Top 5 Benefits of Checking Your Team’s Pulse

It's no secret that employee engagement is key to retaining top talent and improving corporate culture. A satisfied employee shows more engagement and readily delivers good results. So, it is essential to assess employees' satisfaction periodically.

And one of the key tools to motivating your team and improving satisfaction is pulse checks.

Pulse checks allow you to understand the people who work for you and how they feel, allowing you to map out how to help your team evolve in the long run.

Ready to begin?

This article will highlight the essential aspects of a team pulse check and its benefits. 

Let's dive right in!

What is a team pulse check?

A team pulse check is a brief and concise survey administered to employees regularly. It contains a short set of questions on employee satisfaction, work environment, job role, communication, and relationships.

It provides an avenue for a quick check-in with employees. And the feedback gotten from the survey points out areas that need improvement. 

A team pulse survey typically contains a minimum of 5 questions and a maximum of 15 questions. However, these questions should be easy to answer and not time-consuming.

How do you check a team's pulse?

You check a team's pulse by asking questions that encourage members to share both good and bad news. These help you better understand what your teams are facing in the market.

One of the ways to achieve an effective team pulse check is using surveys. Here are steps to follow to conduct a team pulse survey:

• Select survey questions

The success of a team pulse survey largely depends on asking the right questions. It is essential you include questions that require workable responses. You're checking the pulse of the team, so its best employees provide valuable insights in their responses.

• Inform your employees about the survey

It is important to inform team members before sending out the survey, allowing them to create time to sufficiently answer the questions rather than answering them in haste. 

• Conduct the survey

It's important to align the time to conduct the survey. While organizations can decide what works, it is best to decide on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly schedule.

• Evaluate responses

A team pulse survey doesn't serve its purpose if the responses obtained are not evaluated. So, it's vital to examine the responses and spot areas that need improvement. Positive feedback is also a great area to reflect on as it shows what the team is doing right. 

• Act on feedback

It is not enough to show that you listen. It's essential that you act on the feedback. After a team pulse survey, formulate an action plan to follow up on the feedback received and fix timelines for specific changes to be made.

• Prepare for the next survey

The word, pulse, indicates the need for the survey to be done frequently. So, after completing one survey, it's important to make plans for the next one, and use it as an avenue to assess the effect of the changes that were made.

Assembly's employee pulse survey template is the perfect guideline for conducting a successful team pulse check. Try it Today.

What should I ask in a pulse survey?

The questions you ask in a team pulse survey should be clear, concise, and understandable.

Every organization has its peculiarities. And the type of team pulse check survey questions used is unique to every organization.

Here are examples of pulse check questions for teams to include in your survey:

1. Are you always happy heading to work?
2. Would you recommend this company as an ideal place to work?
3. Do you see yourself still working here in the next year?
4. Do you feel you're best suited for your role in the team?
5. Do you feel your work input receives enough recognition?
6. Do you think your job is valuable?
7. Do you feel left out of the team?
8. Do you believe in the team's leadership?
9. Are you comfortable with providing honest remarks about your work experience?
10. Are you satisfied with the available opportunities for career advancement?
11. Are you satisfied with the technologies and tools you work with?
12. Are you aware of what is expected of you in the team?
13. What's your relationship with other team members?
14. Are you feeling stressed lately?
15. Do you believe in the team's mission and vision?

What is the purpose of a team pulse check?

Your employees are the heartbeat of your business. Setting up a pulse check is a best practice to ensure you're keeping this team in peak shape. It’s also an easier avenue to get the candid opinion of workers as surveys are a typically less intimidating way to get information.

According to an article by Edume.com, the average employee engagement survey gets about a 30-40% response rate, while pulse surveys have an average response rate of 85%.

By checking your team's pulse, you'll learn more about who they are and what they value, so you can support them further while taking action on any issues discovered.

Team pulse checks help maintain dialogue with employees, obtain useable feedback, identify drops in the level of employee engagement, reduce turnover, and boost productivity.

Let's dive further into the benefits of checking the pulse of the team. These benefits include:

1. Boost employees' engagement

Team pulse surveys are your go-to option for boosting employee engagement. Frequent employee check-ins make them more engaged, as the routine pulse checks communicate to employees that they are important and their opinions. This feeling typically evokes a sense of commitment, enthusiasm, and advocacy in the workforce.

2. Avenue for Honest Feedback

Employees tend to open up more in a survey or check-in than in physical meet-ups. They'll instead express their honest opinions in a designated survey made for candid conversations as there's less pressure. Therefore, a team pulse check gives teams a better chance of getting reliable and valuable insights.

3. Monitoring changes in employees' satisfaction

To ensure that employees are satisfied, it's crucial to maintain a suitable work environment and improve the company's productivity. And this can be achieved through pulse checks. 

Pulse checks also help you know how changes made affect employees' satisfaction. 

4. Easy identification of potentially significant issues

A team pulse check allows you to nip issues in the bud early. The survey serves as a warning alarm that draws the organization's attention to issues that could be potential problems if not handled early.

For instance, if a high number of employees respond that they do not see themselves working in the company in the next year or more, the management will need to look into the reason. The responses may be a warning sign of a flood of resignations. A team pulse check will enable you to address it before a mass resignation occurs.

5. Reduced Burnout Rate

Burnout is an epidemic in the modern workplace, affecting employees and employers. 

A team pulse check is designed to use short and simple questions to gauge employees' feelings and emotions. So, checking in can help you identify when someone is struggling and provide them the support they need to get back on track.

Pulse checks can help reduce burnout among employees by giving them an outlet to express themselves without fear of repercussions or reprimand.

Find a balance

A team pulse check is designed to be administered frequently. However, it's important not to administer it too frequently. This is to avoid it losing its essence. 

When employees are required to take team pulse surveys very often, they gradually begin to put less effort into filling them, especially when feedback isn't reflected. 

When in doubt, remember that the aim of pulse checks is to understand the employees more to improve their productivity and motivation.

Book a Demo with Assembly to learn how a team pulse check increases your employees' engagement.