Visual 360: a performance appraisal system that's 'fun.' - Evaluation

HR Magazine, July, 1999 by Jim Meade

Visual 360 3.7

MindSolve Technologies Inc.

203 Southwest Third Ave.

Gainesville, FL 32601

Phone: (352) 372-0000

Fax: (352) 372-0030

E-mail: info@mindsolve.com

Web site: www.mindsolve.com

PRODUCT USE

Software for automating multi-rate assessment (360-degree feedback from supervisors, peers and direct reports).

EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS

Runs on Intel 486 and higher processors, using Windows 3.1 and higher versions, including Windows NT and Windows 98. Operates on various networks, the Internet and intranets.

RELEASE DATE

May 1, 1999.

INSTALLED BASE

25 companies

PRICING

One-time licensing fees start at $25,000. Service bureau assessments are also available for approximately $200 per user. No extra charge for customization.

Suppose your company is committed to 360-degree ("multi-rater") assessments. But perhaps you have thousands of employees to trackman administrative nightmare. As for users, you know they can get annoyed or just fatigued filling out rating forms, and they may not know much about such assessment terms as "competencies." Unless you give users the right guidance, they tend to just assign an arbitrary rating to everyone.

Visual 360 from MindSolve Technologies Inc. in Gainesville, Fla., automates 360-degree assessments, saving the administrator time in tracking results and making it intuitive for employees to apply competencies and rate even a group of people in meaningful ways.

What It Does

The person performing the 360-degree rating clicks to log in, puts in a password and opens a screen with a rating scale on the left side, the name of the ratee on the lower right and a description of a competency in a box in the top right.

To rate the person, the rater drags the name from the right to the scale on the left. The scale isn't just numbers but meaningful descriptions, for instance, "Usually meets and sometimes exceeds expectations" or "Top 5 percent," points out Jeff Lyons, project manager at MindSolve.

A box in the top right describes the competency. You can click on the "More Info" button to find out more about the competency. If you don't understand what you're supposed to do, press Fl or click "Help."

Once you've dragged one employee to the scale, the name of a second ratee appears. You drag that name to the scale. If you feel you can't rate someone, you drag the name to the "Unable To Rate" box. You can view all your names at once, making it easy to make slight distinctions, for example, by placing someone slightly higher than someone else on the scale on the left.

To choose raters for themselves, employees click on names in a dialog box. The company can set up the choices so that the employee has to follow certain rules, such as including their supervisor as one of the raters.

What I Like

Ease of use is strong in Visual 360, and that is essential for a product automating the cumbersome task of completing and compiling performance ratings. In fact, raters often say Visual 360 is "fun." "We're very pleased with the ease the people have in using it," attests Jimmy Shelley, director of learning at Sonoco Product Co. in Hartsville, S.C.

Engineering design is also outstanding. Visual 360 connects with PeopleSoft or another company database to complete needed information and to verify data, such as the name of a person's supervisor.

Also, by interacting with the database, the program can provide users with a ready-made list of potential raters - perhaps 100 names - instead of just listing all names in the company, which might be 10,000 names.

Visual 360 is sophisticated in its scoring method, too, and, for instance, allows analysts to review low scores to find out if they are coming from a rater who consistently provides low scores.

The e-mail connection is invaluable, allowing people to receive and return their assessments quickly and helping the administrator send out rater forms and reminders.

The reporting, too, is excellent. "Thanks to the number of reports and the way reports can be sorted, you can go in and get different types of information from the server," says Shelley.

You can get administrative reports on who has or who has not selected raters, or reports on who has or who has not completed their ratings. You can develop your own reports, and you can select specialized reports, such as "scores by department" or "scores by pay grade."

MindSolve prides itself on support. "They have given us the best support of any vendor we have ever worked with," says Shelley.

Fixed pricing for the whole job is also a major advantage. "We'd rather spend an extra hour of our time than have someone not solve a problem," explains Dan Boccabella, general manager of MindSolve. "If they're worried we're going to bill them, they won't call."

What Could Be Improved

The biggest caution for potential Visual 360 users has to do with 360-degree evaluations in general. First of all, if you don't use multirater assessments and don't plan to, then you obviously wouldn't use this product.