Which is better, an Employee Opinion Survey or a 360-degree Survey?
Both types of surveys serve a purpose. If you want to learn how your employees feel about certain issues - the benefit package you currently offer employees or what you may offer in the future; their opinions about how they are managed; compensation; or opportunities for advancement, etc. - then an Employee Opinion (or Organizational Climate) should suffice. This is a macro feedback process. You are asking employees and/or customers to provide feedback about a set of people (managers in general) or set of things (policies, procedures, customer service, benefits, training), or a set of products and services. You are not assessing any one person, but a set of people. The feedback can provide you with insights. It can identify emerging trends. You can cross-correlate the data by a wide range of demographics. Keep in mind the data are not about you or me, but about us or them.
Conversely, a 360 survey provides feedback to a specific person. You may have a whole set of people you want to assess, yet the data are about each of those people as individuals. Raters provide feedback to a specific team leader, or their immediate manager, or to an account executive. Regardless whether the data identify strengths or weaknesses, the data are about that one named individual. 360 surveys can act as a catalyst for changing behavior, so long as you build in accountability and follow up and see the process as on-going rather than as a one-off exercise.
If you want to learn more about departmental or organizational issues in general, consider a macro survey. If you want individuals to learn more about themselves and how they can perform more effectively, consider a micro survey.
