Why I use Grapevine 360

As a congregational consultant with synagogues, often lay leadership who have experienced a business 360 attempt to utilize this in their congregation. The traditional business 360 does not work as a unique set of data is needed for congregational life. In conversation with Wes at Grapevine and other staff, they have supported me over the past 5 years in getting the best data. They also work with non-profits in their pricing - which makes what could be an expensive 360 more accessible. I highly recommend Grapevine 360's!

Pros

I have used other 360 vendors prior to switching to Grapevine 360. This software is easy to use from designing the questions, communicating with those being assessed and respondents, and the excellent content of the reports. The best feature is the ability to compose and customize your own questions. I often adapt questions that they have in their data bank. As consultant with synagogues and clergy, having software that I can customize to the unique needs of the congregational community is a must. In designing the 360 you can mix and match for scaled ratings (I use 1-5) you can create your own range, to Y/N, required response for any questions, open text, and comment sections. This allows you to focus in on any specific area where you need data. The ability to move question up/down in the survey is seamless. The ease of creating new pages/sections allows for a consistent flow of data is great when you need to move data. The reports are easy to read and also customize what data you want to share, you can print one report for a client with some data, and other data for a supervisor, the results allow us to utilize the data for enhanced leadership and supervision. I would be remiss if I did not mention, outstanding and timely customer services whenever a technical issue. Issues are resolved in real time, never had to wait to solve a problem.

Cons

Often, I edit and type my questions in Word and then need to cut and paste into the 360 software, this takes a few extra steps. However, the ability to customize questions outweighs the extra few minutes. I would like to see a spell checker added when questions are edited.

Grapevine Evaluations 360

We use this tool as a method of providing feedback to those in our company who have been identified as having potential for higher level positions. As part of their development, the report provides them insight into the areas where their performance is strong, as well as highlight some blind spots they may have and help them focus their efforts on those areas. I find the customer service that Grapevine provides to be excellent. When I do have challenges, they are responsive, pleasant and helpful.

Pros

The presentation of the review itself is professional and easy for the raters to navigate. It allows for the user to customize all aspects - the rating scale, questions, the communication to participants, etc. The report that is generated is excellent - comprehensive, detailed, and thorough - and all at the push of a button. It's a wonderful tool to use for a 360 report.

Cons

I find the set up of the review to be somewhat challenging. Because I don't use it all the time (we do a series of reviews and then I may not revisit it again for some time), I forget the steps involved in setting it up. For example, I will have a participant that's "not registered", and it will take me some time to figure out what step I missed. Or, more recently, I accidently assigned someone as a "participant" when they were a "rater" and couldn't figure out how to remove them from the participant list.

Review from 360 feedback

We collect feedback about our employees in order to determine their areas of improvement.

Pros

The support was very good when we had problems, the answer are reasonably fast and direct to the point.

Cons

Gathering reports from the answer was very inefficient. Setting up a feedback was also quite complex. The flow of releasing a feedback for filling is very unfriendly and complex .

outdated system

Customer service is always great.

Pros

easy to maneuver, can export info as needed.

Cons

Outdated, lots of manual work required. Have to log into each survey to check the status. Very hard on our participants that are usually a part of multiple surveys. They have major password issues. Should have one portal for a participant where they can sign in and access all the surveys associated with their name. For example, we have managers with 10 participants and they have to have 10 different log in for each one. Not easy on participant or administrator. System hasn't changed in years. Also, administrator has to send email reminders. Should be system generated by now. System should also be able to generate GAP reports between old survey and resurvey verses admin doing manually.

Association for Energy Affordability - 2017 & 2018 customers

On the whole, Grapevine has been an affordable source for our 360 evaluations. It was considerably more successful at delivering useful feedback on our second round after I, the implementer in the office, had a chance to better familiarize myself with the system. I worry about someone else trying to pick up the same evaluation and run with it, as they'd face a steep learning curve on first use. At the end of the day, using Grapevine software was an effective way to deliver useful feedback to managers and employees alike, but the pathway to reach that point was more complicated than it needed to be.

Pros

Customer support, especially by CSR, was excellent throughout our two evaluations. We made some initial configuration errors that caused our evaluation reports to be empty, and CSR worked diligently over phone and email to help reconfigure the system to match our needs and set us up for success in future runs.

Cons

Entering/modifying questions, rating scales, and organization is quite onerous with the way the system is laid out. It's impossible to make edits to more than one question at a time, meaning that you're essentially starting from scratch if you want to make significant changes from evaluation to evaluation. Related to this, understanding all of the lingo and concepts that go into each report/evaluation would require an entire orientation unto itself. I wouldn't describe the system as accessible or easy to use.