What is employee temperature checking?
by Beth Camies
Employee temperature checking is a phrase that gets bandied about in HR teams around the world, but what does it really mean? Obviously, you’re not running around with a thermometer checking every team member’s temperature as they walk in the office. (If we avoided it during Covid-19, we can absolutely avoid it from here on out.)
You know that it really has to do with getting a gauge of how your team is feeling. But what you probably don’t know is how it’s done and why it’s different from more formal check-ins like annual surveys.
What is temperature checking?
Temperature checking is when employers set aside dedicated time to assess the general feelings and thoughts of their team. This may be focused on personal feelings or as a response to different areas of the business. Usually, this will be done informally by team leaders or managers, including a face-to-face meeting or a quick, simple survey.
Responses are scored on a ‘temperature’ based system, the results of which employers can use to analyse and identify areas for improvement. Whether that be morale, communication or something else entirely.
Read more: 5 ways to improve employee well-being through data
Traditional Annual Surveys vs Regular Temperature Meeting
There are many reasons why regular temperature checking can be more helpful than traditional annual surveys. Although still commonplace in some, more traditional, industries, annual surveys are becoming outdated. It’s become clear that they aren't the most effective tool to engage employees and encourage meaningful dialogues.
One-off annual surveys have proven inefficient and ineffective in identifying issues and gathering insights into the wellbeing and satisfaction of the organisation. Regular temperature checks, on the other hand, can help you catch early signs of friction, stress and even burn out.
You can also increase employee engagement and feelings of autonomy through temperature checking. By letting employees share how they’re feeling in an open conversation, you can encourage them to find solutions to the problems they’re facing and to create actionable takeaways.
Traditional Annual Surveys
- Can be viewed as a box ticking exercise
- Ignored in employee inbox
- Sometimes lengthy, leading to inconclusive submissions
- Full opinions are not put across
- Not cost effective
Regular Temperature Checking
- Face-to-face
- Honest, open discussions
- Employees feel engaged and listened to
- Actionable tasks
- Loop back to monitor improvements
Learn more: The psychology behind employee contentment [VIDEO]
How to conduct a temperature check meeting
First, as with most things in the business world, you should start with objectives. Setting clear goals for your meetings can help you stay on task and cover any particular issues. Consider these questions:
- What kind of feedback are you looking for in this meeting? Is it about their stress levels? How a project is performing? What they think of new policies?
- How will you gather data from the feedback? Will it be verbal? Do you have a rating system? Or is it all qualitative?
Also, be sure to share the objectives with your team ahead of the meeting. Clear and consistent communication is important, especially when you’re trying a new engagement technique with your employees.
Once you’ve set and communicated your objectives, it’s time to create the right atmosphere. Be sure to create a safe and open environment where your team can feel comfortable telling you their honest thoughts and feelings. Encourage honest feedback and be open to receiving it positively when it comes.
Finally, take the data and feedback you’ve gathered and turn it into action. To start, you can ask the person or people you are checking in with what actions they can think of to take away. This keeps them engaged and gives them ownership of the solutions. But you should also have takeaways and follow up actions to address any concerns raised. It can be helpful to have a tool like Winningtemp to track progress long term and identify any trends from the temperature checks.
Temperature checking is a great way to increase employee engagement. By leading open, vulnerable, action-oriented team conversations, you can connect with your teams, mitigate stressors early and give them a better sense of autonomy. These meetings can help generate in-team solutions, foster participation and create accountability. They can also lift a huge burden from HR’s shoulders and improve employee satisfaction and retention.
Want to bring in a new temperature checking software and make sure it connects properly to your HR system? Get in touch, we can help make sure your employee engagement strategy works with your tech.
