Rating Your Boss: When does the Lawyer see the Feedback?
It won't surprise you that I read other Blogs. There is a posting on Evil HR Lady about a new website called eBoss Watch where you can anonymously rate your boss and search other employee's ratings. I think the sight is largely an effort to capitalize on wave of "bullying" articles that have appeared lately.
The Evil HR Lady doesn’t like the site and I agree. These anonymous ratings are purely cathartic and usually don't have enough structure to give meaningful feedback. I tried to take the eBoss survey, but it was blocked by the office firewall. Major marketing oversight.
There are a whole host of management assessment tools that include employee feedback. Whether its called 360 degree feedback or some other name, it sometimes finds its way to a lawyer's desk as evidence in a termination case.
The peer feedback and evaluation contained in a 360 feedback can be powerful evidence in employment discrimination cases arising from a performance termination or reduction in force. Although the opinions expressed are entirely subjective, the structure of a 360 evaluation makes it seem objective. In the cases that I have presented 360 evaluation evidence to a judge or jury, it has been a powerful persuader because 360 feedback:
- Demonstrates that the employer had a process that was designed to help the employee improve performance.
- Includes both a numeric rating and anecdotal comments.
- Usually isn't all negative.
- Bases its assessment on a broader group of people.
- Communicates clearly and in writing.
On the other hand, I can't imagine relying on anonymous website gossip to convince someone that my boss's performance was good or bad.
You won't get any arguments from me on this one. I've been encouraging organizations to implement 360 degree feedback or some variation of multi-rater feedback for years as part of a comprehensive performance management process.
In addition to the productivity and profitability benefits demonstrated in several recently released studies and white papers (www.mckinsey.com and www.aberdeen.com), your experience with 360 feedback as a proactive and effective strategy and tool to defend against claims made by disgruntled employees who cry "unfair treatment" or "harassment" is invaluable. This is just one more good reason to encourage employers to use 360 performance evaluations.
But I recommend one critical caution. 360 feedback is NOT a replacement for the annual performance. 360 performance systems encourage ongoing discussion between a manager and employee, placing the focus on progress (or lack of progress) made toward meeting performance expectations. The annual review is still vital, but merely becomes a summary of all the discussions throughout the year - no surprises with little if any confrontation or pressure for the manager or employee.
I have to agree that eboss is completely useless as it compiles too much anonymous information, a 360 degree feedback report is much more informative because it relates to you and your colleagues at that point in time and you can see the areas of improvement required rather that 'this guy stinks'...but stinks at what?