# data[].attributes.body
This book is a refreshing take on how we plan and execute gatherings of all kinds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In this highly acclaimed best seller, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive - and they don't have to be. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Art of Gathering Book - Priya Parker

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Art of Gathering is a highly acclaimed best selling book by Priya Parker on how to transform our gatherings from lackluster and unproductive to ones full of connection and purpose.

# data[].attributes.body
This page features several virtual icebreakers that you can do with your team. (This is presented by the company Mural and shows how to use some of their tools, but you can use these ideas without using Mural.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ice breakers can help teams get to know each other, increase creativity, and improve team cohesion. Use these ice breakers to enhance your next virtual meeting.
Jump to:

Across many industries, working from home and an evolving environment of hybrid, distributed, or remote teams has become the norm.

With these changes come many advantages for individuals as they navigate life and work - people spend fewer hours commuting, and can focus on being effective first and foremost, instead of just physically present. As a result, individual productivity has gone up, but it has come at a cost: Team productivity has gone down.

How do we facilitate better teamwork in a virtual environment?

The key element to better teamwork, whether in person or remote, is connection. The more connected your teammates, coworkers, or employees feel, the more effective and productive the group becomes.

When collaboration is an afterthought instead of a priority, the result is disconnection. Focus on individual goals and performance, as we've seen, can boost productivity on an individual level, but given that many people are already physically isolated from their teams, it has never been more important to foster a sense of community and connection.

So, how can we build better connections in a remote workforce?

Just having more meetings isn't the answer (in fact, it can even make the problem worse). The key is to build intentional and meaningful collaborative experiences into your work. These experiences can take many forms, but one common (and effective) approach is to use ice breakers to kick off a meeting.

What is an ice breaker?

An ice breaker is a meeting activity that is meant to help foster a sense of community and build rapport between colleagues, students, or group members.

These activities vary widely, but generally speaking, there are three types of ice breakers:

Each approach can be as elaborate or as simple as you like - if you're short on time or resources, just having a question in mind can do the trick. If you have a larger team, activities or games are sometimes the best options since they will allow for natural opportunities to break out into smaller teams or subgroups.

Below are 25 examples of ice breakers you can use to kick off a (more impactful) virtual meeting:

These questions can help people open up, get to know one another, and spark further discussion (and even friendships) down the road.

Ice breaker questions for virtual meetings

1. Where in the world are you?

If you're kicking off a virtual meeting with a new team, chances are you're not all located in the same city or region (or even country). Have participants describe the city or town where they live, and name something they find iconic about that place.

Pro-tip: Create a mural from the World Map Template for this activity

2. What is your favorite film, tv series, or book?

Have everyone introduce themselves and give a 30-second pitch for their favorite film, show, or book. Did you know that your new Product Manager was super into Film Noir because of the underlying structure that mysteries provide both the narrative and the viewer? No? Well, now you do - and you've learned a little bit about how she thinks as well.
Related: Team Bookshelf Template
3. What are your favorite foods?

For this exercise, have your team introduce themselves and then describe one dish that they love, and what it means to them. This is an easy way to get people talking, and again offers insight into people's personal history, likes and dislikes, and even ways of working. Also, a shared digital space can help make this even more engaging - and even educational (new recipes, anyone?).

‍ Related: Team Feast Template

4. If you could choose to have any superpower, which would you choose?

Ask your team to choose one or more superpowers (typically one, for the sake of keeping it short) that they might wish they had as a way to help them understand one another's values and approaches to work. You could also tie this to an existing superhero, or even a feature film (since most of them seem to be about superheroes these days).

5. What was your very first job?

Ask each of your team members to share what they did in their first job, and (of course) bonus points for any funny stories that went with it. (Did you know that the 'E' in Chuck E. Cheese stands for 'Entertainment?' You're welcome.)

Run this ice breaker for free in MURAL with the Team Warmups & Energizers template.

6. What's your nickname?

When establishing relationships, it can be good to learn familiar ways to refer to one another (pending comfort zones, of course), and the backstory angle adds a twist that can be fun and unexpected. Have everyone introduce themselves, and then share their nicknames and the backstories that go with them.

7. What animal are you?

People sometimes have some pretty original ideas about how to do this! Also, it's a lighthearted and unobtrusive way to kick things off with some potentially funny outcomes. Ask everyone to introduce themselves, and then encourage them to share a unique method of escaping the hiccups - you never quite know whom you'll be helping along the way!

8. What's your cure for hiccups?

People sometimes have some pretty original ideas about how to do this! Also, it's a lighthearted and unobtrusive way to kick things off with some potentially funny outcomes. Ask everyone to introduce themselves, and then encourage them to share a unique method of escaping the hiccups - you never quite know whom you'll be helping along the way!

9. What's the weirdest way you've met someone and become friends?

This offers teammates a way to share a personal (and probably funny) story without much risk, and gives everyone a chance to talk about not only themselves but their friends. Have everyone introduce themselves, and then share a short (1-2 minute) origin story behind one of their friendships.

10. What video game have you spent hours playing?

Just about everyone has played video games at some point in their lives (guilty), so it's a pretty safe bet. Bonus points if you are familiar with the classics (and by that of course I mean NBA Jam and Crash Bandicoot).

11. What was cool when you were younger but isn't cool now?

Does anyone remember parachute pants? The only risk involved in this one is that some folks are more sensitive than others about revealing their (approximate) age, but outside of that, the results are often hilarious. Use your discretion.

12. What's the first album you ever bought?

Again, there is the slight risk here of people feeling uncomfortable about age, but in our experience, many people love the opportunity to reminisce - a good follow-up question is what format. (Vinyl is back! But then, my first album was on a cassette tape - not back, yet...)

13. Who is your celebrity lookalike?

Ask your teammates to share the celebrity that people say resembles them most, and include an image reference if possible. With a visual platform, you could also gamify the experience by having everyone vote anonymously for the most convincing doppelgänger.

14. What's your go-to karaoke song?

This can be a fun way to introduce favorite kinds of music, with potentially hilarious outcomes. Also, signing has been shown to mediate fast social bonding. Bonus points if people have good stories about why they selected their songs - or particularly memorable performances.

15. What are the last 3 emojis you typed in your phone?

It's hard to predict, but this one could potentially get interesting, so our advice is to use only with established teams. Given that there are so many ways to interpret emojis (and, in fact, those interpretations often change across demographics), this exercise can also be useful in terms of clearing up any potential miscommunications across your team in platforms like Slack, or other tools where emoji reactions have become ubiquitous.

Ice breaker activities for virtual meetings

One thing that can make for a good ice breaker is building strategies for working together in an open and informal way. Activities offer opportunities for team members to work together in a format that is lighthearted, but still impactful.

16. One-minute introductions

Short introductions are a good way to take the pressure off people when getting to know one another and set expectations. For brevity's sake, it's best to break it down into simple categories such as first name, last name, and one fact about each person.

17. Define ways of working together

Working together to build a team charter is a great way to learn about teammates as well as establish ground rules for engagement. Define things like: What's the best way to get in touch? Do you prefer asynchronous work or would you rather set a meeting? How are you accustomed to collaborating with teammates? How have you handled this in your previous experiences?

We'd recommend using a visual medium for this, like the Hybrid Team Charter Template, so teammates can get a better understanding of their virtual and physical workplaces, as well as more information about time zones for synchronous and asynchronous communication.

18. Share your workspace

This activity is centered on sharing the space around you. Have everyone introduce themselves and then pick out one aspect of their workspace that is important to them.

Note: Using a visual platform where still images can be provided instead of live video can mitigate any potential discomfort during a team meeting. It can also inform colleagues about ways of working together and work styles that can build empathy and spark conversation.

Use the Share Your Office Template to add comments and compliments about your coworker's home office setups.

19. Most embarrassing stories

It's a fine line (so having some guidelines like 'work appropriate' for stories up front is the way to go), but when people share personal stories, it offers diverse groups an immediate window into their colleagues' experiences, and fosters empathy and understanding that has measurable, positive effects on team creativity. As people introduce themselves, ask them to pick a 1-2 minute anecdote that was embarrassing for them in the past, and what they learned from the experience.

20. Show and tell

This one is a throwback to elementary school - but it's still fun! Have everyone pick an item they want to share with the group, and allot 1-2 minutes per person to keep things moving. Questions and back stories encouraged!

Pro-tip: If you want to add more visual interest to this activity, you can use the (free) MURAL Show and Tell template and have all your meeting attendees submit photos before the meeting starts.

Ice breaker games for virtual meetings

Sometimes a little (unserious) competition can be a great way to build camaraderie - here are a few of our favorite ice breaker games for virtual meetings.

21. Company trivia

See how well your team members know the organization with a simple trivia game, and reward the winners with kudos (or maybe even a little swag?). This can be as quick as 5 company-related questions, or more involved, like a traditional game show. Just make sure the emphasis is heavy on family and light on feud (jokes!).
Related: MURAL Trivia Game Template
22. Throwback photos

This one is both a walk down memory lane, as well as a nice opportunity for some good natured humor. To run this game, have all your attendees send the facilitator an image of themselves as a child prior to the meeting so that you can get started right away, and then take turns guessing who's who.

23. Name that tune

Play a snippet of a song (or better yet, sing a few lyrics, strum a couple chords - anything you can do to make music) and see who can be first to guess the name. If you want to make it more difficult, ask your attendees to guess the artist and the year as well!

24. Two truths and a lie

This is a classic icebreaker that can easily be played virtually. To play, each person will share three things about themselves, two of which are true and one of which is a lie. Everyone else in the group then has to try to guess which of the three things is the lie.

25. Virtual scavenger hunt

This is a great icebreaker for larger groups as it encourages people to work together in teams. To play, divide the group into teams and give each team a list of items or tasks that they need to find or complete within a certain time limit. The team that finds or completes the most items on the list wins.

Alternatively, you can apply this same approach to smaller groups, with the MURAL Obstacle Course template - whoever accomplishes all the tasks first gets a (virtual) gold medal!

Why should you use ice breakers?

Whichever approach you choose, ice breakers are meant to be a fun opportunity to get to know your team, while at the same time having a measurable, positive impact on team performance.

When people are more comfortable, they are more likely to participate and engage in your meeting, leading to stronger connections and better group outcomes. But how can you make people feel comfortable in a new, virtual setting?

Ice breakers contribute to are an important part of an environment of great stepping stone to psychological safety - that is, an atmosphere of respect that promotes confidence among team members that they can share their thoughts, feedback, and concerns without fear of retribution. This approach leads to a greater diversity of ideas, and ultimately more productive meetings.

By allowing people to relax, find ways to relate to one another, and connect with each other on more informal terms, ice breakers can help set the baseline of mutual trust and respect that can grow into healthy and productive working relationships in the future, and even reinforce existing friendships.

More ways to break the ice

Yes, ice breakers can sometimes feel cheesy, but it's a fun way to learn more about your coworkers, build trust among team members, and make online meetings more engaging.

These are some of our favorites, but we love new ideas and ways of working together. We're constantly adding to (and improving) our template library, but you can also access more ideas - and connect with other facilitators and professionals - via the MURAL Community. Also, if you're looking for warm-ups and energizers, or ice breakers for small groups, we have you covered.

Sign up for a Free Forever account to hold virtual team ice breakers in MURAL and get started with our ice breaker templates.

‍

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
25 Ice Breakers for Virtual Meetings | MURAL Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ice breakers can help teams get to know each other, increase creativity, and improve team cohesion. Use these ice breakers to enhance your next virtual meeting. Jump to: Across many industries, working from home and an evolving environment of hybrid, distributed, or remote teams has become the norm.

# data[].attributes.body
One of my favorite virtual icebreakers you can do with your team involves having your team find items from their local environment that are meaningful or insightful. For example, you might ask someone to show their favorite mug, or an item they keep on their desk that is particularly meaningful. It's a great way to get folks on camera and talking about themselves!

# data[].attributes.body
The DCS Onboarding Guide aligns with HR Now processes and builds upon best practice components identified in a literature review of for-profit and non-profit organization onboarding systems.

# data[].attributes.body
This article has suggestions for meaningful and useful welcome gifts for new team members. There are great options, including now and low-cost options.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thoughtful welcome gifts for new employees help your organization make a great first impression as an employer and make new colleagues feel welcome to the team. It sets the tone for a positive employee experience. It also reinforces the company culture from the get-go.

Moreover, pictures of these gifts make for excellent employer brand advocacy content. Or it could be part of their testimonials or feedback when they post their employee reviews on Glassdoor.

Whatever your budget is, there are many things you can include in your new employee welcome package. Let's explore some ideas for welcome gifts for new employees!

Contents
Handwritten welcome note
Noise-canceling headphones
Office supplies
Branded company swag
Cookie arrangement or other goodies
New employee information folder
Employee handbook
Powerbank
Gift cards and vouchers
Books
Office accessories
Tips for the best welcome gifts for new employees

1. Handwritten welcome note

A handwritten welcome note adds a personal touch to the first work day. It doesn't have to be lengthy. A short message expressing excitement over the new employee is enough. It could also be a postcard with a team picture and welcome messages from other team members. Or it could be a note written on the team's whiteboard.

Feeling welcomed by the manager and the team helps create a great first impression of the company, which is important to boosting new hire retention. According to Clear Company, organizations with an excellent onboarding process increased new hire retention rates by 52%.

Given that handwritten welcome notes are easy to create, cost you very little, and have a positive impact on your new employees' experience, they make for an excellent component of your welcome gift.

2. Noise-canceling headphones

If you have the budget, a decent pair of noise-canceling headphones is an excellent gift for your new employees to help them concentrate at work. It blocks out noise in the background and from chatty coworkers or loud neighbors.

Headphones must be comfortable enough to wear all day long and quickly rechargeable to minimize interruptions by charging them halfway through the day. You should also look for something with minimal sound leakage so they can listen to music without bothering their colleagues.

3. Office supplies

Office supplies are the most basic but essential part of the welcome kit for desk workers, whether they work remotely or in the office.

Provide your new employees with office supplies to make their daily work experience easier, such as:

Notebooks and notepads

Pens, markers, highlighters

Post It notes

Office storage box

Folders, envelopes, and business cards

Staplers, paperclips, and scissors

Office cleaning kit with cleansing wipes, spray for desk and screen, hand sanitizer, cleaning gel

Focus on supplies that your employees truly need to avoid unnecessarily cluttering their desks.

4. Branded company swag

Branded company items are very popular welcome gifts. They help foster a sense of connection, pride, and belonging from the very beginning of an employee's journey with your organization.

Here are some ideas for branded swag:

Water bottle

Company shirt/sweatshirt/hoodie

Pen

Mousepad

Notepad or notebook

Lanyard/ID Lace

Tote bag/backpack/laptop bag

Coffee cup/mug/tumbler

Insulated lunch bag

Nameplates

You can make the welcome gifts more special by having them inscribed with the employees' names. It will also help avoid confusion of "Whose water bottle is this?"

5. Cookie arrangement or other goodies

Cookies and snack boxes provide good nourishment when hunger strikes in the middle of work.

Focus on employee wellbeing and invest in healthy and high-quality snacks like fruits, nuts, veggies, trail mix, granola bars, or beef jerky. Don't forget to include refreshments like coffee, tea, or juices, which are a staple for many office employees.

If you can, order your cookies or snack boxes from local businesses to support the community while preparing your welcome packages.

It might make sense to ask about allergies and dietary restrictions before considering cookies and snack boxes as your welcome gifts for new employees.

6. New employee information folder

A new employee welcome information folder is a way to communicate what they need to know to new hires immediately. It sets the tone for a good working relationship and helps set and manage expectations.

New employees will appreciate having immediate access to information about the company they've just joined:

Copy of the new hire message

CEO welcome letter

Paperwork and forms

Organizational structure

Personal information worksheet

Insurance and retirement

Contact information for HR and other departments

Pre-onboarding survey

It is also helpful to include information about the company culture is like:

How employees communicate with each other.

How the company celebrates achievements and milestones.

How the management recognizes and rewards performing employees.

7. Employee handbook

Compared to the welcome kit, the employee handbook contains more comprehensive information about the company, such as its history, mission, vision, and values.

It also discusses the company's different policies and regulations, such as:

Employment conditions

Compensation and benefits

Attendance and time off

Working conditions and hours applicable to onsite/remote/hybrid staff

Work performance

Business policies and procedures

Communication

Antibullying and anti-harassment

IT

You don't have to print out the employee handbook for every new employee, but make sure to show them where they can find it.

8. Powerbank

Working while traveling is hard enough without constantly worrying that your devices - phones, tablets, laptops - are just about to die.

What's more, with handheld devices and smartphone apps becoming essential tools for mobile and deskless workers, running out of battery life can give employees headaches. While the power of the devices increases, so do the power demands on the battery.

This ongoing power problem has made it crucial for workers to have a trusted backup power bank. Look for options with decent capacity, ideally at least 10,000 mAh.

9. Gift cards and vouchers

Gift cards are excellent when you don't know just yet what your new hires like or need. It allows them to choose the stuff they really want.

Moreover, employees can enjoy the shopping experience gift cards provide, contributing to employee satisfaction. They are affordable, simple, and easy to distribute.

You can choose gift cards for a local coffee shop or restaurant. You can also go for an online or e-commerce store like Amazon, where employees have a wide range of choices.

Similar to gift cards, vouchers are also an affordable and lovely gift to new staff. There are also plenty of voucher selections like vouchers for staycations, weekend trips, meal subscriptions, or dinners at fancy restaurants.

10. Books

Giving books to your new hires show you are invested in their growth and development.

Buy books related to their business or industry. Choose selections that will help them excel in their role or increase their expertise.

Some companies give their employees an ebook reader like Kindle; you can also consider that and preload it with books.

11. Office accessories

There are many accessories and gadgets that can make the lives of desk workers, whether in-office or remote, easier and more pleasant. We've listed a couple of ideas below.

Wireless mouse

A wireless mouse is a good gift for newly-hired workers who work with their laptops a lot, like engineers, architects, graphic designers, and artists. It's easier to use because it's smaller, more portable, and takes less space on the table or desk.

Blue light glasses

Blue light glasses are a good gift idea for remote workers. They are great for people who spend long hours in front of the computer, like web designers and software developers.

Blue light glasses soothe eye discomfort and fatigue, thus alleviating blurred vision and headache.

Laptop microphone

A laptop microphone might also be a nice welcome token for work-at-home employees. A decent laptop microphone produces excellent sound quality, which works best when taking calls, having online meetings, and leading virtual presentations.

Laptop stand

A laptop stand offers a comfortable and ergonomic way to raise your laptop, reducing neck strain and promoting healthy posture. Many of them easily fold in a flat position for easy storage and transport.

Monitor stand

Like a laptop stand, a monitor stand will be appreciated by new staff who likes to multitask with two screens. It allows you to position your monitor in a way that prevents neck strain and helps maintain proper posture.

USB drive

When it comes to welcome gift selection, many employees find that USB drives hit the right combination of affordable, practical, and memorable.

It's common for people to have the information they want to keep secure, private, and easily accessible. They would also prefer to keep it digital rather than in paper format.

USB flash drives provide an excellent physical way to keep information safe. Moreover, they don't require an internet connection, which is ideal for workers who travel often and sometimes experience connectivity problems.

Standing desk mat

A standing desk mat is a good accompaniment if your employees like standing desks at home or in the office. It provides support and comfort for the feet so employees can work standing longer and lower aches and pains, which means higher productivity.

Ergonomic keyboard

Ideal for people who have concerns about posture or suffer from arm, wrist, or shoulder pain, you can gift new employees with an ergonomic keyboard.

An ergonomic keyboard goes well with an ergonomic or wireless mouse for an excellent work-from-home or in-office setup.

Tips for the best welcome gifts for new employees

Consider employees' needs

When thinking about the welcome gifts for new employees, consider what would make their time at your company more pleasant. Or what could help them be more productive?

For example, headphones may not be the best gift for a receptionist because of face-to-face interaction with office guests, while deskless workers don't need an office cleaning kit.

Avoid purely decorative gifts that are more likely to be disregarded or thrown away.

Personalize the gifts

Receiving personalized gifts makes a person feel special. So if you can, personalize them per individual, team, or department.

Consider employees' preferences wherever you can. You can ask questions during preboarding to uncover some of those. For instance, if an employee has a particular hobby, you can give them something related. Like if they like watching movies, you could give them cinema tickets. Or, if they consider themselves a tech geek, give them Amazon vouchers.

Instill the company's core values

It's vital to start your new staff off on the right foot. By communicating core values effectively, companies can help ensure that new employees will strive to embody these from the first day forward.

With that in mind, consider your core values with your gift selection. You can decorate the company-branded swag with the text of the organization's mission or vision statement.

Or you can choose items that might be presented with an explanation of the organizational value they represent. For instance, one of your company values is independence and autonomy, and you allow remote working; a power bank, laptop bag, Bluetooth headphones, and laptop speaker are ideal gift items.

Make your welcome gift packaging attractive

An attractive package makes the welcome gift more appealing. It's best to use company branding on your wrapping paper, paper bag or box or put your gifts in a branded tote bag.

Select gifts with DEIB in mind

If gifts vary across departments, ensure they're all of the same value. Also, keep gifts gender-neutral and unpolitical. Keep in mind the different ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures.

As much as possible, avoid excluding any groups of people. For example, some people might not appreciate getting a bottle of champagne as their welcome gift.

It's a lot to consider; however, you can uncover a lot by engaging in conversations with employees and getting their feedback.

Get employee feedback

Talking about feedback, you can include a couple of questions about the gifts in your onboarding/new hire satisfaction survey, such as:

Did they find them helpful?

What would they add?

What would they change?

Analyze the feedback and see what you can improve.

Over to you

You don't need a large budget to welcome your new employees in a memorable way. Adding a personal touch and providing them with something that could improve their daily work experience goes a long way.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest HR news, trends, and resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
11 Welcome Gifts for New Employees You Should Consider

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get ideas for memorable and practical welcome gifts for new employees at your organization and make a great first impression as an employer!

# data[].attributes.body
We have a volunteer check-in spreadsheet where we track our contact of new volunteers between our DPM and I. We comment on where they’re at in their training, questions they have, and how many contact attempts we made if we had trouble getting a hold of them. We also initial it, so neither of us addresses the same thing twice.

# data[].attributes.body
We use a separate person who has a specific assignment for onboarding a new (in this case) DAT volunteer. They shepherd the new vol through the obtainment of first position/gap regardless of who their specific Supervisor/Team Leader is. Leaders and Supervisors continue for further growth.