Icebreakers for New Employees and Onboarding Week

The right icebreakers for new employees help a new hire feel known without putting them on the spot, and the trick is simple: the team answers first. Here are 47 questions organized around the moments of onboarding week, from the day-one welcome to the Friday check-in.

The one rule: the team goes first

A new person on day one is already being watched, quizzed and introduced. Asking them to "tell everyone a bit about yourself" in front of twelve strangers is the opposite of a welcome. Flip the order: pick a question, let four or five teammates answer it, and ask the new hire last, by which point they've heard the tone and the length and have had a minute to think. Let them pass if they want to. Nobody remembers who skipped; everyone remembers being put on the spot.

Day one: the welcome round

For the first team meeting. Everyone answers, the new person goes last.

• What's something about you that wouldn't fit on a résumé?
• How long did you last at your very first job?
• What hobby takes up more of your weekend than you'd admit?
• Where did you grow up, and what's it known for?
• What's the best thing you've learned this year, at work or not?
• What were you the go-to person for at your last job?
• What's one thing you're hoping to learn this year?
• What small thing makes a workday good for you?
• Where would you love to travel next?
• What's your order from the coffee place nearest the office?

The team's welcome pack

Questions the team answers for the new hire, who just listens and takes notes. This is the most useful ten minutes of onboarding.

• What would you tell someone joining us tomorrow?
• What's the best lunch nearby, and what should they order?
• Who's the person to ask when you're lost, and about what?
• What took you longest to figure out when you started here?
• Which bit of our jargon confused you at first?
• Which meeting is more fun than it sounds?
• What first-month mistake does everyone make?
• What's the best thing about working here that never comes up in interviews?
• Which document or channel should they read first?
• What team tradition should they know about?

For the buddy coffee or first lunch

One-on-one and two-way: the buddy answers too.

• How did you end up in this line of work?
• What's on your calendar outside work that you're excited about?
• What do you do to switch off after work?
• What's the most interesting place you've lived?
• What did you picture this job being like before you started?
• What skill did you pick up somewhere unexpected?
• What show or podcast has you hooked right now?
• What's your coffee order, so I know for next time?
• What's the best advice you got before starting a new job?
• What question have you been too polite to ask yet?

For the manager's first one-on-one

About how they work, not their private life. Write the answers down; they're the start of a working agreement.

• What does useful support actually look like for you?
• When you're stuck, do you dig in alone first or talk it through?
• What's the best way to give you feedback so it actually lands?
• What did a great manager do for you in the past?
• What kind of work gives you energy, and what drains it?
• How do you like to plan your week?
• What would make the first three months a success for you?
• What from your last role would you like to keep doing here?
• What would you like more of in your work, and less of?
• What should I know about how you communicate?

End of the first week

A short Friday check-in, with the manager or buddy.

• What surprised you most this week?
• What was easier than you expected?
• What's still confusing that someone could explain in five minutes?
• Who was unexpectedly helpful, and how?
• What would you change about how we onboarded you?
• What are you most excited to work on first?
• What do you know now that you wish you'd known on Monday?

How to run onboarding icebreakers

Spread them across the week. One question in each meeting beats a single forty-minute "get to know the new hire" session. Keep each round to five minutes, and give the buddy and the manager their own sets so the new person isn't answering the same question four times.

Keep it professional-personal. Hobbies, hometowns and coffee orders are fair game. Family plans, health, age, salary history and "why did you leave your last job?" are not, in a group or one-on-one. Skip "two truths and a lie" on day one too; it asks a stranger to perform. For more on choosing and framing questions, see how to run an icebreaker.

Remote new hires need more of this, not less. Without hallway chat, a weekly icebreaker is often the only casual conversation a new remote teammate gets; virtual meeting icebreakers covers formats that work on video. Once they've settled in, rotate them into the regular team questions in icebreaker questions for work.

Play it on your phone

The Work & Team and Getting to Know You decks in Icebreaker are both free: one for the team round, one for the buddy lunch. With the one-time unlock you can write your own questions, such as your team's in-jokes or your office's lunch spots, and mix them into a shuffle. It needs no account, so the new hire can download it and play along on day one.

The bottom line

Onboarding icebreakers work when the team does the talking first and the new hire gets to listen, then join in. Spread a few questions across the week, keep them about work and interests rather than private life, and always let people pass. For icebreakers beyond the office, the full list of icebreaker questions covers every occasion.