Designing a good 360 feedback questionnaire is critical to collecting reliable, actionable insight. Yet many questions fall short, due to wording, structure, or the nature of the behaviour being assessed.
Below are eight common pitfalls to avoid, drawn from real-world examples of poorly performing 360 items:
Example: "When needed, challenges inappropriate behaviour"
If a behaviour occurs rarely or is difficult to observe, raters may struggle to respond meaningfully on a frequency scale which leads to low reliability.
Example: "Is an 'expert' in their field"
Subjective terms such as "expert" or "professional" are open to interpretation, leading to inconsistent ratings based on perception rather than observable behaviour.
Example: "Invites feedback and uses it to improve"
This type of question tries to assess multiple behaviours at once. If a respondent observes one but not the other, their answer becomes unclear.
Example: "Makes a valuable contribution to external client meetings"
If a rater hasn't directly observed the behaviour, their rating may be based on assumptions or second-hand information, reducing validity.
Example: "Is seen as the ‘go to’ person"
This describes a yes/no condition rather than a frequency-based behaviour. It's better suited to binary assessments than 5-point scales.
Example: "Effectively applies the ABC process"
Highly specific items may be relevant to only a few respondents, undermining the breadth and usefulness of the feedback.
Example: "Evaluates own performance against Key Performance Indicators"
Questions that ask about internal thought processes or self-reflection are hard for others to rate accurately.
Example: "Effectively attracts sponsors to establish top-down support"
Unclear wording can confuse respondents, resulting in varied interpretations and inconsistent data.
By contrast, well written 360 feedback questions:
Use this checklist to audit your current 360 feedback questions or, if you'd like a more tailored approach, take advantage of our free 360 feedback questionnaire design service.
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