Marine leaders to receive subordinate comments, but this will not affect the promotion

The Marine Corps is asking some supervisors and peers to review them anonymously, but will not use the feedback for promotion decisions.

The Marine Corps initially touted 360-degree reviews as an assessment tool that could help identify toxic leaders and prevent their promotion. But now, as the Corps tests the assessments on a select group of leaders, it has decided to use them only for professional development, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Jordan Cochran told Marine Corps Times.

When we began conducting our background research on how to execute a 360-degree review, we identified inconsistencies with our objectives when used as an evaluation tool, Cochran said in a statement Monday. These inconsistencies are not a concern when the tool is used strictly for development purposes.

The 360-degree reviews come as part of a larger overhaul of Marine Corps personnel policies known as Talent Management 2030. The Corps is billing the reviews as a way to improve the quality of leaders.

In the initial Talent Management 2030 document released in November 2021, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger wrote that feedback from the 360-degree reviews would be incorporated into the selection board and assignment processes to ensure this important input is considered. properly by those electing and appointing our future leaders.

But in the years since, the Marine Corps has retooled 360-degree reviews into a development opportunity for our leaders that will ultimately lead to more awareness and a higher quality Navy, Cochran said in the statement.

According to a Navy administrative message Thursday. Leaders at that level are usually responsible for battalions or regiments.

We started there because it’s a manageable population and they’re the ones who have the biggest impact on the Marines, said Gen. Eric Smith, the assistant commandant. BruteCast podcast in August 2022.

These leaders will receive ratings based on the anonymous survey of one to three supervisors, three to seven peers and five to 10 subordinates.

For now, the executives to be evaluated will nominate their own evaluators. However, once the pilot program is complete, each 360-degree review will include randomly selected evaluators, according to the Navy’s message.

The feedback will be presented in a detailed report that the Navy will use to build a development plan that leverages their identified strengths and addresses any blind spots, the Navy’s message said.

A senior Marine will also review that report.

Current ratings are a test, according to the Navy’s message. The Marine Corps is still working out the questionnaire and administrative process.

In 2024, the pilot program will expand to select Marines from the ranks of sergeant-at-arms to colonel from the three Marine expeditionary forces, according to the Navy’s message.

After that, it will be up to Marine Corps leadership to decide whether to make 360-degree reviews a program of record.

360-degree reviews are far from a fringe idea. The best companies, starting from Netflix THE Goldman Sachshave established similar programs.

However, while many companies use 360-degree reviews for development purposes such as training, it is less common for them to use it for evaluations, according to a 2015 Rand report.

Report warned the military against using 360-degree reviews for evaluations, noting that the approach can cause paranoia and distrust in the system.

The anonymous nature of the responses, which is intended to encourage honesty, may backfire, according to the report.

In a high-stakes situation, such as promotions, evaluators may be dishonest in trying to positively or negatively influence board selection decisions without any recourse, the report said.

The Marine Corps awarded the contract for the Envisia Learning pilot program, a company that focuses on 360 degree reviewsaccording to Cochran.

The contract will run through the end of fiscal year 2023 in the fall, with the Corps retaining the option to extend the contract through fiscal year 2024 before making a final decision on whether to make the program permanent.