---
title: Team health checks
description: What a health check measures, how ratings stay private, and what happens when a run closes
order: 1
---

A team health check is a short, repeated survey. The team rates named dimensions of how
work feels; each closed run is aggregated per dimension and compared with the previous
run of the same model.

## What SquadBear measures

Four models ship built in: **Team Health 11** (traffic-light, 11 dimensions like
Delivering value, Fun, Learning, Teamwork), **Pulse 5** (happiness scale, 5 dimensions -
Workload, Energy, Clarity, Support, Satisfaction - for a quick, frequent cadence),
**Engineering Health 8** (Likert scale, engineering-specific dimensions like code quality
and on-call load), and **eNPS** (a single 0–10 "would you recommend working here" question,
scored −100 to 100 as the promoter share minus the detractor share). Admins can also
build custom models at Team health → Health settings.

## How ratings work

Each run picks an anonymity mode - **Named**, **Alias** (pseudonym) or **Anonymous**; a
new run starts anonymous. Whichever mode is chosen, nobody - including admins - ever sees
another person's individual rating; every viewer sees their own answers plus the
aggregated result. Free-text comments carry the author's real name in Named mode, a
per-run pseudonym in Alias mode, and nothing in Anonymous mode. An anonymous run also
withholds participant names - the roster shows how many of the invited have answered
rather than naming them. Closing a run in Alias or Anonymous mode permanently destroys
the link between people and their answers; it cannot be recovered.

> [!NOTE]
> Each run sets **Show results after** - how many answers a dimension needs before the closed run records its average and distribution. New runs start at 3, and 1 records from the first answer. The response count is always visible.

## After a run closes

Every closed run feeds [Health trends](/docs/health/trends/) - one row per dimension
across the last twelve closed runs of the same model, each carrying an ↑ Improving,
↓ Review or → Stable badge. A fall past that page's movement threshold notifies every
facilitator when the run closes; a rise never alerts. From a result, a facilitator
creates an improvement action with an owner and a due date.

## Worked example

Marta opens a Pulse 5 check for Northlake's Platform team in Anonymous mode, leaving
**Show results after** at 3. Four of the five invited answer, so every dimension clears
the threshold and records; the roster reports 4 of 5 without naming anyone. Workload
closes lower than the previous run by more than the movement threshold, so closing the
run notifies every facilitator, and Marta records an improvement action against Workload,
owner Bartek, due in a week.

> [!AGENT]
> Start a Pulse 5 health check for the Platform team, anonymous, and open it now.

## Related

- [Run your first team health check](/docs/health/first-run/)
- [Turn results into improvement actions](/docs/health/actions/)
- [Turn modules on or off](/docs/admin/modules/)