15 Reasons Why Team Health Checks Are Better Than Morning Christmas

Team Health checks are a very hot topic at the moment and this is no coincidence. Companies and businesses are waking up to the importance of team health checks as a way to measure the health of their organization.

In the same way we go to the doctors to get regular health checks, go to the dentist for a check up, or pass the MOT of our car to ensure it won’t break down unexpectedly.

Some companies have started to apply the same principle to their teams.

And…it makes a lot of sense to me!

But what exactly is a Team Health Check? 👈

A Team health check is a qualitative measure based on the team’s assessment of 11 focus areas (i.e. learning, support, trust…) that were chosen as health indicators by the Spotify Health Model.

Those 11 indicators are the ones Spotify identified as the key metrics for their teams BUT each company and each team should identify their own ones depending on their culture, environment, circumstances, project, etc.

I started to do some research and analysed why some of the MOST successful companies run teams health checks.

Here are 15 reasons WHY you should ALSO run regular team health checks at your company:

1. Employee Retention. 👫 Team Health Checks provide a safe space for your teams to express their concerns (if any) and create dialog. By doing so your employees feel empowered over the destiny of their projects and feel their impact within the organization, they will feel motivated and committed to their work.
2. Accountability. ☝️ When employees reflect on the way they work and try to find solutions to improve by themselves, they will consequently take ownership of the work they do. Accountability does not necessarily have bad connotations, on the contrary, it is a source of motivation.
3. Increased morale and happiness. 😀 Running Team Health Checks will allow your teams to regularly check on their morale and productivity. The feedback obtained will allow them to take action and continuously improve. The team will become self efficient and more productive. A productive team is a happy team.
4. Loyalty. 💍 By empowering your teams with the data they need to continuously improve and trusting they will take responsibility for it, your teams will get ownership and will feel highly committed to their projects and consequently to the organization. A company culture that commits to its teams work and takes care of their ‘health’ will get the same commitment in return by their employes.
5. Improved performance. 🚀 Team Health Checks are a way for the teams to check on themselves and understand which areas need improvement. This allows the team to take action and continuously improve sprint after sprint.
6. Productivity. ⚡️ As mentioned before — a happy team is a productive team. By implementing Team Health Checks on the culture of your company and establishing a continuous improvement culture to create a healthy organization, your overall productivity will be boosted.
7. Identify areas of improvement. 👀 Through the implementation of regular Health Checks in your organization, your teams will be able to visualize and focus on the areas that need improvement. It is also important to identify the strengths of the teams and transfer their knowledge across the teams in the organization.
8. Greater focus. 🤓 Health Checks are very important for the team and the organization to understand where to focus their efforts. Each team may have different challenges and it is extremely important to identify these as soon as possible to find solutions, before these issues become threats to the company.
9. Continuous improvement culture. 🔥 This is a very popular concept, but how many companies are actually able to say they have a CI culture in place and measure the impact? Very few. Running Team Health Checks will allow you to understand the status of your teams and the best practices.
10. Increased revenue. 💰 A healthy organization equals greater profits. Teams are continuously improving and finding better ways to work together which leads to innovation.
11. Identify issues before they become threats. ⚠️ Running Health Checks empowers your teams with the data to make the right decisions at the right time. Being able to identify the challenges before they threaten the delivery of the project.
12. Team unity/ bonding. 💞 Team Health Checks ensure your teams have the time to reflect and discuss with their teammates about their work. This way of working will force the teams to work together towards the same goal. Great unity will come out of this.
13. Increased communication. 📢 Teams will regularly reflect on the communication across the team, the department or even the organization. Health Checks help set the right tone and provide a way for teams to start conversations to reflect and create value.
14. Align the business. 🎯 Running Team Health Checks allows the organization to visualize and understand the ‘health’ status of each team. Promoting a culture where everyone works towards the same goal: continuously improve and generate greater results.
15. Greater employee engagement. 🙇 When you trust your teams and give them the responsibility to manage their own work you will see an improvement. Even though many tools have come up in the market addressing employee engagement, there are loads of statistics showing there’s still room for improvement, but maybe because it is not all about individuals. It is also about how individuals interact with their teams and how they work together.

So, do you know how well your company is doing? And your teams? Do you have a continuous improvement culture?

These are some questions I would like to put to you, and please share or tag anyone you think this article may be relevant to.

Would love to hear your comments! 👋🏼