What is Peer Feedback?

Peer feedback is the practice of colleagues providing performance observations, recognition, and constructive input to one another. Unlike manager feedback, which flows through a hierarchical relationship, peer feedback comes from people who observe each other's work firsthand — often in collaborative settings like project teams, cross-functional initiatives, or shared client engagements.

Peer feedback captures dimensions of performance that managers may not see. While a manager might evaluate an employee's output and strategic contribution, peers can speak to collaboration quality, communication style, reliability, willingness to help, and day-to-day work ethic. This makes peer feedback particularly valuable for roles where teamwork is central to success and where an individual's impact is felt most strongly by the people working alongside them.

Effective peer feedback programs require clear guidelines and psychological safety. Employees need to understand what constitutes helpful feedback, how to frame observations constructively, and trust that their input will be anonymized appropriately. Organizations commonly integrate peer feedback into 360-degree reviews, project retrospectives, or continuous feedback platforms. The best programs make peer feedback a cultural norm rather than a formal event — where recognizing a colleague's contribution or offering a suggestion for improvement is simply how work gets done.

Peer feedback expands the performance lens beyond the manager-employee relationship, creating a more accurate and complete picture of how someone contributes. It also builds a culture of mutual accountability and recognition. Employees who regularly receive peer feedback report higher engagement and stronger relationships at work. For organizations, peer feedback reduces reliance on a single evaluator and helps identify collaboration strengths and gaps that affect team performance.