Lexicon Of 360-Degree Feedback Terminology

Auto Email

An email sent automatically on a date of your choosing. There are seven types:

  • Subject Catalyst: Invites Subjects to go online and input their Responders.
  • Subject Reminder: Reminds Subjects who are slow to provide Responders.
  • Subject Address Correction: Asks a Subject to correct an undeliverable address they provided for a Responder. The email links them to an online tool where they can make the correction.
  • Subject Report: Generates and sends Subjects' reports as email attachments on the scheduled date.
  • Responder Pre-Announcement: Informs recipients that a 360-degree feedback Project will soon begin. Additional advantage: you'll get bounce-backs from addresses that have been entered incorrectly, enabling you to make corrections before the Catalysts are sent. The email does not include details of the URL or PID.
  • Responder Catalyst: Invites Responders to go online and respond to the Questionnaire. Provides URL and PID.
  • Responder Reminder: Reminds Responders who are slow responding. Sometimes you may send two or more Reminders. Provides URL and PID.

Closing Date

There is no fixed closing date set in the system, even though you will announce a "closing date" in your Auto Emails. This provides flexibility to keep questionnaires open longer if needed, allowing certain responders to reply late. Based on the response rate, you can decide to extend the due date if necessary. You control when to close the questionnaire for responses.

A Subject's questionnaire closes whenever you generate a Report for that Subject. You can choose to close some questionnaires while keeping others open.

All questionnaires in the Project close at the same time when you:

  • Generate a Subject's Report that includes Comparatives to the group, or
  • Generate a Group Report, or
  • Export the Project data

To avoid closing questionnaires, generate an "Interim" Report.

Comments or Narrative Comments

Comments allow responders to communicate in their own words, often providing valuable insights and details that can help motivate the Subject to make improvements.

Confidentiality:

For Responders

Trust in the 360 process requires that your administrator be trained in and committed to confidentiality, since it is possible for this person to manipulate the system to discover specific responses.

Keeping Responders' input secret is crucial to effective 360-degree feedback, and is inherent in Panoramic Feedback. Reports never reveal "who said what", except that the Manager's responses are usually identifiable, to enhance the supervisory process. (The Subject's self-evaluation is usually identified as well, for comparative purposes.)

For Subjects

Expectations about whether the Subjects' results will be kept confidential should be publicized in advance of the 360, and rigorously upheld. For instance, a Group Report may provide details of how the Subjects were ranked.

DataBank

Saves time by importing a single file to populate your People List with names and other information for all Subjects and Responders. The import file can be generated from a spreadsheet, database, address book, or HRIS system. (DataBank is available in Enterprise Edition only.)

Default Text

Default text is English text that is automatically applied to Questionnaires and Reports, for instance the text of the "Submit" button, or beside the date the "Survey opened". You may change these default texts to any language supported by Panoramic Feedback, by using the "Text Adaptation" sub-tab on the REPORTS tab.

Dual-Scale Numeric

See Numeric.

Export

A compilation of all responses to the Questionnaire in comma-separated-values format. This format is readable by spreadsheets and statistical programs. Preserves confidentiality by not identifying individual Responders. Exports all response data (numerical and comments) in zipped format.

Grid

The information lists that appear on many pages (Overview, People, Emails). All grids provide the same basic functionality. Example: the People List sub-tab features a grid displaying all the information available about all the people (Subjects, Responders, and others) in the Project.

Group Report

An aggregate report on an entire project, or set of projects, produced for strategic purposes, which provides an overview of the skill levels revealed by the project. It is presented in PDF format. Generating a Group Report closes the Questionnaires for all Subjects to any further responses, unless you generate an "Interim" Group Report.

Heading

See Question Heading.

Numeric

The form of question used in 360-degree feedback. It consists of a behavior description followed by a scale on which the Responder indicates the extent of agreement with the description. Example of a numeric: "Communicates well in writing", followed by an agreement scale of 1-10.

Dual-Scale Numerics use two scales to produce additional information. The first scale generally queries skill level, while the second scale may query the importance of the skill for the Subject's job, or the skill level expected of the Subject.

Opening Date

Before this date, which you set on the PROJECT tab, no one is able to respond to Questionnaires.

PID (Personal Identification)

A unique identifier that connects a particular Responder with a particular Subject. A Responder with several Subjects will be assigned several PIDs (one per Subject). PIDs must be kept secret, otherwise other persons could view or change the Responder's responses. (The PID format is: abc-123456-78-wxyz.)

People List

Information about all people involved in a 360 project (both Subjects and Responders) are stored in the People List. Their information may be entered individually or through the DataBank import system (where available). Thereafter, Subjects are chosen and Responders assigned to them.

Project

A single 360 initiative that starts on a certain date and includes specified People (Subjects and Responders), a Questionnaire, and Auto Emails, which concludes with the generation of Reports for the Subjects (and often a Group Report).

Do not reuse a previous project, even if its layout is perfect. Instead, create a new project by copying settings from your previous 'template' project. This will import the old questionnaire and other custom setup details.

Question Heading

Questions (Numerics and Comments) are organized under a Question Headings. You will generally use Headings that correspond with your core Competencies. (See Numerics.) Under each Competency (or, Question Heading), you will typically place a few Behavior descriptions (or, Numerics).

Responders reply to Numerics, not to Question Headings. 

Relationship Category

How the Responder is related to the Subject. Examples: the Responder might be the manager, peer, direct report, or external customer of the Subject. The Subject's Report will group responses according to Relationship Categories.

Report, or Subject's Report

A comprehensive summary of 360-degreefeedback gathered from multiple sources about a Subject's performance. A PDF document generated when you decide that the Subject has received sufficient responses. Generating the Report closes that Subject's Questionnaire to any further responses, unless you generate an "Interim" Report. 

Responder

A person invited to respond to a 360 Questionnaire.

Subject

A person being assessed using 360-degree feedback.

Assessment Credits

You need one assessment credit for each person assessed at a time. A credit is required to compile results for the Subject, whether interim or final. Consider purchasing assessment credits in advance to avoid delays in report generation.

Tabs (and Sub-tabs)

The five Tabs lead you to the necessary steps in a Panoramic Feedback project: Enter information about the project, identify the People who will be Subjects and Responders, design the Questionnaire, write and schedule Auto Emails that will announce the project, and once the responses are complete, generate Reports.

Sub-tabs are divisions under each tab. They lead you to tasks that you may or may not need to complete.

Template

A Template is a project which you have prepared to import (or, copy from), to simplify the creation of a new project. See FAQs as well.

URL

Internet address (link). A simple URL is easy to enter manually into the Responder's browser: e.g. www.360respond.com.