Have you received an invitation, especially
on LinkedIn to evaluate one of your peers via the 360 evaluation process? I recently accepted a colleague's invitation
to be peer reviewed in this manner and in this post I want to give my honest
impression of this evaluation process.
But first how does it work? It is a web-based peer evaluation system where
the reviewer has to drag the 18 most positive attributes of the colleague to
another box, then those most likely to be associated with the colleague, and
then lastly those least likely to be associated with the colleague. In addition you have to single out attributes
needing attention. You have to drag 18
attributes for each category and are then left with all attributes not dragged
over and thus being forced to associate them with the least likely to be associated with the colleague. The process seems quite fine until you reach
the least likely category. Even if you do not necessarily agree with the
attribute you are forced to drag it to the box.
And this is where I have a problem with the evaluation, namely being
forced to drag all remaining attributes to
the least likely to be associated with box.
The biggest advantage is that peers are
perhaps in a better position to evaluate a colleague's work than the supervisor
who is not always working that closely with the colleague. All strengths and
weaknesses can also be identified. The
biggest disadvantage, however, is that you are forced to drag all attributes
not previously selected to the colleague's least
likely to be associated with category
or that the reviewer will not be that honest.