Welcome breakfast

Dietary restrictions

First and foremost, it’s crucial to know what your new hire can or can’t eat or drink. The last thing you want is for them to have to skip breakfast because they couldn’t eat what was ordered.

To avoid this situation, you can ask your new hire if they have any dietary restrictions in their “before your first day email”. Or, even better, send them a quick survey on dietary restrictions (before their first day), so it’s automatically populated in their profile for future reference.

In-office

After you gather your new hire’s dietary restrictions, make a reservation at a restaurant nearby or pre-order breakfast and have it set up in the cafeteria. But before you choose a place, give your new hire a short list of local options or poll your team on where they prefer to eat.

Sharing a meal in an in-person group setting is usually a hotbed for conversation, so there’s probably no need to come prepared with ice-breakers. But it can’t hurt to have a couple prepared, just in case.

Remote

Organizing a virtual welcome breakfast requires a few different steps. 

Your team obviously can’t meet at the local breakfast joint, so instead, give everyone on the team a digital DoorDash gift card beforehand or allow them to expense the meal. 

If some members of your team are in the office and others are remote, ask your in-office teammates which restaurant they want to order from, pre-order food from there, and book a conference room so they can video chat with their remote teammates.

We know virtual lunches can sometimes feel like an awkward, forced conversation. So ice-breakers are usually necessary. Consider using these 30 prompts to get the conversation flowing, elevate the mood, and make your welcome breakfast the best part of everyone’s day.