First day manager chat

First thing in the morning

If you’re not hosting a welcome breakfast, the first-day chat between your new hire and their manager should be scheduled for the very beginning of the day. 

Since this will be their first meeting at the company, consider making this a casual get-to-know-you, with some time built in to run through their schedule. Your new hires are probably a little nervous, so keeping things light will ease those first-day jitters. They’ll also have plenty of time during onboarding to get into the nitty-gritty of their new role.

Here are some fun topics their hiring manager can cover during this meeting: 

• Hometown
• College
• Life in their current city
• Favorite sports teams
• Shows they’re currently watching
• Favorite movies
• Hobbies
• What their typical weekend looks like 
• Pets
• Passions
• Bucket list items
• Recent and favorite trips
• Family

Later in the day

If you start with a welcome breakfast instead of an official new hire/manager chat, the first meeting your new hire has with their manager will be in the middle of the day, when they talk about their team’s structure and strategy (see first-day schedule).

Before getting into the details, though, the meeting should start light. Have them ask how your new hire’s day has been and whether they have any questions about anything. Since they’ve already gotten to know them a little during the welcome breakfast, it’s fine to start here.

By this part of the day, your new hire will have settled in a bit, so their manager can start walking them through how the team works together, what their day-to-day will look like, and who they should reach out to for a quick coffee chat.

After going over team structure, their hiring manager should give an overview of the team’s goals, strategy, and guiding principles. This will inspire them to start thinking about ways they can contribute, which is probably a big reason why they accepted the role in the first place.