STEP 12:
UNDERSTAND HOW BREAKOUT OF RATER RESPONSES IS HANDLED

By rater responses, we mean the responses that come from the people who rated the manager. This usually includes direct reports, peers, boss(es), and customers. Find out how rater data are treated in the feedback display.

Most 360-degree-feedback instruments present boss, peer, direct report, and customer ratings as separate average scores, but some combine the ratings of all “others” into one average score. Other instruments display the average rating from direct reports separately but combine boss ratings with peers.

Using separate ratings for each rater group may be more powerful, in that it gives the manager more information. It can also be more complicated to interpret, more compromising of rater anonymity, and more painful to receive. Again, consider how much guidance and support you, or others in your organization, will be providing managers when they receive their feedback. The more guidance people receive, the better they are able to benefit from the enhanced impact that feedback from separate rater groups can provide.

An issue with providing separate boss feedback is that rater confidentiality is compromised. If only one supervisor completes the instrument on a manager, his or her responses will be exposed under the “boss” category. Even if supervisors have been made aware (as they should be) that their responses will be known to the manager, confidentiality is still an issue to consider.

Raters who know or believe that their responses will not be confidential may not be completely open in their evaluations, compromising the quality of their data. Although breakout of rater data increases impact, it may decrease confidentiality and, occasionally, data quality. However, we believe that because the various rater groups often have very different perspectives of a manager’s performance, it is better to present the ratings from each perspective separately.