In today’s competitive market every corporate organization is trying to adapt a strong appraisal process for its associates. In recent years we found several innovative ways of appraising the associates for any organization. The appraisal process like 360 degree and upward feedback process went a long way and became very popular in today’s scenario. Upward feedback occurs when associates provide information or feedback to a manager or supervisor to whom they are directly/indirectly reporting. Per wikipedia website the definition of Upward Feedback is: “In leadership development and management development, upward feedback (also known as manager feedback and subordinate appraisal) is a structured process of delivering feedback from subordinates to managers, intended to identify ways to increase management effectiveness and enhance organizational performance. Basic idea of the upward feedback is that you are only as good a manager as your subordinate thinks you are. Through the mechanism of ‘upward feedback’ employees in an organization can influence the behavior of managers. The feedback is intended create two-way communication between employees and managers that can assist in developing leadership skills“.
Skills for which Upward Feedback can be conducted
Different skills on which one associate can be evaluated are leadership skill, Managerial skills and Soft skills.
1. Leadership Skill – Leadership is a skill by which a person is responsible to influence or motivate his co-workers to accomplish a defined objective & strategy and to manage the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent in terms of profit, growth and profile.
2. Managerial Skill – Managerial skill is a skill by which one associate helps an organization in planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the resources of the organization. The resources can be people, jobs or positions, technology, facilities and equipment, materials and supplies, information, and money. Managers should be capable of doing work in a variable situation and should be capable enough to adapt with company processes and policies as quickly as possible.
3. Soft Skill – Soft skill refers to the stack of personality and attitudes which help to differentiate between two different people. Soft skill helps people to help him or others at any bad circumstances. People with good soft skill are always the noticeable person among all other associates.
Who can Conduct Upward Feedback
Not every company should conduct upward feedback. The company should be mature enough to sustain the effect of upward feedback. The bad or destructive attitudes towards sub-ordinates feedback may lead to a huge damage to relationship among associates. The company should have a proper plan before it adapts upward feedback. Upward feedback should be anonymous to associates.
A Brief Idea ON How You can Conduct Upward Feedback
A. It will be based on a questionnaires. A web-based survey package will be used to collect the feedbacks from associates.
B. Supervisors name will be decided first and will be available as drop down choice in survey questionnaires. Associate needs to select his/her immediate supervisor.
C. User will be having user ID and password to submit the survey and they can not response more than one time.
D. Feedbacks collected from the associates will be anonymous to his/her supervisor, but associate can be tracked through his user ID of the Survey. It will help us to justify and validate the feedback received from the associates.
E. Weighted average of all ratings for different questions will be taken for final rating. Rating will also be disclosed at core competency level to better understand and realize the feedback.
F. Individual feedback report will be send to the supervisor of that particular associate for whom we collected feedbacks.
G. A Lower Control Limit (LCL) and a Upper Control Limit (UCL) will be calculated from all the rating received in the account.
H. If any particular feedback falls outside of UCL or LCL, calculated as per standard rule for UCL & LCL, will be send to supervisor (say, S2) of that particular supervisor (say, S1) for whom we collected feedbacks for his/her attention and decision. Supervisor (S2) can analyze and will have the power to choose one of the following options:
1. Accept the rating even though it is outside of the LCL or UCL.
2. Reject the rating such that it will not be the part of the final rating calculations of the supervisor.
3. Initiate a one to one dialog with the associate who gave the feedback, and based on the discussion he/she can decide to keep it or reject it.
I. Once a decision is received on the disputed ratings (falling outside LCL or UCL), the final ratings for all supervisors who have been evaluated will be calculated.
Questions and Competencies for Upward Feedback
Here are the few questions which can be asked in order to evaluate upward feedback. The each question will be having a rank or score in a scale of 1 to 5 and a weightage in a scale of 1 to 5. The weighted sum of all questions will indicate the final score of the supervisor for whom upward feedback has been collected.
Core competency – Leadership Skills
1. Sub-ordinate Competency – Involves others: (Weightage – 4) Does your Supervisor recognize your strengths and when you need to develop, support you through this?
2. Sub-ordinate Competency – Effective Communication: (Weightage – 4) Does your convey goal, objectives and new processes clearly and compelling manner?
3. Sub-ordinate Competency – Supports teamwork & team binding: (Weightage – 5) How well does he create a sense of belonging and ownership among team members?
4. Sub-ordinate Competency – Strategic orientation: (Weightage – 2) Does your supervisor pro-actively analyze the risks or problems and try to find the solution for that?
5. Sub-ordinate Competency – Work Delegation: (Weightage – 4) Have you been clear about roles & responsibilities in your team?
6. Sub-ordinate Competency – Acts as a role model: (Weightage – 5) Does your supervisor set an example within your team or for you?
Core competency – Managerial Skills
1. Sub-ordinate Competency – Process awareness: (Weightage – 4) Did your supervisor answer/follow the processes in the project and answered your queries whenever you had one regarding the process?
2. Sub-ordinate Competency – Problem solving skills: (Weightage – 5) How many times your supervisor ever helps you solve a problem even if he did not have enough knowledge about it?
3. Sub-ordinate Competency – Planning Skills: (Weightage – 4) Do you feel things were always planned in the project?
4. Sub-ordinate Competency – Decision making skills: (Weightage – 4) How many times did you feel that the supervisor did not make right decisions at right times?
5. Sub-ordinate Competency – Technical proficiency: (Weightage – 2) How many times did the supervisor solve your technical problems satisfactorily?
6. Sub-ordinate Competency – Crisis management: (Weightage – 3) How well he manages the crisis? Does he have a soothing influence on the team?
Core competency – Soft Skills
1. Sub-ordinate Competency – Good Listener: (Weightage – 5) How well do you think your supervisor listens to you and understands you?
2. Sub-ordinate Competency – Enthusiasm & Energy: (Weightage – 5) Do you feel your supervisor displays enough enthusiasm & energy at work to drive his team?
3. Sub-ordinate Competency – Credibility/trustworthiness: (Weightage – 4) How much do you rely on your superior for day to day activities?
4. Sub-ordinate Competency – Responsiveness: (Weightage – 3) Does your supervisor respond to your queries and concerns respecting the timelines?
5. Sub-ordinate Competency – Working under pressure: (Weightage – 3) How well does he handle the stress that accompanies deadlines and other limitations or constraints while giving enough space to the team to continue working?
6. Sub-ordinate Competency – All work & no play: (Weightage – 2) Does he/she encourage informal team and interpersonal relationship building activities?
