The reputation of the 360° as a major tool for developing skills on an individual level is well established. On the other hand, its use in a collective perspective is still rather sparse. However, the consolidated analysis of individual data provides a global vision on the perception of skills of a population and is an invaluable management tool for management and HR teams.

A steering committee coaching tool

The consolidation of the 360° data of a management team makes it possible to identify the skills that are mastered and the points that it must strengthen collectively. It also highlights their degree of homogeneity in the expected leadership behaviours. From this data, the management team can reflect together on its way of doing things, its impact as a governing body, its operating rules, its collective development plan.

An HR program management tool

The consolidated analysis of data from individual 360° reports gives a precise vision of the skills already mastered and those that need to be strengthened. For example, an analysis of this type applied to a 360° campaign deployed among the 300 executives of a major global financial sector group has provided useful lessons. In this company, leaders are recognised – among others – for their ability to support change and give sense on the one hand, for their customer orientation on the other. On the other hand, their ability to give feedback and to innovate was perceived as insufficient. These lessons made it possible to influence HR investments accordingly by re – allocating certain training budgets and transforming the content of certain programs.

Beyond a simple consolidation, the use of advanced techniques (factor analysis, cross-skills, quartile analysis, …) gives different keys to reading populations through a typological analysis (clustering) for example.

All these analyses can be carried out with the necessary granularity (division, region, BU, …) in the respect of anonymity and the rules of ethics related to the use of the data.