How to make it work

As many organizations are struggling with lagging employee engagement and productivity, one employer has embraced a “radical candor” strategy in its approach to performance management. And so far, it’s paying off big time.

According to Valentina Gissin, chief people officer at Garner Health—a consumer healthcare data analytics company with over 500 clients and 250 employees—the decision to share all 360-degree feedback companywide ensures that every team can benefit from open, constructive feedback.

“This approach is designed to foster trust, accountability and rapid professional growth,” she says.

At the beginning of the review period, every Garner employee selects peer reviewers, who are approved by managers. Team members are also welcome to provide feedback on anyone they want, even if feedback is not requested. During the first few weeks of the review cycle, employees are writing both peer and upward reviews. Each review is only visible to the manager of the reviewee during this portion of the cycle.

“Once written reviews are complete, peer and upward reviews are released to the entire company at once,” Gissin says, adding that the timing is important for two reasons: Employees go into manager reviews with equal access to the information that managers have. The company doesn’t want to bias individuals, so it ensures that no one sees their own feedback until they’ve completed writing feedback for everyone else.

“It is working for us,” she says. ”While it sometimes takes some adjustment and we are always seeking ways to improve our processes, sharing 360s publicly is one of the key mechanisms we use to ensure that we have a rich, fearless feedback culture year-round.”

The 360-degree feedback strategy has proven a critical step in ensuring all of Garner’s people are living out the value of “courageous communication,” built on candor, self-reflection, accountability and integrity, Gissin says.

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Pulse surveys, Gissin says, have revealed that employees find that feedback culture “impactful, healthy and aligned with their values and professional growth goals.”

Also, Gissin’s team performs “spot-checks by asking if anyone was surprised by the feedback in their 360s.” Increasingly, the answer is no, she says, which means feedback is reaching team members when it’s most actionable, year-round.

Before the strategy rolled out, employees were largely comfortable sharing feedback with each other—but often reluctant to do so about the most senior leaders.

As Garner’s approach to courageous communication matured, Gissin explains, that reluctance subsided and the company increasingly has seen unsolicited, candid feedback about senior leaders in the 360-degree feedback reviews. A larger percentage of the population also feels more comfortable providing feedback directly to the leadership team, she says.

For example, some weeks ago, a junior employee scheduled time with their new C-suite leader to share very thoughtful, direct feedback on the leader’s demeanor during onboarding.

“This employee thought the leader was coming across as overconfident and lacking empathy,” she says. “After receiving that feedback, the leader’s approach improved dramatically.”

A year-round culture of ‘courageous communication’

Gissin says the company’s feedback culture emphasizes to employees that they have an obligation to share thoughts that could lead to individual growth and improved team results. However, for a transparent 360-degree feedback strategy to succeed, all team members must center empathy, an approach on which Garner trains its workforce.

“Part of being courageous is being empathetic, given that the goal of feedback at Garner is to make people better,” she says.

Senior leadership buy-in is also critical.

“It starts from the top: We ensure leaders are vulnerable and accountable by modeling how they give each other feedback publicly,” Gissin says.

Apart from driving individual and team growth, courageous communication is enabling Garner to pursue its mission of delivering affordable healthcare to all. To accomplish that, the organization must “find the very best people to point at the problems,” she says, while also ensuring “those people have the right tools at their disposal to do their very best work.”

Chief among those tools is transparency, as workers need a clear understanding of what they are doing well and where they need to improve.

“The concept of courageous communication is as simple as that,” she explains. “You can only win as a team if you’re honest with yourself and each other.”

Gissin says transparency in feedback strategies can be challenging to implement because such behaviors don’t come naturally to everyone. HR can lead the transformation, ensuring such efforts are “very intentional” and are bolstered by investment in resources toward institutionalizing transparency.

“Publishing 360s is a powerful tool in this regard,” she says. “It’s a great way to set the contours of our culture through action, in a way that thousands of words or hours of teaching might not achieve.”