• Selection Services: Compatibility Assessments Improve Fit and Retention of New Hires
• Executive Integration: VP Integration Drives a More Productive Senior Management Team
• Professional Development (Executive Development): Salvaging a Troubled New Director
• Professional Development (Company-wide Employee Development Programs): Enhancing Performance Through Employee Development
• Professional Development (Assessment Tools): Revamped 360 Assessment Tool Facilitates Manager Development
• Customized Leadership & Management Training: Leadership Academy Yields Consistent Management Approach
• Organizational Change Management: Effective Integration Maximizes Acquisition Value

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Service Category: Professional Development (Assessment Tools)

The Problem

A large utility regularly used 360-degree feedback assessments as part of its pursuit of continuous improvement. Managers annually participated in a 360-degree assessment of themselves and incorporated the results into their professional development plans. They became discouraged, however, that the feedback didn't provide enough helpful information to create truly useful development plans, and therefore the process did not warrant all the time it consumed.

How We Helped

Upon analyzing the 360-degree assessment tool, we discovered the corporate culture disapproved of giving anyone a poor rating. Since most managers were rated as exceeding expectations, few developmental opportunities were identified. Further, most reviewers did not provide written comments even though these were perceived to be the most helpful part of the assessment. However, managers felt that many of the written comments that were provided were too vague to be helpful. We developed a new, streamlined 360-degree assessment tool that elicited much more specific feedback across a range of attributes and prioritized developmental recommendations.

Outcome

• Managers overwhelmingly said the new 360-degree tool was much easier to use and provided more useful information to them than its predecessor.
• The organization is now using data mining technology built into the new 360-degree assessment to better understand their managers' developmental needs and fine tune their large-scale training initiatives.