A decade ago, "multirater" performance feedback for
employees was a fad found in just a handful of businesses. Today,
"it's used by over half the Fortune 500," says Susan
Gebelein, a senior vice president at Minneapolis-based Personnel
Decisions International, a creator of staff development tools. That
makes multirater feedback--where employees get formal insights on
their performance from multiple sources such as peers, their
subordinates and their boss--the hottest human resources trend
around. The question is, Why is it so rapidly replacing the
traditional boss-to-subordinate, one-way performance feedback model
that has prevailed for generations?
Simple, says Mick Mount, chairman of the Department of
Management and Organization at the University of Iowa in Iowa City:
"We have come to recognize the boss does not know all the
answers. Certainly, the boss's perspective is valuable, but is
it the only one? When we supplement it with the perspectives of
others, we are much more likely to get a comprehensive picture of a
person's performance."
In the smallest businesses, boss-to-subordinate performance
feedback may be all that's needed to jump-start a worker's
output. When there are only two to four employees, the boss may
have ample insight into how an employee deals not only with him or
her but also with co-workers.
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But as a business grows, the boss can't see the whole
picture. Some employees are skilled at giving the boss exactly what
he or she wants but drop the ball when dealing with co-workers.
Others are esteemed by co-workers but little noticed by the boss.
Either way, boss-to-subordinate evaluations provide a very limited
point of view--and that's where multirater feedback comes
in.
In addition to the boss's perspective, ratings are given by
a minimum of three co-workers, says Bruce Knudson, owner of Cape
Coral, Florida-based Positive Directions Inc., a consulting firm
specializing in customer and employee retention. If the rated
employee has subordinates, at least three of them should be
involved, too. Why use so many raters? A diversity of voices helps
to preserve anonymity, meaning workers are more apt to be
honest.
Another plus of instituting multirater feedback: Few bosses
enjoy doing one-on-one evaluations, and, often, they simply neglect
doing them. The multirater system means the burden is shared,
making it much more likely to produce valid results that benefit
the employee and the business.
Will workers welcome the new system? "They are very
receptive--that's what we have found in most
organizations," says Gebelein. "In businesses where there
has been a history of mistrust and antagonism, we occasionally find
workers who mistrust the process at first. Even there, though,
confidence in multi-rater feedback grows over time."
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