Building Effective Teams & Evaluation

Performance evaluation is needed in order to determine the effectiveness of the employee or the team member. Evaluations can also provide the management and shareholders the value of the employee and the amount and quality of contributions s/he gives to the team and the company. One of the traditional ways of measuring performance of an employee is through the personal assessment and observation of the employee’s immediate supervisor. Though this may be one good way of knowing how the employee is performing, it is not the most effective method.

This measurement tool is only based from one viewpoint – the immediate superior’s. Though the supervisor may be known to be as objective as s/he can be, there is still no assurance that there is no touch of bias in evaluations of some employees or team members. A much better way in evaluating an employee’s performance at work is through the so-called 360 degree feedback. As defined in the article “360 degree feedback [Performance Appraisal” (n. d. ), “[it] incorporates multiple perspectives by using feedback from a variety of sources. These sources include peers, subordinates, customers, self, and supervisor.

” Feedback is essential in understanding how an individual performs his jobs. A constructive feedback is an effective tool to help an individual be aware of his/her strengths and areas for improvement. This can help the person enhance those skills where s/he is good at and improve or modify his ways to lessen the areas for improvement. A constructive feedback can help build a better individual and employee at the same time. If different feedbacks come from different sources as mentioned above, there will be a much better understanding of an individual’s performance in all aspects.

This eliminates the possibility of missing out things that are not being observed by the supervisor if s/he is the only one providing feedback. It is common to everyone, no matter what nationality s/he belongs to, to be not so open and perform differently when the boss is around than when the boss is not present. Most people would show extra effort when they know that they are being observed by their superiors. However, they may act differently when they are not being observed by any manager. A 360 degree feedback can effectively show the real performance and ability of an individual.

It also shows how the person is working with other people in the team which is something that a supervisor’s observation may not notice. All the positive and negative things in all aspect of the employee’s work performance can be identified, which makes this type of feedback more effective than the traditional one. In a global-based team, a 360 degree feedback is definitely helpful as the different qualities and skill sets can be effectively assessed by the manager. The employee’s tolerance to diversity, for example, can better be evaluated by his/her peers from other cultural background.

The views and comments of other team members to an individual is important in this kind of team setup, especially when they are not located in a single geographical location and no physical observation can be done. In essence, a 360 degree feedback is indeed recommended to be used as a performance measurement tool for the team members, as well as for the managers. It is one of the most, if not the most, effective method in evaluating the overall performance of an employee or team member. Reference 360 degree feedback [Performance Appraisal]. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 1, 2006 from http://www. citehr. com/360-degree-feedback. php