"Well, how do you like it so far?" – Sure, that's a nice question. But is it enough to really get to know new employees? The first 1-to-1 meeting should be more than just small talk. With the right questions, you can create a relationship that will make the rest of the onboarding process much easier and get your new employee up to full productivity faster.
New employees not only have the challenge of fitting into a team – you as a manager also have a great opportunity: to make the right first impression. The first 1-to-1 meeting is your opportunity to build trust, clarify expectations and show that you are not just a boss, but also a mentor.
Which leads us to today's topic: One-on-one meeting questions that managers can ask new employees.
Whether in a digital or virtual one-on-one meeting, 1-to-1 meetings offer space for feedback and thus for personal development, which is essential in today's working world.
First of all: If you're still unsure about what good one-on-one meetings look like, take a look at our guide: The guide with 6 tips for successful one-on-one meetings.
Your most important goal of your one-on-one meeting with a new employee
The most important goal of your first one-on-one meeting is to build a relationship between you as a manager or supervisor and your employee.
In addition, these discussions serve to provide the best possible support for the Direct Report: Identify and remove blockers, provide resources and solve individual challenges.
Finally, regular 1:1 meetings help to define clear next steps and become clear about an effective meeting routine that provides structure in employee development in the long term.
What you don't want is caricatured in the comic below: Your employee perceives one-on-one meetings as wasted time. But don't worry – that's what this article is for.
Basic template for the first one-on-one meeting with a new Direct Report
The fact that you clicked on this article tells me that you are looking for smart questions for the first one-on-one meeting with a new employee. Of course, these questions can have different focuses.
That's why I've saved a basic template for you here, which should work well for the classic first performance review with new employees. I will give you many more questions below.
Let's start with the template for the first 1-to-1 meeting with new employees. You can download it as a doc under the actual template, but you can also download it as a PDF, Google Sheets, Excel or Word document. Simply click on the "Plus" toggle.
Check in
- How do you feel in your new environment so far?
🔍 Topics of the manager: Review
- How was the onboarding process for you? Is there anything you would like to have more clarity about?
- Are there any tools, resources or support you need?
🛠️ Topics of the manager: Role & tasks
- How do you feel about your role and responsibilities?
- Are there any immediate challenges or concerns you would like to discuss?
📅 Executive topics: one-to-one routine & next steps
- How often do you think we should hold one-on-one meetings?
- What do you expect from our regular one-on-one meetings?
- How can I support you better while you continue to familiarize yourself?
Conclusion
- Once again, welcome to [our organization].
- What else should I ask in such initial one-on-one meetings?
- Is there anything else that is on your mind?
⁉️ Mood check (survey)
As you can see, the aim of a monthly one-on-one meeting is primarily to pick up the employee and clarify the organizational framework.
By the way, don't be fooled by the agenda: Basically, your goal should be for your intrinsically motivated employee to bring as many topics as possible to the table themselves.
Now let's move on to a few questions that take a more creative approach to the one-on-one conversation with your new colleague.
“During my 1:1s, it is way too hard to take notes while being focused on the employee.”
"Yes, 1:1 meetings with my employees should be my most important meeting – but I need more guidance for that."
32 smart questions for the first 1-to-1 meeting with a new employee
First impressions count. What kind of boss do you want to be? How do you want to be perceived?
Your first one-on-one meeting is actually very important. And your conversation style will have a decisive influence on how your new employee perceives you.
You are looking for questions – so I assume that you are also a fan of the leadership principle "leading by asking". The following questions are designed to help you get to know your new colleague.
🧘♀️ One-on-one questions about private matters & relationship building
- What should I know about you?
- Do you have an idea of where you want to be professionally in a few years' time? If so, where?
- Operational question: What routines would you like to have between the two of us?
- Relationship building: What did you do at the weekend? (works well with the whole team after the weekend)
- Building relationships: How is your family?
- Relationship building: What is the highlight of your weekend? (also works well as a team icebreaker after the weekend)
- What puts you in a good mood?
- What things in your daily life make you happy?
- Operational question: How would you like to organize communication between us?
Some of these questions will hopefully be to your liking. Important to note 🚸: Basically, relationship building works according to the reciprocity effect, "tit for tat".
This means that it is best to share your own answers to the questions openly and honestly so that your employee gets to know you as a person right from the start. And not as a KPI-driven robot.
What do you do in your free time? Do you have a dog? What is your family situation like? These things are basic knowledge if you want to build trusting relationships.
Questions to get to know each other
Let's continue with the text: What are other questions I can ask a new Direct Report to get to know him or her?
Here are some examples for you.
💭 Quick 1 to 1 questions for employees (getting to know each other)
- Do you prefer an early or late start to the day?
- What does your perfect Saturday look like?
- What was the worst job you've ever had?
- What is your favorite travel destination and why are you drawn there?
- Were/are you in a sports club?
- Which book would you most like to read again for the first time?
- What is your favorite thing to watch on YouTube?
- What was the last movie you saw and what did you think of it?
- What's your favorite drink at happy hour?
- Would you rather be cooped up in a room full of kittens or puppies?
- Which activity do you enjoy so much that you forget the time when you're doing it?
- If you had an extra hour a day, what would you do?
- If you had one hour less a day, what would you leave out?
💭 1 to 1 questions to think about (getting to know each other)
- If you could choose one talent or skill that you would master perfectly straight away, what would it be?
- What three words would your friends use to describe you?
- Which animal best describes your way of working and why?
- If your life were a movie, what genre would it be?
- If you had the opportunity to have lunch with a famous person, who would you choose and why?
- What would you do if you won 1 million euros?
- What's the craziest thing on your bucket list?
- If you were the host of a talk show, which one would you host?
- Is there an event in your past that had a strong influence on you and changed your perspective?
- Would you rather live the life of a famous person for a day or be the main character of your favorite book/movie?
And, can you hardly wait to ask these questions in your one-on-one meeting? Very good, I'm glad.
If you would like more creative input, I can recommend our corresponding article: 129 Good One-on-One Meeting Questions (by a Psychologist).
15 more Templates for One-on-One Meetings (as Doc, PDF etc.)
You've probably already guessed it. Of course, there are many more templates for one-on-one meetings that you will need sooner or later.
For example, I talk about templates for your one-on-one meeting about salary or your conversation with a difficult employee.
We have additional templates for all of these use cases, which you can find in this article: 15 Free Proven One-on-one Meeting Templates to Edit & Print
Conclusion: Questions for the first performance review
First of all, congratulations: you seem to take your leadership role seriously if you prepare your meeting agenda in advance.
This text should not make you forget one piece of wisdom: There are countless questions you can ask – but the most important thing is that you tailor the conversation to your employee.
So if you can already find out something about a new employee that shows, "Hey, I paid attention during the application process, I remembered that you're a big movie fan," then that's a magic ingredient for a successful one-on-one interview.
Our AI meeting assistant for one-on-one meetings can also help you in your conversation. If you'd like to find out more, take a look at our website: The best 1-on-1 meeting software.
Most Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters run in circles...
...fixing superficial symptoms. Time to use psychology to foster sustainable mindset change.
