28 Get to Know Your Employees Questions for Remote and Hybrid Teams

Good get-to-know-your-employees questions cover personal interests, work preferences, communication styles, career goals, and the support employees need to do their best work. Examples include “How do you prefer to receive feedback?”, “What helps you feel connected to the team?”, and “What skill would you like to develop next?”

These conversations can be harder to have when your team is spread across different offices, cities, or time zones. Without the everyday conversations that happen naturally in an office, managers may have fewer opportunities to understand how employees like to work, what motivates them, and what helps them feel connected.

In this article, you'll find 28 questions for remote and hybrid teams, along with practical ideas for using them in one-to-ones, onboarding, team events, and informal conversations.

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Our Top Picks: What Are the Best Questions to Get to Know Your Employees?

Use this table to quickly choose the right type of question based on what you want to learn and where the conversation is happening.

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Why Is It Important to Get to Know Your Employees?

Getting to know your employees helps managers understand more than what someone is working on. It can reveal how people prefer to communicate, what motivates them, where they may need support, and what kind of work they find most rewarding.

For remote and hybrid teams, that context can be especially useful because managers have fewer opportunities to pick up on those things through everyday office conversations. A few thoughtful questions can help make one-to-ones more useful, improve collaboration, and give employees more space to talk about their goals, preferences, and challenges.

The point is not to know everything about someone's personal life. It is to understand enough about how they work and what they need to support them better.

What Are Fun Get-to-Know-You Questions for Remote Teams?

Not every conversation with an employee needs to be about deadlines, projects, or performance. Sometimes finding out that two teammates are obsessed with the same TV show or both spend weekends hiking does more for rapport than another scheduled team-building activities.

These questions work well for virtual coffee breaks, meeting warm-ups, informal one-to-ones, or anywhere the goal is simply to get people talking.

1. What are your hobbies or favorite activities outside of work?

Best for: first conversations and informal one-to-ones.

It is an easy place to start and often uncovers interests coworkers would never discover through project conversations alone.

2. What's something you could talk about for hours?

Best for: virtual coffee chats and small groups.

People often open up more when they’re talking about something they genuinely enjoy, whether that’s cooking, gaming, travel, sports, or an unusual hobby.

3. What's something you've learned recently just for fun?

Best for: meeting warm-ups and virtual coffee breaks.

This can reveal interests and talents that colleagues may not normally see at work. The answer might be anything from baking sourdough to learning a language, and it often creates natural follow-up questions.

4. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Best for: informal one-to-ones and meeting warm-ups.

For distributed teams, this can also lead naturally into conversations about working hours and productivity. It is light enough to feel casual but can also reveal when someone naturally does their best work.

5. What's one place you'd love to visit?

Best for: virtual coffee breaks and team icebreakers.

Travel questions are easy conversation starters and can be especially fun when coworkers are already based in different parts of the world.

6. What's something your coworkers might be surprised to learn about you?

Best for: team icebreakers and informal conversations.

This makes a good team icebreaker when people already know one another professionally but not personally. Maybe someone plays in a band, speaks three languages, or makes elaborate cakes on weekends.

What Questions Reveal an Employee’s Work Style and Preferences?

Questions about work style and preferences help managers understand those differences so they can communicate more effectively, collaborate more smoothly, and avoid unnecessary friction.

Two employees can be equally good at their jobs and still work in completely different ways. One may prefer quick check-ins and live brainstorming, while another does their best work with more independence and time to think.

7. How do you prefer to receive feedback: in-person, written, or a combination?

Best for: one-to-ones and manager check-ins.

Some employees prefer a live conversation, while others appreciate written feedback they can review first. 

8. When during the day do you usually do your best focused work?

Best for: schedule planning and one-to-ones.

This can be especially useful when managing flexible or hybrid schedules. Knowing someone's strongest focus window can help managers avoid filling it with unnecessary meetings.

9. Are you more comfortable working independently or in a collaborative setting?

Best for: project planning.

Most employees will need both, but their preference can help managers understand how they approach different tasks.

10. How do you prefer your manager to communicate with you?

Best for: first one-to-ones and manager check-ins.

Employees may prefer chat, email, quick calls, scheduled one-to-ones, or a combination. A five-minute call may feel efficient to one employee and disruptive to another.

11. What tends to interrupt your productivity most?

Best for: one-to-ones.

The answer may point to meeting overload, notifications, unclear priorities, or constant context switching. 

12. What makes a meeting feel useful to you?

Best for: meeting retrospectives and team check-ins.

You may hear answers such as a clear agenda, fewer attendees, more discussion time, or simply knowing why the meeting exists.

13. Do you prefer brainstorming live or having time to think first?

Best for: project kickoffs and one-to-ones.

Not everyone performs best when asked to generate ideas immediately in a group setting. The loudest person in a live brainstorm is not always the person with the best idea. 

What Questions Help You Understand the Remote Employee Experience?

Remote and hybrid work can hide things that would be easier to notice in an office.  A green Slack status does not tell you whether someone feels connected to their team. Neither does hitting every deadline. Remote employees can be doing great work while quietly struggling with meeting overload, communication gaps, or feeling left out of conversations happening elsewhere.

These questions help managers understand what the day-to-day remote experience actually feels like.

14. What helps you feel connected to the team when you're working remotely?

Best for: regular one-to-ones.

Some employees value regular team calls, while others may get more from smaller conversations, informal chats, or occasional in-person meetups.

15. What's the biggest challenge you experience when working remotely?

Best for: one-to-ones and remote-work check-ins.

The answer could be anything from distractions at home to isolation, communication gaps, or too many meetings. Knowing the specific challenge gives managers something concrete to address.

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16. What makes virtual meetings easier for you to participate in?

Best for: meeting retrospectives and remote team check-ins.

Some employees are comfortable speaking up immediately, while others participate more when there is an agenda, a chat option, a smaller discussion group, or time to prepare beforehand.

17. Do you prefer spontaneous conversations or scheduled check-ins?

Best for: first one-to-ones and team working-agreement discussions.

Remote work becomes much easier when teammates do not have to guess whether a surprise call is welcome. Because a quick call can feel convenient to one person and disruptive to another. This question helps managers find a communication rhythm that works for the employee.

18. Is there anything about team communication that could work better for you?

Best for: one-to-ones and team retrospectives.

This gives employees room to raise issues with communication without steering them toward a specific problem. Their answer might point to unclear updates, too many channels, slow responses, or difficulty knowing where to find information.

19. What could we do to make collaboration easier across locations?

Best for: team retrospectives.

Employees living inside the workflow often notice communication gaps long before managers do, whether that's unclear documentation, meeting schedules, communication channels, or handoffs between teams.

20. Do you have enough opportunities for informal conversations with coworkers?

Best for: one-to-ones and team retrospectives.

A calendar full of meetings does not necessarily mean employees feel socially connected. Remote employees may have plenty of scheduled meetings but very little time to simply talk to colleagues. Their answer can help you decide whether the team needs more informal ways to connect.

What Are the Best Questions to Get to Know Your Employees’ Career Goals?

Career conversations should not suddenly appear once a year during performance reviews. Employees' interests change, new strengths emerge, and sometimes the work someone wants to do next is not obvious from the work they are doing today.

The right questions can help managers understand what employees want to learn, where they want to grow, and which opportunities might keep them engaged. They also make it easier to spot development goals that may not come up in day-to-day project conversations.

21. What do you consider your greatest strengths?

Best for: career conversations.

Listen for the projects, tasks, or situations they mention rather than focusing only on job titles. Their answer can reveal where their interests and strengths naturally overlap.

22. What skill would you most like to develop next?

Best for: learning and development conversations.

The answer gives managers something specific to support through training, mentoring, or hands-on work.

23. What areas or skills would you like to develop further?

Best for: career check-ins and development planning.

An employee may be curious about another department, customer group, or part of the company they rarely interact with. That interest could lead to cross-functional projects or learning opportunities.

24. Is there a project or responsibility you'd like to try?

Best for: development check-ins and career conversations.

Employees may be ready for opportunities that are not obvious from their current role. Their answer can help managers find stretch assignments that match their interests.

25. Where do you see yourself in five years, both personally and professionally?

Best for: manager one-to-ones.

Not everyone will have a five-year plan, and that's okay. The question can still open a useful conversation about possible directions and what the employee wants from their next stage of growth.

What Should You Ask a New Employee During Onboarding?

Starting a new job already comes with plenty of unfamiliar faces, systems, and expectations. For remote employees, there may be even fewer opportunities to pick things up through casual conversations with the people around them. 

These questions can help managers make onboarding feel more personal and identify where a new hire needs additional support.

26. Is there anything about how the team works that you're still unsure about?

Best for: early onboarding check-ins.

Every workplace has unwritten habits and expectations that experienced employees take for granted. This question gives new hires permission to ask about the things no onboarding document explained.

27. How do you prefer to learn a new tool or process?

Best for: onboarding planning.

One employee may want written instructions they can refer back to, while another learns faster by watching someone demonstrate the process or trying it themselves.

28. What kind of check-ins would be most helpful while you're onboarding?

Best for: early onboarding check-ins and one-to-ones.

Some new hires want frequent opportunities to ask questions, while others prefer more space to get settled. Asking prevents managers from guessing how much support is enough.

New employees do not need to work through all the questions in one sitting. Spread them across early one-to-ones, team introductions, and informal conversations so getting to know each other feels like part of onboarding rather than another form to complete.

How to Use Get-to-Know-Your-Employees Questions With Remote Teams

Use these questions during one-to-ones, remote onboarding, virtual town halls, and informal team conversations. Ask one or two at a time, choose questions that fit the setting, and give employees room to answer without turning the conversation into an interview.

Remote teams often need a little more structure to create the conversations that would happen naturally in person. That does not mean every interaction needs to become a formal team-building activity.

During Virtual Town Halls

Instead of opening with several minutes of awkward silence while people join, give attendees one simple question to discuss.

Try:

• What's one thing your team does particularly well?
• What's one skill you'd like to learn this year?
• What's helping you stay connected to coworkers right now?

For larger town halls, split attendees into smaller groups of around four to six people so everyone has more room to speak, turn their cameras on, and actually take part in the conversation. Many virtual event platforms and webinar platforms offer breakout rooms for this. With Remo, you can take it a step further by placing conversation prompts around virtual tables, so attendees can move into smaller groups and discuss the question without the whole exercise feeling like a formal roll call. This can also help make virtual participation feel less intimidating, especially for people who are less likely to speak up in front of a large audience.

During Remote Onboarding

Remote onboarding does not have to mean another presentation. You can use get-to-know-you questions to create more interactive ways for new hires to meet people across the company.

One option is to run a speed networking session using a few simple speed networking ideas to help new hires meet people from different teams. Pair new hires with employees from different teams, give each pair one or two simple prompts, and rotate them every few minutes so they can meet several people in one session. This is a natural place to link to your speed networking article.

Another option is a more informal team mixer, where attendees can move between small-group conversations at their own pace. On Remo, virtual tables make this easier by letting employees choose where to sit, join different conversations, and mingle more freely than they would in one large video call.

During Virtual Coffee Breaks

A virtual coffee break with no structure can quickly become six people staring at each other waiting for someone to speak. A simple conversation prompt gives everyone an easy place to start.

Try questions such as:

• What are you currently watching or reading?
• What's a productivity habit you swear by?
• Where would you travel tomorrow if you could?
• What's something new you've learned recently?

You can then build the coffee break around those prompts by assigning different questions to different tables or small groups. With Remo, employees can choose the virtual table or topic they want to join and move between conversations during the session, giving the coffee break enough structure to avoid awkward silences without making it feel overly formal.

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Tips for Asking Get-to-Know-You Questions Without Making It Awkward

The best employee questions create conversation rather than making people feel as though they are being assessed. To make get-to-know-you questions feel natural, keep them optional, start with low-pressure topics, choose questions that suit the setting, and focus on the conversation rather than getting through a list. Here are top 5 tips:

• Start light. Do not open a virtual coffee break by asking everyone about their five-year career plan.
• Make passing okay. Employees should never feel required to share personal information.
• Avoid the round-robin trap. Waiting while 30 people answer the same question can turn a fun prompt into a chore.
• Ask follow-up questions. If someone gives an interesting answer, let the conversation go somewhere.
• Remember what people tell you. Asking how someone prefers feedback means very little if you continue delivering it in the opposite way.

How to Get to Know Your Employees Better

Getting to know your employees is less about having the perfect list of questions and more about creating enough opportunities to ask them.

For remote and hybrid teams, that might mean a thoughtful question during a one-to-one, a quick conversation before a meeting, or a few minutes of informal discussion during a team event. What matters is listening to the answers and using what you learn to communicate and support people better.

Of course, better questions only work when employees have the right setting to actually talk. For distributed teams, that means creating spaces where conversations can happen naturally without everyone being stuck in one large video call. Remo makes that easier with virtual tables and small-group conversations that let employees choose where to sit, move between groups, and connect at their own pace. Book a demo to see how you can create more natural, interactive conversations for your remote and hybrid team.

Frequently Asked Questions About Getting to Know Your Employees

1. What are good questions to ask employees to get to know them?

Good questions cover personal interests, work preferences, communication styles, career goals, and support needs. Start with open-ended questions such as "What type of work gives you the most energy?" or "How do you prefer to receive feedback?"

2. How do you get to know remote employees?

Create regular opportunities for conversation outside project updates. One-to-ones, virtual coffee chats, small-group discussions, onboarding sessions, and interactive team events can all help remote employees build stronger relationships.

3. What questions should a manager ask a new employee?

Ask about how they prefer to learn, communicate, receive support, and get to know coworkers. Questions such as "What would make your first month feel successful?" can also help managers tailor the onboarding experience.

4. How personal should get-to-know-your-employees questions be?

Keep questions light, work-appropriate, and optional. Focus on interests, work styles, communication preferences, and career goals rather than private topics.