary actions to correct the situation

• Working with a team (creates conditions for productive work and team development):

  • Helps employees both in their work and in their personal affairs, maintaining a balance between assistance and their independence

  • Resolves disagreements and conflicts through discussions, taking into account the interests of all, but with an emphasis on business

  • Uses effective methods of motivating employees (based on values, not instincts), taking into account their needs and characteristics

  • Actively promotes the growth and development of employees by understanding their strengths and areas for growth

  • Creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust, carries out activities to improve the microclimate in the team

Hard skills:

• Technical expertise:

  • Bitrix24 and Bitrix Framework

  • REST API Bitrix24

  • Working with VM Bitrix

  • Working with Git

• Coding Skills:

  • PHP7+,

  • JavaScript, Vue.js

  • MySQL

  • HTML + CSS

• Architectural thinking:

Behavioral features:

• Responsibility (meets obligations and takes a proactive stance):

  • Fulfills agreements and meets deadlines

  • Takes the necessary measures if he sees risks of non-compliance with deadlines or agreements

  • Boldly makes difficult decisions, especially in critical situations, and does not put them off for later

  • Takes responsibility for his decisions, actions and their results

  • Takes responsibility for the work and results of his team, including positive and negative aspects

• Personal effectiveness (constantly increases expertise and achieves high results)

  • Ability to work with long-term tasks – planning for the quarter and following the plan

  • Plans things for the week/day

  • Persistently overcomes obstacles on the way to the goal, does not stop in case of failures

  • Finds solutions to complex situations that have no obvious solution

  • Engaged in self-development and strives to constantly improve his skills and knowledge

  • Acts boldly and confidently, assessing himself and his abilities adequately

• Flexibility and adaptability (adapts quickly and effectively to change and working with different people)

  • Calmly perceives various changes and quickly finds optimal ways to work in new conditions

  • Identifies and conveys the positive aspects of changes, sees new opportunities in them

  • Open to the opinions of others, able to discuss different ideas and change his point of view when necessary

  • Shows flexibility in working with people and adapts to situations when necessary to achieve set goals.

  • Continues to work effectively when tasks or goals suddenly change without requiring much time to adapt

• Written and oral communication (ensures common understanding and builds effective working relationships)

  • Expresses thoughts clearly, concisely and competently in both written and oral communication

  • Listens carefully, does not interrupt, asks additional questions if you need to understand better

  • Selects the best way to convey information based on the situation and needs: oral speech, text, presentation, etc.

  • Understands and takes into account the emotions of others in conversation, expresses his/her emotions adequately to the situation and context

  • Communicates respectfully, controlling his non-verbal communication (gestures, facial expressions, intonation and body movements)

Who rated

The assessment was conducted by the head of the development department, colleagues and myself (self-assessment). Let me remind you that during the assessment it was necessary to assess each competence on a four-point scale, where 0 is no assessment, 1 is absolutely terrible, 2 is a hygienic minimum, 3 is exceeds expectations. In my opinion, the range is quite limited, so I did not have enough assessments – between 1 and 2 – bad, and between 2 and 3 – meets expectations. It seems to me that in this way it would be possible to assess the competences more subtly.

results

The overall assessment results were displayed on three diagrams: soft skills, hard skills and behavioral features. In the diagrams, colored lines indicate the average ratings of each group of evaluators: blue – colleagues, green – manager, red – the person being assessed (me), gray – subordinate. The background color of the diagram also matters: pink – competence is below the acceptable level, green – acceptable level of competence, gray – optimal level of competence.

Soft skills

Hard skills

Behavioral features

In addition to average indicators, the assessment revealed my most and least developed competencies:

For a long time, I paid a lot of attention to developing my technical competencies and coding skills: courses, reading books and articles, attending meetups, conferences, etc. Hence this result in hard skills. But behind all this, I forgot that people are not machines, that you need to help colleagues not only in work matters, but also in personal matters, listen, ask questions, discuss solutions, and not immediately give out your optimal one.

Also, based on the assessment results, the TOP-5 blind spots were formed (I had only three). These are my competencies that I underestimate, while my colleagues, on the contrary, consider them my strengths. Thus, the assessment showed that I do not have a high enough opinion of my knowledge of Bitrix24. In fact, I believe that there is no limit to perfection, and when assessing this competence, I deliberately underestimated the indicator a little, because I know that in the near future I need to study ReactJS and BitrixVue. In addition, my colleagues noted my planning skills. Indeed, I always calculate dark scenarios, take risks into account and set optimal deadlines.

Based on the assessments, the system also revealed my hidden capabilities; in fact, these are the points of my immediate development – things that are worth working on. All three competencies that I should develop from the soft skills block are related to teamwork and facilitation. Colleagues noted that in my feedback they lack an emphasis on their positive achievements, trust in their work, and they also believe that I should pay attention to facilitation skills, namely, to develop the competence to create a comfortable, trusting environment within the group.

General comment on the assessment from the HR manager

After completing the assessment, I received a general comment from the HR manager:

Olya, congratulations on passing the 360 ​​assessment! It's always as exciting as it is interesting) Now for your results.

Globally everything is ok, strong technical expertise and coding skills, which everyone notes, the best result in hard skills.

Growth zones:
– Less stress and control, more trust
– Facilitation Training – ScrumMaster/TL
– React trainingTraining ReactJS, BitrixVue
– Regarding delegation / asking for help

And remember that perfectionism is healthy, but it is important to remember the human factor. Be more attentive to your colleagues, take an interest in their personal lives, and don’t be afraid to ask for help or delegate tasks. It's always nice to see your success and growth!

Following the assessment, a meeting was held with me to discuss the results and my further development in the company. I was able to ask questions to the HR manager and my supervisor. Together, we developed a training plan and selected events that I would attend to improve my soft skills.

Conclusion

The 360-degree assessment gave me insight into my strengths and weaknesses. I received positive feedback on my technical skills, project management ability, and leadership qualities. At the same time, I received constructive criticism on my facilitation and delegation skills. This helped me identify areas where I needed to improve.

And my overall assessment of the method is that it is an opportunity to discover growth points, there is no need to be afraid of it) If you want to pump up your competencies and improve your performance, I recommend taking the 360-degree assessment. This is a valuable experience that is worth going through to get an acceleration of development and a professional leap.