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Want to bring more feedback into your performance talks? Try 360 feedback surveys!

360 feedback surveys aren’t a required part of performance management. But if you think your team member could benefit from additional perspectives—or if you’d like more data points to enrich your performance talk with them—the 360 feedback survey might be just the right tool to use.

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Best Practices

To make 360s useful — not just “check the box” — here are proven best practices:

• Ensure confidentiality & trust → Make feedback anonymous (especially peer/direct report feedback) and be clear about how data will be used and who will see it.
• Provide clear instructions & context → Explain why the 360 is happening, what the goals are, and how to give constructive feedback (focus on behaviours, not personalities).
• Include self-assessment → Have each person rate themselves on the same questions to highlight where perceptions align or diverge.
• Use multiple feedback sources → Gather input from managers, peers, direct reports, and cross-functional partners to get the full picture.
• Balance quantitative & qualitative → Use ratings (for trends) alongside open-ended questions (for rich insights).
• Follow up with action planning → Translate feedback into a development plan with 2–3 focus areas and regular check-ins.
• Ensure inclusion & fairness → Watch for bias (gender, cultural, seniority) and ensure comparable feedback sources across people.
• Review survey design regularly → Revisit and adapt questions over time to keep them relevant and useful.
• Communicate & be transparent → Share the timeline, purpose, and confidentiality up front, then follow up with themes, next steps, and expectations after the survey.

How to Set it Up

• Choose a survey tool: Set up the survey in Google Forms, Typeform, or any other tool your team is comfortable with.

• Add the right questions: Include a mix of structured and open-ended questions. A simple but effective framework is:

  • What should [Name] start doing?

  • What should [Name] continue doing?

  • What should [Name] stop doing?

    You can also tailor questions to the role (see department-specific ideas below).

• Select participants thoughtfully: Pick 2–5 colleagues who work closely with the team member. You can also ask the team member for input on who they’d like feedback from, but as a manager you should ensure diversity of perspectives (peers, cross-functional partners, etc.).

• Have the team member send the survey: It’s best that the person themselves shares the survey link with the selected colleagues, not you as their manager. This empowers them to take ownership of their feedback process, reduces the sense that the survey is a “performance evaluation” initiated by management, and encourages more open and authentic responses from peers.

• Review results together: Collect the feedback, share a summary with the team member, and use it as input for their next performance talk. Encourage the team member to reflect on the themes, highlight strengths, and identify 2–3 development areas.