This is the exact survey we recommend in our playbook for managing an offshore marketing team. Copy the questions, drop them in an email or a form, and go.
The Questions
- When is your birthday?
- When is your work anniversary, and what milestone will you celebrate this year?
- Who's in your household? (Partner, kids, pets, plants, whoever counts.)
- Are you a morning person or a night owl?
- What's your Enneagram, if you know it? And/or Myers-Briggs?
- What's something that energizes you at work?
- What's something that drains you at work?
- What's your preferred communication style? (Bullet points, async updates, quick calls, voice notes, and so on.)
- What's your favorite morning beverage?
- What's your favorite sweet or salty treat?
- How do you like to spend your weekends or free time?
- What's your favorite thing about working here?
- How do you like to receive praise for your work? (A thoughtful note, a group shoutout, a bonus, acts of service, and so on.)
- Anything else you'd like to share with the team?
How to Use It
Keep it light and optional. A few tips that make it land:
- Send it to the whole team, not just the new hire, so nobody feels singled out
- Fill it out yourself first and share your answers, it sets the tone
- Once responses are in, share a summary and call out the things people have in common
- Revisit it when someone new joins, so the welcome ritual stays consistent
The communication-style and praise questions are quietly the most useful. They tell you, on day one, how each person wants to work and be recognized, which saves a lot of guesswork later.
When You Add a New Hire Later
Once you've sent this around once, you don't need to start over every time someone joins. The easiest move is to reply-all to the original email thread, add the new hire, and ask them to fill it out. It takes ten seconds, and it does something the questions alone can't: the new person lands in a thread full of everyone else's answers. They get an instant, low-pressure read on who's who, and they can see the overlaps for themselves before they've even sent a message. It turns a solo form into a warm welcome.
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