Torch 360 Leadership Assessment FAQs for Admins

Want to know more about the Torch 360 Leadership Assessment? Start here. For quick navigation, click on a topic below to go directly to that section.

• Learning the Basics

• Understanding Data Collection and Privacy Policies

• Reporting on Results

Learning the Basics

What is the 360 assessment?

The Torch 360 Leadership Assessment, more commonly referred to as the Torch 360, 360 assessment, or just "the 360", is a state-of-the-art leadership assessment which leverages holistic and evidence-based research to help participants pinpoint the highest value areas of behavioral change. It allows participants to reflect about themselves and receive feedback from others in one comprehensive tool.

The 360 assessment includes 42 questions, 39 of which are statements that ask respondents to rate themselves in relation to others (using a "Much less than others", "Less than others", "Same as others", "More than others", and "Much more than others" scale), and 3 of which require a free text written response. The individual questions are rolled up into categories called leadership domains that are used to assess a person's leadership effectiveness and areas of opportunity.

For each program participant, 360 assessment insights are paired with coaching support and relevant content directly within the Torch platform.

How exactly does the 360 assessment work?

Each program participant will complete their 360 self-assessment at the designated timeframe during your program. The 360 is most often used as a tool to kickoff a Torch program, so participants can discover insights about themselves and identify areas of behavior change to focus on. 

Once they've completed the assessment, each participant will be required to invite at least 5 colleagues from a variety of roles (such as Manager, Direct Report, or Peer) to complete the assessment and evaluate the participant's leadership qualities. 

After the release criteria have been met, the participant will receive their 360 assessment results and debrief the feedback in their next scheduled meeting.

Can I customize the 360 assessment?

Yes! Learn more about customizing the 360 assessment for your organization.

Why does the 360 assessment use a "Much less than others" to "Much more than others" scale?

Asking the same 360 assessment statements using a 1-to-5 scale without the comparison to other people causes a "ceiling effect". This means that participants and feedback providers typically score themselves or the participant they're providing feedback for near the top of the scale, so there's no room for improvement.

The Torch standard compared-to-others scale (ranging from "Much less than others", "Less than others", "Same as others", "More than others", to "Much more than others") ensures that the mean of most assessment statements is closer to the center of the scale and that the scores are more distributed across the scale, which is key. When thinking about any scale, if everyone scores at the top or at the bottom, the scale is no longer useful. This variability in scores is important in order to be able to tell participants apart and understand which competencies might be more unique to them versus other people, and provide participants with useful feedback as a result.

Additionally, asking people to compare themselves to a general "other" without more specific guidance provides more valid answers than giving raters more context, like directing them to use a very specific comparison group. The 360 assessment is most useful for gathering feedback from colleagues to triangulate a participant's strengths and challenges and help set learning and behavior goals, not to rank users against each other.

Understanding Data Collection and Privacy Policies

Are feedback providers kept anonymous?

It is important that anyone providing feedback know how they will be identified and how their feedback might be shared. Feedback providers should always feel they can give honest and constructive feedback, without anxiety that there might be negative implications for anyone: themselves, a program participant, colleagues, or others. Whenever feedback is requested, we describe the level of anonymity for that request. For example, feedback providers will see a banner at the top of the intro page and each question page of the 360 assessment by default that includes a "Your responses are anonymous, but [Participant Name] will see they come from a [Feedback Provider's Role, such as Manager, Direct Report, or Peer]" message.

Anonymity settings are configured at the organization level, and apply to all 360 assessments completed by your organization's program participants or invited feedback providers. These settings are set to "Anonymize feedback" by default. For quantitative feedback (how a feedback provider scored a participant on the individual 360 statements), this means that feedback providers are identified by job role, such as Manager, Direct Report, or Peer. This can be changed to be more anonymous, but not less. It is important to note that participants may be able to identify some feedback providers based on their role if it only requires one respondent, such as the Manager or Manager's Manager roles. Qualitative feedback is always anonymous.

Bear in mind though, feedback is shared with program participants and written feedback is delivered to them verbatim. We recommend that feedback providers pay attention to the anonymity settings whenever they give feedback.

How do I change the anonymity settings for my program's 360 assessment?

For the best assessment experience, the 360 assessment settings are pre-configured and set to "Anonymize feedback" by default. For quantitative feedback (how a feedback provider scored a participant on the individual 360 statements), this means that feedback providers are identified by job role, such as Manager, Direct Report, or Peer. Qualitative feedback is always anonymous.

If you would like to make the 360 more anonymous, submit a request to Torch Support to remove job role from the feedback providers' quantitative responses prior to the 360 assessment launch. With that change, participants will not know who or which roles provided them specific types of feedback. This can be useful if your organization is struggling with psychological safety or to implement a culture of feedback. However, it does make the feedback more challenging for the participant to interpret because they may not get the opportunity to see how their behavior is perceived by different groups of people.

Who is feedback shared with?

Written feedback is never shared beyond the program participants and their respective coaches. However, the aggregate, de-identified scores are shared with you as the overall administrator of a Torch program.

Reporting on Results

When can program participants access their results?

In order for a participant's 360 results to be released to them, one of the following criteria must be met:

• The participant has completed their self-assessment AND all of the colleagues they invited to provide feedback have done so.

• At least five colleagues have provided feedback to the participant.

• 21 days have passed since the participant invited the first colleague to provide feedback.

Once one of the above criteria have been met, either the participant's coach or a designated expert will release the results. After the results have been released, the participant will be unable to make changes to their self-assessment or request additional feedback, and anyone who has not provided feedback will no longer be able to provide feedback. This is to preserve the anonymity of the feedback providers.

How can I report on 360 assessment results with my program?

Follow these steps to view the 360 Assessments report.