Help integrate new employees and introduce members of other teams who have yet to meet each other with these icebreaker questions for work, and create a relaxed environment where fun and honest conversation can happen.
Icebreaker Questions for Work
Good Icebreaker Questions
Keep things simple and casual with these good icebreaker questions that will help introduce new members to the team.
1. What one important skill do you think everyone should have?
2. What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
3. If you could spend a week experiencing another job, what job would you choose?
4. What unique skills do you bring to your job?
5. What was the first job you’ve ever had?
6. If you could be incredibly skilled at one Olympic sport, which sport would you choose?
7. What book has most influenced the way you approach life?
8. If you could go back to your school days, what would you do differently?
9. What’s your go-to lunch for work?
10. What’s your favorite podcast to listen to?
11. What’s your favorite thing to do in your local area?
12. If you could have one superpower, which superpower would you choose?
13. What’s something in your workspace that cheers you up every time you look at it?
14. What’s your favorite self-care activity?
15. What condiment, sauce, or seasoning do you put on everything?
16. What job that doesn’t currently exist do you think will exist in 10 years?
Fun Icebreaker Questions
Add a little fun into proceedings with some of these fun icebreakers, and allow team members to open up about other areas of their life outside work.
17. If an extra hour was added to every day, how would you spend it?
18. If your company started a staff band, what instrument would you play?
19. What did you want to do for a living as an adult when you were a child?
20. If your company hosted a sports day, which race or sport would you be most likely to win?
21. What popular musician do you think is overrated?
22. What’s your go-to karaoke song?
23. What’s your favorite TV show?
24. If you could have one animal sidekick to help you work, what animal would it be?
25. What are three items on your bucket list?
26. What one item could you not live without?
27. Who’s the best musician/band you’ve ever seen in concert?
28. Which fictional world from movies, TV, or books would you most like to live in?
29. If they made a TV drama about your workplace, what would it be called?
‘Would You Rather’ Icebreaker Questions
‘Would you rather’ is a great game to use to strike up a conversation, and it can definitely be used between coworkers. If you’re keen to play it within your team, have a few of these ideas on-hand to keep the conversation fluid.
30. Would you rather have a 20% pay rise or work one day less a week for the same pay?
31. Would you rather only be able to work from home or only be able to work from the office?
32. Would you rather lose all your past memories or never be able to make new ones?
33. Would you rather never eat your favorite food again or have to eat it for every meal?
34. Would you rather be fluent in every language or be able to play every musical instrument?
35. Would you rather give up your phone or your television?
36. Would you rather direct an Oscar-winning film or a Grammy-winning album?
37. If you could travel through time, would you rather travel to the past or the future?
38. Would you rather be in a zombie apocalypse or an alien apocalypse?
39. Would you rather travel to work every day by car or by train?
40. Would you rather have six months out to travel the world or be guaranteed a holiday abroad every summer for the next 20 years?
41. Would you rather have to come to work in a full suit or have to come to work in sweatpants?
42. Would you rather always be too cold or always be too hot?
43. Would you rather never be able to read again or never be able to listen to a podcast again?
44. Would you rather have a photographic memory or have the ability to accurately predict future events?
45. Would you rather have to wild camp for one month or spend the night in a haunted house?
46. Would you rather have to ride a rollercoaster or a unicycle to work?
‘Never Have I Ever’ Icebreaker Questions
As with ‘would you rather’, ‘never have I ever’ is a great game to play to get everyone involved in the conversation, especially if some of the team are not engaging as much as others. Try these questions out if you’re eager to try it.
47. Never have I ever missed a flight.
48. Never have I ever gotten lost in a foreign country.
49. Never have I ever played a prank.
50. Never have I ever worked from home before my current job.
51. Never have I ever eaten an entire pizza by myself.
52. Never have I ever slept outdoors.
53. Never have I ever run more than 5 miles at once.
54. Never have I ever fallen asleep in the cinema.
55. Never have I ever stayed up all night.
56. Never have I ever binged an entire TV series in one day.
57. Never have I ever worked from bed.
58. Never have I ever met somebody famous.
59. Never have I ever sang at karaoke.
60. Never have I ever been away from home for longer than a month.
61. Never have I ever watched a children’s film as an adult.
62. Never have I ever successfully conquered a fear.
Holiday-Special Icebreaker Questions
The holidays are a time of family, fun, and magic, so if a new team member or coworker is starting around this time, keep the conversation holiday-themed with some of these fun and creative icebreakers.
63. What’s your favorite thing to do over Christmas?
64. Where’s your favorite holiday destination?
65. What’s the best holiday you’ve ever been on?
66. How do you spend your time off from work?
67. Do you have any family holiday traditions?
68. What do you usually do for Halloween?
69. If you won free flights to go anywhere of your choice, where would you choose to go?
70. What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten?
71. What’s the worst gift you’ve ever gotten?
72. What was your favorite childhood holiday tradition?
73. If you received a gift card for a store, which store would you choose?
74. What’s your funniest holiday story?
75. If you could invent a national holiday, what would it be dedicated to, and how would people celebrate it?
77. What’s your favorite holiday song?
78. What’s the most creative Halloween costume you’ve ever worn?
Funny Icebreaker Questions
If you’re set on bringing a little humor to the table to help create a relaxed and fun work environment, try asking some of these funny icebreaker questions.
79. What movie can you watch over and over again without getting bored?
80. What’s your best dance move at the office party?
81. What’s your most annoying habit?
82. What’s your favorite song to put on the office playlist?
83. How would you best describe your sense of humor?
84. What’s your most embarrassing moment at work?
85. If you had a magic button on your desk that could bring you one object whenever you pressed it, what would it bring?
86. If you could invent a new ice cream flavor, what flavor would you invent?
87. If you were a cocktail, what cocktail would you be?
88. Which unhealthy food do you find impossible to resist?
89. If you were teleported 100 years in the past, how would you make a living?
90. If the office played a soundtrack song whenever you walked in, what would the song be?
Team-Building Icebreaker Questions
If a team has great chemistry and all share similar values, this positivity will feed into the quality of the work. When bringing your team together for team bonding days and activities, try some of these questions to help everyone share their ideas.
91. What qualities make somebody a good team player?
92. What’s the kindest thing a colleague or manager has ever done for you?
93. Which member of the team would you like to swap jobs with for the day?
94. What’s your favorite thing about the company you work for?
95. What project at work would you benefit from having colleagues’ help on?
96. What’s your favorite thing about working with your colleagues?
97. What small change at work would make your job easier?
98. What’s your manager’s best quality?
99. Which professional achievement are you proudest of?
100. What’s the best thing you’ve ever achieved in a team?
101. What’s your hidden talent?
102. What do you consider to be your greatest strength?
103. What’s your favorite cuisine?
104. What advice would you give yourself 10 years ago?
105. What’s an interesting fact about you that nobody at work knows yet?
106. If you could plan a work social, what activity would you choose?
107. What color best represents your personality?
108. How would your manager describe you in five words?
109. If you could invent one piece of technology that would make your job easier, what would you invent?
Icebreaker Questions Great for Virtual Meetings
Without in-person gatherings and the energy of the office, introducing a new team member virtually can be challenging. Use these icebreaker questions for virtual meetings to help integrate new team members into a remote team.
110. What’s your favorite thing about working from home?
111. What do you do in the evenings when you’ve finished work?
112. What part of your daily routine do you most look forward to?
113. At what time of the day are you most productive?
114. What’s your favorite type of exercise to do?
115. How do you tend to spend your weekends?
116. What hobby have you always wanted to take up?
117. What does your morning routine consist of when you work from home?
118. How many items do you tend to have on your to-do list in a single day?
119. What’s your favorite part of the house to spend time in?
120. What are the top three most used emojis on your phone?
121. What’s the most interesting place you’ve ever joined a virtual meeting from?
122. How do you make sure you switch off from work at the end of a busy day?
123. What do you usually eat for breakfast?
124. How would you describe your job to a five-year-old?
125. Do you work better with or without music playing in the background?
Icebreaker Questions Great for Small Groups
If you’re working with a small group of people, try some of these icebreakers to help new members feel included and relaxed.
126. What’s your favorite season and why?
127. What quote best defines your approach to life?
128. What was your favorite thing about school or college?
129. What’s the best professional advice you’ve ever received?
130. What non-work-related goal would you like to achieve in the next ten years?
131. If you could invite three businesspeople, dead or alive, round for dinner, who would you pick?
132. What’s the most challenging thing you’ve ever done?
133. What are your best tips for staying productive when working from home?
134. What aspect of your job sounds easy but is actually challenging?
135. How do you deal with days when everything seems to be going wrong?
136. If you went back in time to the start of your career, is there anything you’d do differently?
137. What’s something you’ve recently learned about yourself?
138. What social cause do you passionately believe in?
139. How do you motivate yourself to get on with difficult or challenging tasks at work?
140. What phrase from your hometown do you think the rest of your team wouldn’t understand?
Icebreaker Questions Great for Large Groups
Introducing new members or integrating people into a larger team comes with a different set of challenges. These questions are great to use for big groups, where often one-word or multiple choice answers can suffice.
141. Who’s your professional role model?
142. What’s the best non-fiction book you’ve ever read?
143. What was your favorite subject at school?
144. Do you prefer coffee or tea?
145. What item have you already ticked off your bucket list?
146. What piece of tech could you not live without?
147. What’s the best movie you’ve ever seen?
148. What do you think has been the best invention of the last 20 years?
149. Do you prefer to take your lunch to work or buy something?
150. What song is your guilty pleasure?
151. If you threw a dinner party for the whole company, what would be your go-to dish to cook?
152. If you were asked to give a TED Talk, what topic would you choose to discuss?
153. What item do you never travel without?
154. How would you describe your approach to work in one word?
155. What’s one small habit that has vastly improved your quality of life?
156. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?
157. How would you describe your communication style?
158. What one item do you need to have in your office?
159. Do you have any photos on your desk? If so, what are they?
More Icebreaker Questions
If you’re still looking for inspiration, have a look through some more icebreaker questions for work, and feel free to keep them on hand for future team gatherings and meetings.
160. If you were given the option to travel to space for free, would you go?
161. If you could go back in time to meet any historical figure, who would you pick?
162. If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
163. If you weren’t in this career, what do you think you’d be doing?
164. Do you have any siblings?
165. Do you have any phobias?
166. What was your least favorite food as a child, and do you like it now, or do you still hate it?
167. Do you prefer the UK or US version of ‘The Office’?
168. If you could get rid of one current fashion trend, which would you choose?
169. If you could live in any decade, which decade would you choose?
170. Who’s your favorite celebrity?
171. If a film was made about your life, which actor would play you?
172. Do you like reality TV shows?
173. What one thing do you wish could be automated in your job?
174. When’s the last time somebody did a random act of kindness for you?
175. If you went back in time and told your 10-year-old self about your current job, what would surprise them most?
176. If you could only pick one vegetable to eat ever again, what vegetable would you pick?
177. What one characteristic do you always admire in others?
178. What’s one thing everybody else seems to hate but you love?
179. Are you better with words or numbers?
180. What was your favorite cartoon to watch as a child?
181. If you went back in time to 1950, what one fact would you tell everybody to convince them you were from the future?
Be it integrating a new team member, or introducing yourself to people at work events, having prompts for when the conversation is stalling is always an excellent idea.
These icebreaker questions cover a range of topics and are suitable for various environments, and can help start and ignite interesting conversations that help new employees or team members feel included and help them move past the initial nerves.
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