Compare the Best 360 Degree Feedback Software Tools (2024)
Our HR software experts have reviewed the best 360 degree feedback tools on the market right now. See feature and pricing comparisons, advice on product demos, common pitfalls, and more below.
.png){kind=logo}
Top 360-Degree Feedback Solutions
With more teams remote than ever before, now is the time to give your employees new ways to stay engaged and motivated from anywhere. One valuable tool is 360-degree feedback: performance input garnered from direct reports, bosses, colleagues, and customers.
In this article we will delve into the software that supports 360-degree feedback. Our HR tech recommendations are based on weeks of researching online, talking to experts, and receiving demos from vendors in this space. We’ll give you a comprehensive list of the best 360-degree feedback solutions, as well as the benefits and challenges of implementing a new feedback program.
The cornerstone of a 360 program is gathering useful, timely, and constructive employee feedback. This can serve as a critical component of performance management. According to a SHRM, 77 percent of HR executives believe performance reviews don’t accurately reflect employee contributions. That’s because they’re traditionally infrequent and unilateral.
360 feedback, in contrast, involves various perspectives for a more comprehensive view of employees’ performance, strengths, and areas of improvement. Think of them as growth checkins adding contour to the feedback environment. Today’s best 360 solutions help your HR team understand overarching employee trends in order to make informed decisions on training and hiring needs.
A strong 360-degree feedback program is supported by software that automates manual processes. Our goal with this guide is to save you time and support your success in choosing a 360 solution provider. We do the first 5-10 hours of researching software so that you can bring a vendor shortlist to stakeholders.
Feel free to use all of our resources throughout your vendor selection process. We have questions for demos, an ROI analysis, a checklist for securing internal buy-in, and an extensive lineup of HR software categories. Best wishes in your software selection — please be sure to let us know how the process goes for you!
To select the best 360-degree feedback software, our team attended product demos, interviewed users and experts, and tested the tools firsthand. We looked at dozens of options, but the ones that stood out excelled in four key aspects: customizable surveys, anonymous feedback, integrated performance management, and insightful analytics.
- Customizable surveys: The best 360 feedback tools enable you to fully customize surveys with your own question set, rating scales, and comment sections. This level of flexibility allows you to tailor surveys to specific roles, teams, and organizational goals.
- Anonymous feedback: Anonymity is crucial if you want to get honest feedback. It’s a shield that enables your employees to provide constructive criticism without fear of retaliation. The top solutions in this space come equipped with anonymity settings and data access controls to put your employees at ease.
- Integrated performance management: To derive maximum value, 360 assessments need to connect to performance reviews, goal setting, and training. We favored tools that integrate with performance management systems rather than operating in silos. This provides managers with context to understand feedback and determine appropriate coaching.
- Insightful analytics: The best 360 feedback software shouldn’t just collect data - it should help you analyze and act on it. We looked for advanced features like customized reports, data filters, feedback trends/comparisons, and tips for understanding and applying results. This transforms survey data into clear developmental insights.
Our mission is to bring you the top solutions in each software category. To learn more about how we do this, check out this article on how we evaluate HR tech vendors.
Deel
Leapsome
SurveySparrow
Peoplebox
eloomi
Empuls
WorkTango
Culture Amp
BambooHR
15five
Trakstar
Need Help? Talk to an HR Software Advisor!
Tell us more about your company & an HR Software Advisor will help you find the right software
Deel
While Deel is best known for global payroll, they have expanded into a comprehensive system encompassing people management, employee learning and performance management features.
PROS
- User-friendly interface with a contemporary design.
- It’s easy to create and customize 360-degree reviews.
- Getting started with Deel’s HRIS is completely free.
- Customers highly regard Deel's customer support team for being quick and helpful when responding.
- One of the best features of Deel is its customer service. They offer 24/7 in-app support and the fastest-in-class onboarding speed of 2-3 days. Users get access to local payroll experts in each jurisdiction, and support is available for contractors facing challenges setting themselves up as an LLC.
- Integrates seamlessly with common platforms like Quickbooks, Bamboo, Greenhouse, and more. They also offer custom integrations to automate and sync processes.
- Self-service approach; tech-enabled features so customers can jump in quickly and easily. Our user researchers found it quite easy to set up: the identity verification process consistently took less than 24 hours, and in some cases, it took mere minutes.
- Automated invoices, which are a breeze to do as long as they’re in English, both on the company and the contractor or employee’s side.
CONS
- Higher price point compared to some alternatives.
- HR capabilities are not as extensive as dedicated HRIS/HCM platforms.
- Lack of a mobile application, with only web-based access available.
- Some of Deel’s best and most powerful services, like onboarding automation, appear to be add-ons, which might be too costly for some companies
- There is little to no flexibility when it comes to altering their contracts or service agreements, so many changes would require an addendum.
- There is a $5 fee per payout
- As far as we’ve seen, it’s not possible to generate invoices in another language.
Deel started out as a global payroll provider and rapidly grew into a comprehensive platform that facilitates people management, performance appraisal, and development too. We tested out their performance management system and liked how easy it was to create and customize reviews. Users can implement up to four types of performance reviews: Self Review, Manager Feedback, Team Feedback, and Peer Feedback. These can be used individually or in combination, allowing for a thorough 360-degree assessment. The system also offers customizable review frequencies, eliminating the need for manual scheduling.
Alongside its review system, Deel provides an OKR and goal-setting module that promotes alignment across individual, team, and organizational objectives, with the added benefit of integrating seamlessly with performance reviews. They also recently launched a Learning Management System (LMS), which helps you address any skill gaps identified through performance reviews. The LMS includes a user-friendly course builder with drag-and-drop functionality, interactive elements like quizzes and surveys, and an automated course assignment system based on predefined criteria.
The platform's career development tools are another notable highlight. These tools allow organizations to create detailed career pathing frameworks, providing employees with clear visualizations of potential growth trajectories within the company.
All in all, we’re impressed by how Deel’s platform expanded so quickly and thoughtfully into a holistic HR suite, with modules covering various aspects of the employee lifecycle. If you’re in the market for an integrated solution combining payroll, people management, and analytics, we think Deel is worth checking out.
Over 35k companies use Deel including Nike, Shopify, Redbull, and Zapier.
Deel’s pricing varies according to the tools you need. It is structured as follows:
- Deel Contractor Management: Starts at $49/contractor/month covering payroll and compliance in 150+ countries.
- Deel EOR: Starts at $599/month for hiring employees without local entities in new countries.
- Deel Payroll: Multi-country payroll for existing entities in 100+ countries starting at $29 per employee per month.
- Deel US Payroll: Compliantly pay U.S. employees for $19 per employee per month.
- Deel US PEO: This plan packs a host of tools to simplify HR, payroll, and benefits for employees hired in all 50 states of the U.S., from $79 per employee per month.
- Deel HR: The plan packs features for you to automate HR admin and reporting for any worker with a global HR system. Pricing starts from $0. That’s right, it’s completely free to start using this plan.
- Deel Engage: Starting at $20 per employee per month, you can use this plan to drive performance, growth, and engagement.
- Deel Immigration: Visa sponsorship in 25+ countries. Contact Sales for a customized quote.
Best For
Deel is a great choice for companies seeking an integrated solution for payroll, HR, and performance management.
Leapsome
Leapsome is highly flexible. To gain the insights you need, you can create custom questions or use their ready-made templates — backed by scientific research and verified by experts.
PROS
- Leapsome provides many features including onboarding, LMS, engagement, performance, goal tracking, and more.
- Most users find Leapsome's UI to be user-friendly and easy to navigate.
- There are many integration options, including a Slack integration.
- Pricing is transparent, and users have the option to pay only for the modules they need.
- Leapsome is quite feature-rich; the platform packs modules for employee onboarding, learning management, engagement, performance management, goals tracking and much more.
- The majority of users find Leapsome’s UI to be friendly and easy to navigate.
- There are lots of third party integrations options to choose from, including Slack, which many users appreciate.
- The platform has transparent pricing, and you only pay for the modules you need.
CONS
- No ability to upload images or files directly into feedback.
- It can take some time to get used to and implement the platform due to the wide range of features.
- There isn’t a mobile app yet to quickly access Leapsome on the go.
- Free trials require booking a sales demo first rather than signing up independently.
- There is currently no way to post or upload an image or file into your feedback.
- Since Leapsome can do so many things, you may need some time to get used to it. The implementation process can also take some time.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app that users can download and access Leapsome quickly on-the-go.
- Free 14-day trials are available but you need to book a demo with the sales team first to sign up for one; you can’t do so on your own.
Leapsome highlights transparency. It serves up people management processes to help organizations develop their employees and scale their business. You can roll it out incrementally, so that people feel engaged with your new HR processes. Leapsome analytics are actionable and linked to learning and development.
Spotify, Babbel, Trivago, Plus Dental, Mercedes Benz.
Leapsome’s pricing varies based on the number of employees, selected modules, and contract length. Modular pricing begins at $7/user/month, billed annually. To get a custom quote, you need to contact the Leapsome sales team. Leapsome also offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card required, so you can test the platform risk-free.
Best For
Leapsome serves companies of all sizes looking to enhance their people management processes, develop their teams and scale their operation.
SurveySparrow
SurveySparrow’s 360 feedback solution packs customizable surveys, multi-rater features, intelligent analytics, automated reminders, and more to support your employees' growth journey and the overall performance of your company.
PROS
- SurveySparrow features a clean and modern interface.
- All surveys are highly customizable and can be translated to over 50 languages.
- Integrates with dozens of platform party platforms to facilitate seamless data syncing,and streamline workflows.
- Users praise SurveySparrow’s support team for being highly responsive.
- There’s a 14-day free trial that anyone can sign up for.
CONS
- At $19 per user per month, SurveySparrow is expensive, especially for small businesses and startups.
- The many features make the platform overwhelming at first, particularly for beginners.
- Reporting functionality needs improvement, with issues extracting, analyzing, and compiling survey data like text responses.
- Some users experienced technical problems like crashing surveys and spam filtering limitations.
SurveySparrow provides an intuitive and customizable 360 feedback software solution to help organizations understand their employees' strengths and areas for improvement. With just a few clicks, users can generate competency summaries to view holistic results and easily identify gaps between an individual's self-evaluation and feedback from the rater groups. The software makes it simple to spotlight competencies that both individuals and raters agree represent key strengths, as well as those competencies requiring refinement according to all parties.
These in-depth insights enhance employees' self-awareness by revealing hidden strengths they themselves may have overlooked and blind spots representing perception gaps between individuals and their colleagues. The detailed feedback empowers leaders to craft personalized development plans to help team members maximize their potential. Employees can also access their own portal to monitor assessment progress and view current and past results.
For managers, SurveySparrow’s intuitive dashboard provides a 360-degree view of competencies across the team to effortlessly identify top performers and determine specific training needs. The software equips leadership with organization-wide performance reports to uncover cross-functional opportunities and inform data-driven decisions around competency building across teams, departments, and geographies.
SurveySparrow has over 100,000 customers, including Gucci, Warner Bros, and World Bank Group.
For individuals
- Basic: $19 per month (billed annually) for a single user and 2,500 responses per year.
- Starter: $39 per month (billed annually) for a single user and 15,000 responses per year.
For teams:
- Business: $79 per month (billed annually) for up to 3 users and 50,000 responses per year.
- Professional: $249 per month (billed annually) for up to 5 users and 100,000 responses per year.
Best For
SurveySparrow’s 360 feedback solution is best suited for growing companies and enterprises.
I use SurveySparrow daily to collect feedback and address internal tickets, integrating it with live chat tools for real-time interactions. This tool allows us to measure and visualize feedback effectively. I also prepare reports based on the collected feedback to share with relevant departments for review, which informs future training and improvements. Additionally, I export data from SurveySparrow in XML format to other tools, enhancing our data management processes.
The user interface of SurveySparrow is straightforward, making navigation simple. The customer support provided is world-class, offering timely and effective assistance whenever needed. Furthermore, the pricing structure is reasonable, making it accessible for businesses of any size.
Our organization purchased SurveySparrow to better understand client needs and improve service delivery. Previously, gauging employees' opinions on our services and work culture was challenging, especially since we wanted to maintain anonymity in feedback collection. Survey Sparrow has enabled us to gather this feedback discreetly by distributing surveys via links. Additionally, we've integrated the tool with Zendesk to manage internal tickets, which helps us serve both clients and improve our workplace culture. I have been using this tool for three years.
Certain integrations within SurveySparrow do not function as expected. The tool lacks support for collecting feedback via widgets, relying solely on links. Additionally, the limited payment methods available do not adequately serve our geographical location.
SurveySparrow has maintained stable pricing since we first adopted it, unlike competitors who frequently increase their fees annually. This consistency makes budgeting easier and ensures we can continue using the tool without financial strain.
Potential buyers should consider the long-term cost implications of this tool to ensure it aligns with their expected return on investment. The limited integrations with other commonly used HR tools might also make SurveySparrow less suitable for some organizations, so evaluating compatibility with existing systems is crucial.
Since its implementation, SurveySparrow has undergone significant improvements, particularly in its user interface, which has been streamlined and enhanced for better user experience.
Survey Sparrow is particularly well-suited for human resource managers looking to gather and analyze employee feedback efficiently.
This tool may not be ideal for support operators, as it lacks certain functionalities tailored to optimizing support operations and real-time interaction management.
Synergita
Synergita, besides being an affordable OKR tool for SMBs, is a great resource for leaders to learn more about their employee performance and team culture. You may discover sentiment with built-in NLP capability and recognize top performers using the system's HiPo Score.
PROS
- Synergita has an affordable and scalable pricing model. Its modules can be purchased together or as stand-alone products.
- Has a transparent pricing structure. Offers a free trial and a cost calculator.
- Features are easy to figure out.
- AI-driven tools analyze the tone of employees’ responses and assign the team a sentiment score for better employee engagement.
- Synergita’s platform is affordable and scalable. On top of that, you get to choose between their modules for employee engagement, performance management, and OKR tracking, or combine them as needed.
- The majority of users find Synergita’s UI to be user-friendly and fairly easy to navigate.
- With the help of natural language processing (NLP), the platform can analyze the tone of your employees’ responses and assign team a sentiment score, which is valuable data you can use to improve the experience of your employees.
CONS
- The reporting feature lacks customizations. Speed/performance issues can occur, particularly when working with larger reports.
- Customer support team is not very responsive.
- Doesn’t offer a mobile app.
- Several users noted that the reporting module lacks customizations, and speed/performance issues can be experienced with it, particularly when working with larger reports.
- A few users have also reported that the customer support team is slow to respond and resolve issues.
- The platform currently doesn’t offer a mobile app for on-the-go access.
Synergita is an online solution for OKRs, performance, and employee engagement. Employee growth planning, peer recognition, AI-driven sentiment analysis, performance evaluations, 1:1s, peer recognition, and assessing culture scores are just a few of the many tools available on the platform to help with the aforesaid objectives.
Our selection of Synergita above other products in the 360 feedback software sector was primarily influenced by its affordability and adaptability. For the most part, the platform is easy to use for all kinds of users.
Synergita’s pricing is quite reasonable and they do provide a free trial. Taking the trial, we found the tool to be very straightforward and easy to figure out. However, the reporting feature could be slow at times, especially when we tried to work on large data. Its built-in customizations are quite limited, too. Additionally, Synergita does not have a mobile app.
Secova, Global Edge, Indegene, American Micro.
Synergita has three modules, Engage, Perform, and OKR. Each of them has a free trial. There’s also a price calculator on the website you can use to estimate the cost based on the modules you need. Below is the detailed pricing when billed annually:
- Synergita Engage costs $2 per employee per month and includes basic talent information, continuous feedback, rewards & recognition, e-communication, culture score, and employee as well as feedback reports.
- Synergita Perform costs $4 per employee per month and packs lots of features like advanced talent information, smart goals & achievements tracking, metrics import for goals, performance reviews/appraisals, normalization, custom workflows & feedback templates, people & performance reports, 9-box report, strength & weakness report, and reminders as well as notifications.
- Synergita Perform Plus costs $7 per employee per month and has everything in Synergita Perform, along with 360-degree feedback, promotion cycle, career aspirations, appraisal letter distribution, skill repository & mapping, HiPo score, employee headcount trends, and employee performance trends.
- Synergita OKR costs $4 per employee per month and includes basic talent information, personal OKR, company/dept OKR, and OKR reports.
Best For
Synergita can be used by companies across different industries, but the ideal team sizes are small to medium.
Peoplebox
Peoplebox's 360-degree review software is user-friendly, customizable, and integrates seamlessly with Slack and Teams. It also offers multiple review types, enables bias mitigation, and facilitates meaningful follow-up discussions.
PROS
- Peoplebox simplifies the process of creating, customizing, and deploying 360-degree reviews.
- With built-in integration into popular communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Peoplebox ensures that employees can easily participate in reviews and receive timely notifications.
- The platform streamlines the follow-up process by automatically scheduling one-on-one meetings upon completing reviews and facilitating continuous feedback and growth conversations.
- Beyond performance management, Peoplebox offers an employee engagement module that allows organizations to conduct pulse surveys and gather valuable insights into the workplace environment and culture.
CONS
- Currently, Peoplebox's platform is solely available in English, although users have the flexibility to create forms in any language of their choice.
- Users may sometimes encounter bugs, and experience lags while using the platform.
- To access Peoplebox, there is a minimum contract requirement of $4,000. There is a free 14-day trial that can only be accessed after a demo.
- Peoplebox does not offer a dedicated mobile app. However, the web app is fully optimized for use on mobile devices.
Peoplebox's 360-degree feedback module allows you to gather comprehensive feedback from multiple sources and gain a holistic view of each employee's performance. We’ve tested the 360-degree reviews and found them easy to create and set up. There’s an intuitive wizard that guides you through all the steps from beginning to end. One thing we’ve noted is that the 360-degree reviews are actually similar to Peoplebox’s performance reviews in almost every way, except that they’re not linked to goals and competency scores.
Much like the performance reviews, there are also four types of 360-degree reviews within Peoplebox, including Self Reviews, where employees evaluate their own performance; Peer Reviews, where colleagues provide feedback on each other; Direct Report Reviews, where employees provide feedback on their managers; and Managers' Summary, which are top-to-bottom reviews where managers provide feedback on their direct reports.
Customizing and setting up 360-degree reviews is a breeze with Peoplebox. You can determine the frequency of these reviews, choose which employees/managers can view them, specify the minimum and maximum number of reviews each participant can give, and even include an Approval stage to mitigate bias before the feedback is incorporated into the evaluation process. The review forms can be created from existing templates or customized from scratch, and the seamless integration with Slack and Microsoft Teams ensures that employees receive notifications and can participate in the reviews effortlessly without disrupting their workflow.
Once the 360-degree reviews are completed, Peoplebox makes it easy for HR and relevant managers to analyze and visualize the data. The system can also automatically schedule 1-on-1 meetings between managers and employees upon review completion to facilitate meaningful discussions and ensure that all the collected feedback is actioned.
Peoplebox is trusted by over 500 organizations, including Veriff, Razorpay, and BHIVE Workspace.
Peoplebox offers five pricing plans:
- Talent Management ($7/user/month): Includes performance reviews, engagement surveys, goals, and check-ins.
- OKR Platform ($8/user/month): Offers employee/team alignment features like goal setting, business reviews, project management, 1:1s, and KPI boards.
- Full Suite - Professional ($12/user/month): Combines features from Talent Management and OKR Platform.
- Full Suite - Premium ($15/user/month): Includes everything from previous plans plus customer success management, onboarding, implementation, and training support.
- Enterprise Plan (custom pricing): Most premium plan with all features, custom integrations, dedicated customer success, tailored onboarding/implementation, and SSO.
Note: Billing is annual only, with a minimum contract of $4,000.
Best For
Peoplebox is an ideal choice for medium to large-sized organizations seeking a performance management and 360-degree feedback platform that seamlessly integrates with popular communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
We use Peoplebox for performance reviews and tracking employee progress based on coaching and feedback. It also provides analytics, including employee satisfaction, progress, and goal completion. We monitor team-based performance for rewards and recognition, as well as organizational management, including updating the org chart and strategic workforce planning.
OKR management, transparency, and communication are also key workflows, driving collaboration across teams and improving performance management. The tool enables clear expectations and alignment on company goals, ensuring everyone is working towards the same objectives.
- Centralized OKR tracking: it allows us to streamline the tracking of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), ensuring transparency across teams and alignment with company goals.
- User-friendly interface: its simple, intuitive interface makes it easy for users to adopt and integrate into daily workflows.
- Seamless integration: it integrates well with other HR and performance management tools like Slack and Jira, preventing the need for switching between platforms.
- Employee engagement tools: it includes features like pulse surveys, performance check-ins, and feedback loops, fostering continuous feedback and improving engagement.
We needed a centralized platform to manage talent and performance, and integrating OKRs was crucial for the company. Tracking progress against critical goals and core priorities became essential as we began to scale. We also needed to gauge the organization’s engagement, satisfaction, and leadership performance to better manage employee retention. When we decided to invest in Peoplebox, we were struggling with alignment and visibility into key performance metrics and goals.
As we scaled, it became increasingly difficult to maintain transparency across teams and ensure everyone was working toward the same objectives. We also needed a solution to simplify performance management and improve employee engagement, as our existing systems were fragmented and inefficient. Peoplebox provided us with a comprehensive platform that centralized our OKRs, tracked progress in real time, and improved collaboration across departments. Its robust analytics and reporting helped us make data-driven decisions and quickly identify areas for improvement.
Additionally, its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with our existing tech stack allowed for a smooth implementation, empowering our teams to stay focused and aligned with company objectives.
- Limited customization: the platform lacks flexibility in customizing dashboards, workflows, or reporting, and more options to tailor it to specific needs would be beneficial.
- Onboarding tools: more robust onboarding management tools would be ideal.
- Occasional bugs: while generally stable, a few users have reported minor bugs or glitches, particularly during integrations or updates.
- Learning curve for advanced features: while basic functionality is user-friendly, the more advanced features, such as deep analytics or custom reports, can be harder to learn.
- Mobile app limitations: the mobile app is useful for quick updates but lacks the full functionality of the desktop version, making complex tasks harder on the go.
Leapsome offers a better onboarding experience, which is driving us to consider switching to that platform as an alternative.
Consider ease of use, integration capabilities, and whether the features align with your needs. Also, look at the product roadmap: will the tool evolve with your organization? Ensure that the tool fits your internal culture and can scale as your company grows.
Peoplebox has expanded its integration capabilities with key communication and data tools.
Peoplebox is a good fit for scaling startups, tech companies, and SaaS businesses.
Peoplebox may not be ideal for early-stage startups or companies with highly regulated and rigid standards.
eloomi
Eloomi’s My360+ tool enables you to get a holistic view of your entire organization. While Eloomi's surveys help you gather employee feedback, My360+ gives you a space to provide feedback on an employee's skills, and requests that managers and external clients do the same.
PROS
- Eloomi is feature-rich, with built-in modules for onboarding, training, performance, engagement, and recognition.
- Its library of ready templates speeds up online training creation. It also has a mobile app for on-the-go access.
- The surveys are customizable and can be made private so you can solicit specific and honest feedback.
- You can request peer feedback on employees' skills.
- The micro-sized training content prevents overwhelming onboarding.
- Eloomi is quite comprehensive, with modules for onboarding, training/learning, performance management, employee engagement, and recognition.
- The platform comes with a library of ready-to-use templates to help you create online training faster. It also has a mobile app for your employees to access training materials on the go.
- Their surveys are customizable and private, helping you get specific and honest feedback from employees.
- You can request other members of the organization to provide feedback on certain skills of employees.
- You can make use of Eloomi’s micro-sized online training content to prevent overwhelming onboarding experiences.
CONS
- There’s a steep learning curve due to the platform’s large number of features.
- Some bugs and speed issues may be experienced with large report generation, but customer support is responsive.
- The pricing is not transparent and there aren’t any free trials currently.
- Because of the sheer number of features Eloomi offers, there’s a steeper learning curve for the average user to get the hang of the platform and understand it to its fullest.
- A few users reported experiencing bugs and speed issues when generating reports, especially ones with a large volume of data, but have noted that Eloomi’s customer support team is quick to resolve such issues.
- The platform’s pricing isn’t transparent and free trials aren’t available at this time.
Eloomi’s My360+ gives you a 360-degree view of your organization. You can provide feedback to employees and invite other members to provide their feedback on the same employee's performance and skills. You can also share these reviews with other members to get different perspectives and enhance your analysis of the employee's strengths and weaknesses. All of the information you generate from these helps you conduct effective 1:1 sessions with employees.
Eloomi is used by thousands of businesses including Nufarm, Domino’s, Getty Images, and more.
Eloomi provides customized pricing, so contacting them for a demo is the best way to go.
Best For
Eloomi targets mid-sized and large businesses. While many team members can use it, the primary users are HR leaders seeking to streamline onboarding, boost engagement through feedback, and monitor employee development progress.
Empuls
Empuls helps you create and deploy various types of surveys, covering onboarding, performance, HR effectiveness, and general feedback so you’re able to derive valuable insights into your employees' experiences throughout their journey.
PROS
- Empuls features a modern UI that’s easy to navigate. They also offer plenty of self-help articles to help you get started.
- The platform is quite comprehensive, with tools covering employee communication, engagement surveys, recognition, rewards, and analytics.
- Employees are able to participate in surveys on the go with the help of Empuls’ mobile app available on both iOS and Android devices.
- Their affordable and tiered pricing ensures different size companies can try out the tool and scale up or down as needed. They also offer a 30-day free trial that anyone can sign up for.
CONS
- A few users find the options for rewards rather limited. Several of them are specifically wishing for the inclusion of more Amazon gift cards viable in their countries.
- Employees cannot share their points with each other at this time.
- Once you assign a sub-domain, you cannot change it later.
- Several users have experienced performance speed issues with Empuls’ mobile app.
With Empuls' feedback software, you can gain real-time insights into your employees' experience with the workplace and find out what's working and what isn't. Through customizable surveys, you can get feedback on various processes and management styles including onboarding, performance reviews, training, HR effectiveness and manager effectiveness. You can also use surveys to perform check-ins with your remote employees.
All of this feedback is organized neatly in the feedback dashboard, which also allows you to to monitor different metrics, get actionable insights and generate reports.
Empuls has over 1000 global customers, including Prodevans, Bahwan Cybertek, Magzter, FCA India Automobiles Private Limited, KPIT, Quixy, and more.
Empuls offers three pricing plans. Here are the prices if you choose to pay annually:
- Starter: This plan costs $20/year per employee. It offers features, including rewards and recognition, employee surveys and feedback, social intranet, and reports and analytics.
- Proficient: This plan costs $50/year per employee. It offers features, including white labeling, polls & quizzes, customer support, and everything that is in the Starter plan.
- Enterprise: This is a custom plan that offers everything from Proficient plan, plus custom HRMS integration, multi-region deployment, multi-currency payoffs, and dedicated customer success manager.
Best For
While Empuls offers several competitive features for every business, it’s most suitable for small to medium-sized businesses who want to build a people-first environment.
WorkTango
WorkTango empowers employees by giving them a voice while giving the decision-makers a pulse of the workforce.
PROS
- Unlimited surveys available in nine languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, and Korean.
- Clear pricing structure with the ability to add modules as needed.
- Now supports anonymous feedback collection.
- Enhancements made to report loading times.
- Mobile app with improved performance and added functionality, including the ability to request feedback.
- Unlimited surveys available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.
- You can add modules as you go and these will be charged on a prorated basis.
CONS
- Billing can only be done annually.
- All plans require a minimum commitment of 12 months.
- Free trials aren't available at this time.
- Billing is only done annually and all plans require a minimum agreement for a 24-month subscription (see our FAQs for more and their pricing page for full details).
- Several users have complained about the rewards redeeming process being not very intuitive.
We continue to regard WorkTango as one of the top choices in this field due to its ongoing enhancements. The software now boasts a robust survey tool that covers feedback, check-ins, and sync-ups, fostering continuous improvement.
WorkTango aims to improve business outcomes by providing HR, executives, and people leaders with insights, recommended learnings, and actions powered by employee feedback. Their software helps organizations tackle key themes such as employee engagement, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and health and wellness.
WorkTango also works towards improving the employee experience throughout the entire employee lifecycle. This includes onboarding/exit, leadership, occupational health and safety, and mergers and acquisitions alignment.
Snowfox Group, H.B Fuller, and Deckers Brands are some of 1000+ organizations that have used WorkTango.
WorkTango's pricing is tailored to each customer's needs. To get an estimate, we recommend scheduling a demo with their team.
Best For
WorkTango is great for companies that value employee feedback. Currently, WorkTango is effectively used in various industries such as tech, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, government, education, communication, and many more. The platform has been successful for companies with 50, hundreds, and even hundreds of thousands of employees.
We used it for all employees to recognize each other for a job well done, birthdays, and anniversaries. HR would send birthday and anniversary recognition and other employees would comment wishing them well.
I liked that employees can recognize each other for accomplishments and a job well done. I like that employees can be recognized for their birthdays. I like that employees can be recognized for their anniversary each year.
We purchased WorkTango to build employee morale and encourage team building and recognition amongst peers. This is another way to provide positive reinforcement to our employees and encourage them to work hard and love what they do! I used it for 2 years.
Some employees would complain about the shop and being hard to navigate. We would receive feedback that employees didn't think it was super user-friendly. We had technical issues occasionally that would take a little while to resolve.
WorkTango is very similar to other programs out there. Not a lot of difference between the different ones I've used.
This is a great way to build morale and recognize employees. Employees love to be able to use their points towards items in the shop.
They have added unique features that make the overall experience more enjoyable.
WorkTango is good for companies that are looking for ways to recognize employees and build morale.
I think WorkTango is good for all companies that are interested in building morale.
Culture Amp
As in its name, Culture Amp puts culture first, and that shows in its encouragement of growth and development in the review process.
PROS
- Culture Amp has an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface.
- It provides an effective way to give, receive, and capture feedback between employees and managers.
- Users appreciate the ability to set goals and track progress over time.
- The system sends out useful reminders and notifications to complete tasks like reviews, feedback, and 1:1s.
- Culture Amp provides insights into personal growth by allowing employees to track their progression over time.
- People science team
- Tons of engagement surveys
CONS
- Customization is limited, particularly in areas like review questions and rating scales.
- Some users felt the tool was too text-heavy and could benefit from more visual elements like charts or graphs to enhance engagement.
- It takes time to understand the full capabilities of the platform.
- Their people science plus offering is not available for very small companies
- Enterprise clients might find that they lack some of the integrations and customizations a bigger team needs.
Culture Amp offers a full-suite performance solution including 360 feedback plus performance reviews, goal tracking, and continuous development. Their people science team guides new users to encourage growth and development throughout the performance management cycle. Expanding to the entire employee lifecycle, an easy-to-use exit process allows you to compare results and view trends.
Culture Amp offers customizable module-based pricing. You can choose to go with the Employee Engagement (Engage), Employee Development (Develop), and Performance Management (Perform) modules individually, or bundle them together as needed. Pricing varies based on the number of modules and team size. Contact Culture Amp Sales for detailed pricing information.
Best For
Companies of all sizes looking for a full-featured performance management and employee engagement platform.
We use CultureAmp on a quarterly basis. We connected our HRIS (Rippling) to CultureAmp and it makes the Survey sending, data collecting, and data reporting functionalities very smooth and easy. The key workflows we used for CultureAmp would be for our Quarterly employee engagement survey, pulse surveys, and DEI engagement surveys. Once the survey campaign is activated, we live in the data to set goals for the upcoming quarter around engagement metrics from the top level down. We also used the privacy preferences so that managers are able to see into their own org. They take their survey privacy very seriously, which creates a much more equitable and honest survey experience.
- I love their easy-to-use survey creation tool, it makes customizing the survey extremely easy.
- I love the data visualization, filtering capabilities, and reporting flexibility to really show the data to tell the story.
- I really appreciate their customer support, they truly do go above and beyond.
- I also really love their IO psychology-based recommendations they provide for high-level areas of opportunity to provide direction in making impactful changes within the organization.
We selected CultureAmp because it is a best-in-class software for running employee engagement surveys. Prior to using it, we used Google Surveys for pulse surveys which is pretty limited in functionality. I've used CultureAmp at 2 separate companies and in total I've used it for about 3 years combined. It's one of my favorite HR systems that I like to recommend around engagement metrics tracking. The key benefits it provides are extremely easy-to-use surveys, the ability to create great reports and visualize data, great end-user experience, good customer support, and adaptability to use the survey functionality for different feedback mechanisms. As an HRBP, it's also extremely helpful to talk through engagement surveys with managers in identifying gaps in their team. CultureAmp's IO expertise also includes great recommendations for specific areas of opportunity for your organization which are great.
- One of the things that was difficult was the HRIS integration between Rippling, though that may just be more of an integration issue. Some of the data would transfer over while others wouldn't.
- When making any edits after the survey has gone out to the data sets ( for example, changing the department a person belongs to) you have to contact your account rep to change the data set. It would be nice to be able to do that independently!
- It would be great if you could preview your data sets and how it would look like for your survey without publishing it as active first, that way you're able to more easily make any edits prior to making it active.
Fortunately and unfortunately, I have not used other engagement survey tools. I've used add-on services that generally do pulse surveys like Paylocity or Google Sheets. CultureAmp is definitely the best-in-class system around engagement surveys, and beyond. It's the most comprehensive survey tool that allows you to really get into the depths of the data and recommendations on how to use the data to make impactful decisions to move your organization forward. As an HR professional, it truly is valuable data that no other system has been able to do as well as CultureAmp.
Budget is definitely important to think about. We also used some of the add-on performance management add-on. It's not the cheapest platform and can cost as much as an HRIS sometimes ( but it's extremely worth it).
Additional Add-ons: Depending on already existing systems, some of the add-on functionalities like performance management tracking, OKR tracking, etc. could be redundant. It's important to think about what you want to use CultureAmp for, and what you want to keep within your HRIS.
They have added on additional modules like performance management to address customer needs. It's a great add-on tool and helpful for companies starting out their Performance Management system.
they're great at customer listening, and their customer support is great.
I would say that it's best for companies with over 50+ employees. The earlier the better to really get a good data set going, but 50 + is probably most ideal for the functionalities outside of engagement surveys. I also believe it's for progressive organizations that really care about the culture and employees and take action.
It would not be a good fit for a very small org under 50 employees because I think the ROI might be a bit too pricey for the number of employees and data sets you'll get. Also, it's an expensive system to keep alive if you just do surveys just to get data. You can definitely use Google Surveys for that. Make sure you take advantage of the recommendations, and modules, to move the org forward.
BambooHR
BambooHR is one of the widest-known software providers in the HR and people management space, with over 20,000 active clients and 1.8 million employee users. Although their feedback tool is available only as an add-on, it’s worth considering for its variety of other features.
PROS
- Flexible packaging and custom pricing is the way they roll. You can select one or two packages and pick other modules as add-ons based on your ongoing needs.
- Very simple and straightforward tool, easy to use.
- Flexible packaging and custom pricing is the way they roll. You can pick out one or two packages and pick other modules as add-ons based on your needs.
- Very simple and straightforward tool, easy to use.
CONS
- Their payroll features are only available for U.S.-based businesses.
- Customer service reps are only available during U.S. business hours.
- Their performance management and survey modules are only available as add-ons. This means you’d have to get one of their Core HR packages and then get the add-ons to access the performance management tools you’re probably on this page for.
- Payroll is only available for US-based employees
- Customer support is only offered during US business hours.
- Some modules like time tracking, performance management, and surveys are only available as add-ons.
BambooHR's performance management software allows employees to get constructive feedback in real time. As part of performance appraisals, administrators and managers can choose peers to provide anonymous feedback on simple, standard questions, such as: What is your colleague doing well? How can they improve?The entire Performance Management BambooHR module is available as an add-on to one of their HR packages. It includes features like goals, peer feedback, self/manager assessment, and both company and employee performance reports.
Among the 20,000+ companies that use BambooHR, you’d find names like Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana, Change.org, University of Maryland, Grammarly, Stance, Postmates, Wistia, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and ZipRecruiter.
Pricing is not disclosed upfront, but they do offer a free trial of their all-in-one software and then go out of their way to find a version that will suit you. Before they come up with a personalized quote that will align with your budget, however, they are also likely to extend your free trial upon request or even give you a free demo of the advanced features.
Best For
BambooHR is a good fit for companies looking for a very customizable HR product, with pricing that reflects their needs. It’s also popular among teams that are partially or even fully remote.
15five
We’re big fans of 15Five’s dynamic feedback feature, which displays open-ended comments from engagement surveys in the Feedback section. The feature gives employees the option of answering one of two questions at the end of an engagement survey based on their results.
PROS
- 15Five helps HR leaders run their performance programs from start to finish and make talent decisions based on a 360-degree view of each employee.
- With the help of visual dashboards, HR leaders can access colorful and easy-to-comprehend insights that will make their talent decisions easier.
- The platform is fairly easy to use, comes with a mobile app, has transparent pricing, as well as a 14-day free trial so users can try before they buy.
CONS
- Some users reported experiencing difficulty creating new objectives or connecting existing objectives to parent objectives in the objectives section.
- When you create an engagement survey using 15Five's template, you can only choose from a selection of pre-made categories rather than creating your own.
- The out of the box integration options are quite limited, and a Zapier integration used to be available but is now sunsetted. As an alternative, 15Five does have a public API for users to plug-in custom tools but that requires a bit more work.
15Five has two modules that can facilitate the gathering and management of employee feedback. The Engage module comes with customizable surveys that managers can use to hear out what employees feel about specific topics such as burnout, DEI, remote work and more.
The “Focus” module, on the other hand, allows employees to solicit feedback from one another on projects, tasks, or overall performance, which they can then share with their managers. Combining the Engage and Focus modules can help a long way in creating a culture of listening and continuous improvement.
15Five’s customer base includes Hubspot, Spotify, American Red Cross, Clearbit, Pendo and more.
- Engage: $4 per user per month. Its features include Core engagement surveys, Topic-based assessments, Custom topic-based assessments, Filterable heatmap & analytics, Enterprise-grade security, an Action plan dashboard, and more.
- Perform: $8 per user per month. Its features include Performance reviews, 360º feedback, Talent Matrix, Data insights, Career Paths & Plans, and more.
- Focus: $8 per user per month. Its features include Goal setting with OKRs, OKR chart view, Data insights, Jira & Salesforce Integration, and more.
- Total Platform: $14 per user per month. Its features include everything in other plans, plus DPAs and security questionnaires.
Best For
15Five is more suitable for growing companies and enterprises wanting to ensure that they're getting feedback from all corners of the organization.
We use 15Five for Annual Performance Reviews, ongoing check-ins and 1:1s between managers and employees, manager training, and engagement. The robust offerings of 15Five allowed us to originally bring on the tool only for APRs. Over time, we saw the capabilities it had in other arenas. Mainly, we appreciate the tool for its ongoing, direct feedback methods. This allows managers to send and review feedback frequently and has it stored in one location for easy record keeping and reference.
- Ease of use and implementation (lots of CX support with onboarding).
- It is science and research-backed so you know the tool and approach are effective for your employees.
- Affordable and customizable to your team size and needs.
We originally purchased a subscription to 15Five in order to simplify and streamline the Annual Performance Review (APR) process. Employees, managers, and HR were facing tremendous time and administrative burdens when it came to the APR process and we wanted a place to facilitate a more comprehensive, timely, and meaningful experience. We also were looking for something to easily store and document all performance-related information and feedback. We've used the tool for just over one year.
Very few cons about this tool. It really is effective and affordable.
I prefer this tool to others for how easy and straightforward it is. Performance reviews don't need to be complicated, and 15Five has found a way to make it easy and fun.
What are the main needs of your team? How do you want reviews to be structured? What are your employees craving in terms of feedback, engagement, and training?
We have customized weekly check-in questions to fit each team specifically. We have run off-cycle reviews as needed. We have added managers who have high potential to the manager training.
Highly engaged teams. Small-medium sized businesses. Companies with high Gen Z and Millenial populations.
I think this tool might not be beneficial in environments that are not forward-thinking, progressive, or want to be on the cutting edge of employee development and performance.
Trakstar
With Trakstar Performance Management, you can customize forms, competencies, rating scales and more to gather the right feedback and create a review process that works for your organization.
PROS
CONS
Trakstar's 360 feedback software helps HR organizations manage feedback, goals, and reviews. Administrative controls allow your company to pre-determine how to handle 360 reviews, while still allowing managers to respond to nuanced scenarios and team relationships. Implementation is customized. You don't have to set up separate processes for goal setting, mid-year, or end-of-year reviews; employees’ appraisal is one process that stays open all year long.
Charles River, Beta Calco, Task Rabbit, Chemline, Minsterbank.
The pricing of Trakstar’s plans and services isn’t disclosed on their site. Contact a Trakstar sales representative for a demo as well as a price quote according to the size and needs of your business.
Best For
Companies looking for a comprehensive performance management and employee recognition software.
We use Trakstar for the entire recruitment process, from hire requests through to the offer stage. The key workflows include requests to fill and approval, posting jobs directly on various job boards, applicant questionnaires, interview scheduling, hiring manager feedback on applicants, offer request approvals, offer extension, and signed acceptance. We use Trakstar daily when in hiring mode, which is nearly year-round, except for some downtime in Q1.
- It allows us to keep all recruitment records and data in one location, providing a single record for each person and useful historical information.
- It allows for automated workflows and integrations with other systems, such as calendars and Teams video calls.
- It is cost-effective for a small organization, meeting our needs in a budget-friendly way.
- They provide a platform for customers to give feedback and regularly make updates based on this input.
- The customer service team is exceptional, offering alternatives if the system cannot meet a specific need.
We bought Trakstar one year ago. Previously, we did not have an applicant tracking system and were growing by about 30 employees per year, necessitating a better mechanism to track and manage our talent pool. We had been using homemade workflows and forms, which didn't provide useful recruitment data and didn't allow us to leverage our full pool of applicants for future roles. Additionally, the manual process slowed us down significantly.
- The system has limitations in terms of customizing fields, and while they take feedback, these changes have not yet been prioritized.
- The integration with other systems, like our payroll system, is limited, making it not worthwhile for us to integrate.
- Access levels are limited, which restricts the access we can provide to hiring managers and business leaders.
While we use Trakstar specifically as an applicant tracking system, they offer a suite of solutions for performance management, training, and more, all of which are easy to navigate. The intuitive nature of the site sets it apart from some competitors. Additionally, their customer service team and the support provided during the implementation process are significantly better than those of other systems I've used.
Consider the entire recruitment lifecycle and the specific needs of your business. Also, consider growth plans and the scalability of the tool. Since Trakstar offers more than an ATS, think about your long-term talent management plans and whether a single system can meet your talent development and performance management needs, so you don't need to switch systems as you grow.
Trakstar regularly asks for feedback from clients and provides a platform for ongoing feedback. They introduce new features and updates quarterly, addressing key client needs. Although we've only used Trakstar for one year, I've seen more attention to client needs than with most other systems I've used.
Trakstar is great for small to medium-sized companies. The system is cost-effective and offers various solutions to meet needs as the organization grows. Trakstar is best for organizations of limited complexity due to its simplistic workflows and system limitations.
Trakstar would not be a good fit for very large enterprises or highly matrixed organizations, as the system limitations would likely not allow for the necessary customization those organizations would need.
Engagedly
Engagedly features customizable templates and rating scales, giving managers more control in how they collect feedback and evaluate performance.
PROS
- Engagedly's 360/multi-rater feedback and real-time feedback features allow users flexibility in providing and receiving feedback. This applies to the manager to employee feedback as well as employee-to-employee feedback.
- Goal setting and tracking features for individual, team, and business goals allow for comprehensive goal management and monitoring.
- Customization allows administrators to create custom rules, calculations, tools, and more that fit their organization and its objectives.
- E-learning platform promotes collaborative as well as individual learning for employees which results in a more knowledgeable and effective workforce.
CONS
- Some users have reported a steep learning curve that takes some time to get used to.
- Many users found the reporting system to be lacking. While it functions, it could do with a few improvements to provide a much more seamless reporting process though it seems Engagedly's team is currently working on this.
- Several users found documentation on the product to be lacking. This being improved could assist with the steep learning curve.
Engagedly’s 360-degree feedback module enables you to gather feedback from a variety of sources, including managers, peers, and direct reports, to get a comprehensive view of an employee's performance. Their Multi-rater/360 tool is highly flexible and provides advanced settings for competency-based feedback, anonymity, self-nomination, external reviewers, and customizable rating scales. All of the gathered feedback is analyzed within Engagedly so you can uncover areas of improvement.
Engagedly is currently used by organizations in 8 countries. These include Experian, Coupa, and E Source, to name a few.
The pricing of Engagedly’s plans and services isn’t fixed. Contact an Engagedly sales representative for a demo as well as a price quote according to the size and needs of your business.
Best For
We recommend Engagedly for small to large companies. Currently, companies that employ 50 - 200 people account for most of Engagedly’s customer base, however, there are companies that employ over 1000 people that find Engagely to be beneficial.
Key Benefits and Use Cases for 360-Degree Feedback Software
What is 360-Degree Feedback Software?
360-degree feedback providers enable a review system wherein employees are rated not only by their managers but also by their team members, cross-functional colleagues, subordinates, and sometimes clients or customers. The goal is to gather as much honest feedback from as many perspectives as possible. Feedback reports can show trends in company culture and performance.
Some companies use this type of feedback to replace or supplement traditional performance reviews in determining pay and assessing performance. We don’t recommend tying 360s to raises and promotions because the results are skewed by bias. Instead, this method of feedback is a useful tool for the following reasons.
The best 360-degree feedback programs provide immediate, actionable input. In this section, we’ll explore the top advantages of these programs, as well as common use cases.
The primary pluses to a 360-degree feedback program include:
- Employee Development: One of the greatest values of 360-degree feedback is the potential to apply it as a tool for personal development. With greater, more diverse feedback, individuals can better understand their strengths and weaknesses. This is good for the business, too. Armed with a more complete view of employee challenges, HR professionals can better identify training needs and advise top talent how to boost their performance.
- Record of Timely Feedback: Performance reviews can be greatly hindered by the problem of recency bias. You can help eliminate it with an ongoing track record of 360-degree reviews from colleagues, managers, and customers. It’s easier to curb human bias with quick access to peer reviews, past feedback, goal performance, and 1-on-1 meeting notes. Bolstered by more information, annual performance reviews become focused on employee development and constructive feedback.
- Open Feedback Culture: Colleagues often know more about how their teammates are performing than their supervisors. Of course, some employees may feel nervous being rated by their coworkers. Your HR staff is responsible for rolling out a well-planned, managed process that focuses on open communication and professional development. 360-degree evaluations have the potential to encourage a culture of transparency and growth. Because essentially, multi-rater feedback is about sharing knowledge. A well-implemented 360 program can help nurture teamwork and accountability.
- Centralized Information: Gathering 360 feedback can be extremely valuable to admins and managers. Instead of juggling multiple documents or pages for different reviews, data is contained in one place. This is helpful for managers completing performance evaluations and admins reporting on employee performance data.
There are many reasons why companies utilize 360s in addition to their standard performance management cycles. For example, 360-degree feedback tools are extremely helpful for:
- Remote Work: For dispersed teams, 360-degree reviews can provide useful and timely insights to performance. Say someone bungled a big project done remotely. This method of feedback allows colleagues to provide focused, constructive insights that can be 1) used to improve performance and 2) revisited during performance reviews.
- Managerial Reviews: A good boss can make all the difference for employees. Gathering workers’ input can not only identify needs for leadership development but it can also help hold onto talent. Case in point: one company found that managers’ 360 scores indicated how likely their subordinates were to leave or remain at the company. What’s more, as lackluster managers improved through coaching and team discussions, so did their workers’ desire to stay.
- Project-Based Input: Some companies utilize multi-rater feedback systems for larger, cross-functional projects. In this way, 360s provide feedback from unusual sources — colleagues from other departments, customers — and employees receive timely, specific input that they can put in their back pocket for the next big project.
- Competency Ratings: 360-degree feedback allows employees to understand how others see them as an employee, colleague, or service provider. The most effective multi-rater processes provide actionable feedback based on skills and behaviors that your company has deemed important. The feedback is planted in competencies that help your organization accomplish its mission, vision, and goals.
Most Common Pitfalls of 360-Degree Feedback Systems
As we’ve seen, real-time feedback can support employee development and nurture company culture. However, not all programs are created equal. Set up your human resources team for success by avoiding the following common mistakes.
- Survey Fatigue: With comments coming in from all directions, employees can become overwhelmed by information — both as raters and those being reviewed. It’s important to keep surveys simple, straightforward, and actionable; surveys should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete. To keep employees from burning out on a new system of feedback, we recommend that you roll out your program in phases. By slowly introducing 360s, you can better guide employees to understanding the benefits and uses for this rating system.
- Anonymous Feedback: Sometimes, it can feel frightening to have subordinates and colleagues give anonymous appraisals. Will unnamed reviewers revolt against tough bosses? Will concern over negative feedback make managers avoid tough decisions? Or will evaluators be too lenient in fear of retaliation? Based on our research, we believe the best feedback comes with a reviewer’s name.
- Change Management: Change is hard — especially when it comes to performance feedback methods that may affect decisions about an employee’s compensation. Just like any planned change, the rollout of 360-degree feedback should follow change management guidelines. Be sure to gather a cross-section of employees to explore and develop the process for your organization. These team members will serve as ambassadors for the new program, helping to explain its merits and functions. Be sure that your HR team explains to all participants why they’re going through the exercise and how the data will be used for their professional development. Remember: The system will fail if employees view it as an add-on rather than a supporter of your company’s existing review processes.
- Integration: Before putting money toward 360-review software, it’s critical to ensure it integrates with your existing HR and IT systems. This will minimize the learning curve and encourage faster uptake of the new system. Check with your vendor that it will be a straightforward process to transfer key data — such as employees’ personal information and work history — and aggregate results alongside existing performance reviews.
Pricing
Pricing for your 360s software will vary based on the size of your company and/or amount of surveys you intend to release. One vendor said pricing averages approximately $4 per employee per month. As part of a holistic approach to performance and engagement, most 360-feedback solutions fit within a more extensive performance management suite.
Questions to Ask on Demos
Congrats to you — you’ve selected your final contenders for 360-degree feedback vendors! When you’re on a demo call with a sales rep, we recommended weaving in the following questions:
- What is your product roadmap and how are you thinking about related HR tools, such as performance reviews and employee engagement?
- How does your solution integrate with my existing HRIS?
- What is your change management playbook to help get our employees and managers on board with this new solution?
- How do you suggest rolling out this platform? Which modules should go first? Why and on what timeline?
- Is this solution designed for specific industries or organizational sizes?
- How does the 360-degree feedback process work?
- What are your offerings for periodic (quarterly, mid-year, annual) review processes?
360-Degree Feedback Software FAQs
What is 360-degree feedback software?
360-degree feedback software are review systems that allow managers, team members, cross-functinoal colleagues, suborinates, and sometimes clients to review and rate employees. It differs from performance management software because it is meant to provide quick, actionable feedback that's not tied to bonuses or rewards.
What are the use cases for 360-degree feedback software?
The goal of 360-degree feedback software is to gather as much honest feedback from as many perspectives as possible. By doing so, your company will understand the impact its employees have, while also providing feedback to each individual employee.
What features does 360-degree feedback software have?
360-degree feedback software typically has features surrounding surveys, employee reviews, feedback generation, 1-on-1 meetings, note taking, and OKRs.
Final Advice on 360-Degree Feedback Software
Remember to take your time when planning and implementing your 360 program. The most effective solutions support existing performance processes — making employees more accountable and more aware of their strengths and areas of growth. Conversely, a poorly implemented program can fall quickly into employee disdain or disuse. You can be among the former by implementing change management processes and partnering with one of our recommended 360-degree feedback vendors.
About Us
- Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
- Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
