Team Health Metrics¶

Delivery metrics tell you how fast and reliably your team ships. Team health metrics tell you whether they can keep doing it. High delivery with poor health is a credit card—you are borrowing against the future. Eventually, the bill comes due in the form of burnout, attrition, and declining quality.

This page covers how to measure team health in ways that are useful without being invasive, and how to act on what you learn.

What Problem This Solves¶

Team health is often invisible until it becomes a crisis. People do not announce they are burning out—they quietly disengage and then leave. Collaboration problems do not show up in Jira—they show up as friction, rework, and silent disengagement.

Without measurement:

Problems hide. Engineers may not feel safe raising concerns. Managers may not see what is happening. Issues fester until someone quits or blows up.

Good health is assumed. "No one is complaining" becomes a proxy for "everyone is fine." This is almost always wrong.

Investment is reactive. You only address health when there is a crisis—by which point, trust is damaged and good people may already be leaving.

Qualitative feedback lacks grounding. "The team seems stressed" is hard to act on. "Engagement scores dropped from 4.2 to 3.1 over two quarters" is actionable.

Good health measurement makes the invisible visible before it becomes a crisis, gives you a baseline for comparison, and provides grounding for qualitative observations.

When to Measure Health¶

Measure regularly when:

• You want to catch problems early (this should be always)
• You are going through significant change (reorgs, scaling, new leadership)
• You are running improvement experiments and want to track impact
• Retention is a concern

Investigate more deeply when:

• Regular pulse scores decline
• Qualitative signals (1:1s, retros) suggest problems
• Attrition increases
• Delivery metrics diverge from health (high delivery, declining health)

Be cautious about:

• Survey fatigue—too many surveys annoy people and reduce participation
• Surveillance perception—measurement should help the team, not monitor individuals

Ownership¶

What to Measure¶

Team health is multidimensional. The following dimensions capture most of what matters:

Engagement¶

What it means: Do people feel connected to their work and team? Are they motivated?

Why it matters: Disengaged people do the minimum. They do not go above and beyond, do not collaborate well, and are more likely to leave.

Sample questions:

• I feel motivated by the work I do
• I understand how my work contributes to team goals
• I would recommend this team as a place to work

Psychological Safety¶

What it means: Do people feel safe to take risks, ask questions, and admit mistakes without fear of punishment?

Why it matters: Safety enables learning, candor, and innovation. Without it, people hide problems, avoid risks, and do not share ideas.

Sample questions:

• I feel comfortable asking questions when I do not understand something
• When I make a mistake, it is not held against me
• Team members can bring up difficult issues without fear

Workload and Sustainability¶

What it means: Is the pace sustainable? Are people overloaded?

Why it matters: Unsustainable workload leads to burnout, declining quality, and attrition. Short bursts are fine; chronic overload is not.

Sample questions:

• My workload is manageable
• I can maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life
• I rarely feel overwhelmed by the amount of work expected of me

Clarity¶

What it means: Do people understand what they should be doing and why?

Why it matters: Ambiguity causes anxiety, rework, and wasted effort. Clarity enables autonomy and focus.

Sample questions:

• I understand what is expected of me
• Our team priorities are clear
• I know how to succeed in my role

Collaboration¶

What it means: Does the team work well together? Is information shared?

Why it matters: Engineering is collaborative. Poor collaboration creates silos, duplicated work, and frustration.

Sample questions:

• My team members support each other
• Information flows freely within the team
• We resolve conflicts constructively

Growth¶

What it means: Do people feel they are developing and have a future here?

Why it matters: People who do not see growth will leave. Growth is a key driver of engagement and retention.

Sample questions:

• I am learning and developing in my role
• I see a clear path for my career growth
• I receive useful feedback on my performance

Manager Effectiveness¶

What it means: Is the manager helping or hindering?

Why it matters: Manager quality is one of the strongest predictors of team health. Bad managers drive attrition; good managers multiply their team.

Sample questions:

• My manager supports my development
• My manager keeps me informed about what I need to know
• I receive regular, helpful feedback from my manager

Measurement Methods¶

Pulse Surveys¶

Short, frequent surveys (5-10 questions, weekly to monthly) that track trends over time.

Strengths:

• Catches changes quickly
• Low burden per instance
• Shows trends clearly

Weaknesses:

• Can cause survey fatigue if too frequent
• Limited depth per survey
• Requires good tooling for aggregation

Implementation:

• Use 5-point or 7-point Likert scales for consistency
• Include one open-text question for context
• Run every 2-4 weeks (monthly is often sufficient)
• Require minimum response threshold before showing results (typically 5+ responses)

Engagement Surveys¶

Longer, less frequent surveys (20-40 questions, quarterly or semi-annually) that provide comprehensive assessment.

Strengths:

• Comprehensive coverage
• Allows for benchmarking
• Provides depth for action planning

Weaknesses:

• Survey fatigue if combined with too many pulse surveys
• Long feedback loop—quarterly data is old by definition
• May miss fast-moving problems

Implementation:

• Run quarterly or semi-annually
• Align with planning cycles so results can inform priorities
• Always share results and actions with the team

Team Retrospectives¶

Qualitative data from retrospectives can supplement quantitative surveys.

What to track:

• Frequency of health-related topics in retros
• Patterns in what is raised (always the same issues = unresolved)
• Sentiment trends (are things getting better or worse?)

1:1 Conversations¶

Direct conversations are the richest source of health data but are hard to aggregate.

What to track:

• Common themes across 1:1s
• Energy and engagement levels
• Concerns raised about workload, clarity, or team dynamics

Attrition and Retention¶

Lagging indicators:

• Voluntary attrition rate
• Regretted attrition (people you wanted to keep)
• Tenure distribution (are people leaving early?)

These are lagging indicators—they tell you about problems that already happened. Combine with leading indicators (engagement, satisfaction) to act before people leave.

Review Process¶

Individual Team Level¶

Frequency: Monthly

Process:

1. Manager reviews aggregate pulse/survey data
2. Compare to previous period—any significant changes?
3. Cross-reference with qualitative data (1:1s, retros)
4. Identify any areas needing attention
5. Discuss with team if appropriate (aggregate, not individual)
6. Take action on issues

What to look for:

• Declining scores in any dimension
• Divergence between dimensions (high engagement but low sustainability = burnout risk)
• Persistent low scores (issue not being addressed)

Organization Level¶

Frequency: Quarterly

Process:

1. HR/People team aggregates cross-team data
2. Identify organizational patterns (multiple teams with same issue)
3. Compare to benchmarks and previous periods
4. Present to leadership with recommendations
5. Resource systemic interventions

What to look for:

• Patterns across teams (systemic vs. local issues)
• Correlation with attrition
• Trends over time

Acting on Health Data¶

Data without action is worse than no data—it teaches people that measurement is theater.

Triage¶

Response Framework¶

For declining scores:

1. Acknowledge the data with the team (without defensiveness)
2. Seek to understand—ask questions, not assumptions
3. Identify root causes through conversation
4. Propose changes and check for alignment
5. Implement and track impact

For critical scores:

1. Escalate to skip-level and HR if appropriate
2. Have honest conversations with the team about what is happening
3. Make visible changes—this is not the time for incremental improvement
4. Follow up frequently until scores improve

Closing the Loop¶

Always share what you learned and what you are doing about it. "We heard X. We are doing Y. We will check back in Z weeks." Without this, people stop participating.

What Good Looks Like¶

Warning Signs¶

• Very high scores across all dimensions (people may not feel safe to be honest)
• Low participation (people do not believe it matters)
• Scores declining over time with no intervention
• Big gap between manager perception and team scores

Failure Modes and Mitigations¶

Survey Theater¶

Symptom: Surveys happen, results are shared, nothing changes. People stop participating.

Root cause: No commitment to action. Survey is a checkbox, not a tool.

Mitigation: Every survey result must be followed by visible action. Even if the action is "we heard X, we cannot change it because Y, but here is what we can do."

Surveillance Perception¶

Symptom: People distrust the survey. Participation drops. Scores are suspiciously uniform.

Root cause: Fear that individual responses are visible or will be used against them.

Mitigation: Guarantee anonymity (minimum response thresholds, no individual visibility). Never reference individual feedback. Build trust over time through consistent behavior.

Score Fixation¶

Symptom: Managers obsess over hitting a score target. Gaming occurs.

Root cause: Score becomes a target instead of a signal.

Mitigation: Focus on trends and understanding, not absolute numbers. Never tie compensation or evaluation to health scores.

Survey Fatigue¶

Symptom: Participation declines. People complain about too many surveys.

Root cause: Too frequent, too long, no action on results.

Mitigation: Limit to one pulse per month and one comprehensive survey per quarter maximum. Keep pulse surveys short (5-7 questions). Always close the loop.

Ignoring Qualitative Context¶

Symptom: Data is reviewed in isolation. Actions miss the point.

Root cause: Over-reliance on numbers without understanding stories behind them.

Mitigation: Always pair survey data with 1:1 conversations and retro themes. Ask "why" before acting.

Copy-Paste Artifact: Team Health Pulse Survey¶

## Team Health Pulse

**Instructions:** Rate each statement from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree)

### Questions

1. **Engagement:** I feel motivated by the work I am doing.
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

2. **Safety:** I feel comfortable raising concerns or asking questions.
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

3. **Workload:** My workload is manageable.
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

4. **Clarity:** I understand what is expected of me.
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

5. **Collaboration:** My team works well together.
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

6. **Growth:** I am learning and developing in my role.
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

7. **Overall:** Overall, how would you rate your experience on this team?
   [ ] 1 [ ] 2 [ ] 3 [ ] 4 [ ] 5

### Open Response

8. Is there anything you would like to share about your experience on the team?
   [Open text]

---

**Anonymity:** Individual responses are not visible to managers. Results are only shown when 5+ people respond.

**Frequency:** Monthly

**Follow-up:** Results and planned actions will be shared within 2 weeks.

Copy-Paste Artifact: Health Review Agenda¶

## Monthly Team Health Review

**Date:** [Date]
**Manager:** [Name]
**Team:** [Name]

### Current Scores (vs. Previous Month)

| Dimension     | This Month | Last Month | Trend |
| ------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ----- |
| Engagement    | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |
| Safety        | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |
| Workload      | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |
| Clarity       | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |
| Collaboration | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |
| Growth        | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |
| Overall       | \_\_\_/5   | \_\_\_/5   | ↑/↓/→ |

**Participation rate:** \_\_\_% (target: > 80%)

### Qualitative Themes

**From open responses:**

- [Theme]
- [Theme]

**From 1:1s this month:**

- [Theme]
- [Theme]

**From retros:**

- [Theme]

### Analysis

**What is going well?**
[Dimensions that are strong or improving]

**What needs attention?**
[Dimensions that are low or declining]

**Likely causes:**
[What might be driving the patterns]

### Actions

| Issue | Action | Timeline | Follow-up |
| ----- | ------ | -------- | --------- |
|       |        |          |           |

### Communication Plan

**What will we share with the team?**
[Summary of themes, planned actions]

**When?**
[Date]

### Notes for Skip-Level / Escalation

[Any issues that need escalation]

Copy-Paste Artifact: Closing the Loop Template¶

Use this to share survey results and actions with your team.

## Team Health Check-in: [Month]

**Participation:** \_\_\_% — thank you to everyone who responded.

### What We Heard

**Strengths (what is going well):**

- [Strength with brief context]
- [Strength with brief context]

**Areas for improvement:**

- [Area with brief context]
- [Area with brief context]

### What We Are Doing About It

| What We Heard | What We're Doing | Timeline |
| ------------- | ---------------- | -------- |
| [Issue]       | [Action]         | [When]   |
| [Issue]       | [Action]         | [When]   |

### What We Cannot Change (and Why)

[If there are things raised that cannot be addressed, explain why honestly.]

### Next Steps

- We will check in on these actions in [timeframe]
- Next pulse survey will be [date]
- As always, you can raise concerns directly in 1:1s or via [channel]

**Thank you for your candor. It helps us improve.**

Further Reading¶

• The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson — Research on psychological safety
• First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman — Employee engagement research
• Drive by Daniel Pink — Motivation and engagement
• An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson — Includes practical approaches to team health

Related¶

• Engineering Metrics — The delivery side of measurement
• One-on-Ones — Where qualitative health data often surfaces
• Feedback Frameworks — Creating safety for honest feedback
• Continuous Improvement — Acting on what you learn
• Core Principles — Psychological safety as a foundational principle