Team health check: how to run one
A team health check is a short meeting where the team rates how things are going, together. It is not a test of anyone. It is a way to find the one or two things worth fixing next.
Updated
What to ask
Each person rates each area as good, mixed or bad. Keep the list short.
- Workload: can we do our work in normal hours?
- Clarity: do we know what matters most right now?
- Help: can we get help quickly when we are stuck?
- Working together: do we work across the whole team, or in small groups?
- Learning: is each of us learning something?
- Speed: do we finish work without long waits?
How to get honest answers
- Everyone rates at the same time, before anyone talks.
- The manager speaks last.
- Talk about the work, never about a person.
- Thank whoever names a problem.
What to do with the result
Pick one or two areas, not all of them. Agree one change for each, and who will make it. Start the next health check by asking whether it helped.
Run it every month or two. More often and it becomes a chore. Less often and problems wait too long.
Between checks
A health check shows how people feel on one day. Between checks, watch what the work itself shows: late nights that keep growing, one person every question goes through, two people who used to work together and stopped.
The signals behind this guide
- How to tell if a team member is overloaded
Someone is working too much.
- How to spot a single point of failure on a team
Only one person knows an important part of the code. If they are away, nobody else can change it.
- When two teammates stop working together
Two people who worked closely have barely worked together for two weeks.
- When two teams stop working together
Two teams that worked together a lot have mostly stopped.
More guides
- Why employees leave and the signs before they go
Why employees leave, the changes a manager can see before someone resigns, and how to start the conversation while there is still time.
- Quiet quitting: the signs, and what to do
What quiet quitting looks like on a team, how it differs from a quiet week, and how a manager can respond without blame.
- One on one questions to ask your team
One on one questions for every part of a 1:1 meeting: workload, the team, growth and you as their manager. Plus what to talk about, and a simple agenda.
- Employee recognition: how to thank good work
Employee recognition that costs nothing: how to notice the work that deserves thanks, how to say it so it lands, and ideas to make sure nobody is missed.
- Signs of burnout at work a manager can see
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- Signs an employee is secretly struggling
The work changes that show someone may be struggling, why they hide it, and how a manager can ask in a way that gets an honest answer.
- How to tell if an employee is disengaged
What disengaged looks like day to day, how it differs from a bad week, and how a manager can find the reason and respond without blame.
- Bus factor: how to find it and raise it
Your bus factor is how many people could leave before work stops. How to find the one person your team relies on, and how to spread what they know.
- How to support an employee returning from leave
What to do before, on and after someone's first day back from leave, so they can catch up without being rushed or left out.
- Overwhelmed at work: how a manager can help
What to do when someone has too much on: how to find out what they are carrying, what to take away, and how to check that it worked.
- Employee onboarding: a 90-day plan
A practical plan for a new hire's first days and first 90 days: what to prepare, who they should meet, and what to check on each week.
- Performance review examples for managers
Performance review examples you can adapt for results, teamwork, growth and problems, a short template, and how to write a fair review from facts.
- Employee retention: how to keep your best people
What employee retention depends on, why good people leave, and the habits that keep them: fair workload, real growth and a manager who notices.
- First time manager: what to do first
A plan for a first time manager: meet each person, learn how the team works, start one on ones, and avoid the mistakes most new managers make.
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