Family Feud for Employee Onboarding: Make Week One Memorable

Most onboarding agendas open with a deck. Slide one: company history. Slide two: org chart. Slide three: new hires already checking their phones.

Family Feud is the fix. A 25-minute round in the first hour of week one does more for retention, culture, and team rapport than any slide deck — because new hires are actively retrieving information about the company instead of passively receiving it.

This guide walks through why it works, gives you a tested onboarding agenda, and lists 40 starter questions you can paste straight into the game maker.

Why Family Feud Beats the Standard Onboarding Deck

New hires forget 50-80% of what they hear in week-one orientation within 48 hours. Retrieval-based formats — where the learner has to generate the answer instead of recognize it — improve retention by 2-3x.

Family Feud also solves the social problem that no L&D deck can: new hires don't know each other. The team-vs-team format forces conversation, gives the quiet hires a structured way to contribute, and accelerates rapport in a way that "introduce yourself" rounds never do.

A Tested Week-One Onboarding Agenda

Minute 0-5: Welcome & Team Split

Split new hires into two teams of 3-6. If you have only one cohort, split tenured employees onto each team as "captains."

Minute 5-15: Round 1 — About Our Company

Five survey-style questions about company history, product, and values. Example: "Name a company value." New hires who skimmed the handbook still get one right. Those who read it dominate.

Minute 15-22: Round 2 — Meet the Team

Questions surveyed in advance from current employees. Example: "Name the most common college team employees root for." This is where rapport actually builds — new hires learn who's a sports fan, who's the dog person, who lives in their neighborhood.

Minute 22-28: Round 3 — Benefits & Policy Bingo

The boring stuff, gamified. "Name a benefit included in our health plan." New hires walk out actually knowing what's in their benefits packet — something a 40-slide deck has never achieved.

Minute 28-30: Wrap & Hand Off

Award a small prize (company swag, $10 coffee card). Hand off to the next session. The deck can come now — they're warmed up.

Build the full onboarding game in 15 minutes with the Family Feud creator.

40 Onboarding Starter Questions

About Our Company (10)

1. Name a product or service we sell.
2. Name a company value.
3. Name a city we have an office in.
4. Name something our company was founded to solve.
5. Name a team or department.
6. Name an executive (C-suite or VP).
7. Name a perk new hires get on day one.
8. Name something on our about-us page.
9. Name a customer we're proud to work with.
10. Name a milestone year in our company history.

Meet the Team (15)

11. Name something employees do at our annual offsite.
12. Name a popular Slack channel.
13. Name a snack stocked in the office.
14. Name a coffee order common in our office.
15. Name a hobby multiple employees share.
16. Name a pet name that appears in employee bios.
17. Name a city employees commute from.
18. Name a college multiple employees attended.
19. Name a sports team employees root for.
20. Name a streaming show employees recommend.
21. Name a vacation spot popular with our team.
22. Name a book on our company reading list.
23. Name a podcast multiple employees listen to.
24. Name a charity our team has supported.
25. Name an inside joke from this year's all-hands.

Benefits & Policy (10)

26. Name a benefit included in our health plan.
27. Name a paid holiday.
28. Name a perk for new parents.
29. Name a wellness benefit.
30. Name an L&D budget item employees can use.
31. Name something covered under remote-work policy.
32. Name an Employee Resource Group.
33. Name a security or compliance training.
34. Name a tool every employee has access to.
35. Name a way to give peer recognition.

Culture & Norms (5)

36. Name a do or don't of our internal communication style.
37. Name a meeting type we hold every week.
38. Name a decision-making framework we use.
39. Name a phrase you'll hear repeated in our company.
40. Name a behavior we promote people for.

How to Customize in 15 Minutes

1. Send a 5-question Google Form to current employees a week before onboarding. Use questions 11-25 above.
2. Tally the top 5 answers for each.
3. Paste into the game maker.
4. Done. Save it. Reuse for every cohort.

What to Avoid

• Anything that could embarrass a new hire. No "name someone's awkward first-day moment."
• Inside jokes that exclude. If a new hire can't possibly know it, don't ask it.
• Sensitive topics. No politics, religion, or anything in a protected category.
• Trick questions. Onboarding Feud is about welcome, not gotchas.

For more remote-friendly formats, see our virtual team building playbook and our broader team-building game guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does this work for a single new hire (not a cohort)?

A: Yes — pair the new hire with tenured employees on each team. It doubles as a meet-the-team round.

Q: How does this work for remote onboarding?

A: Run it on Zoom or Teams. New hires buzz in via their phones using the online host tool. Works identically.

Q: Won't it feel forced?

A: Only if you announce it as "mandatory fun." Frame it as "we're going to actually meet each other for 25 minutes," and it lands.

Q: How often should we run it?

A: Once per cohort, or once a month if you hire continuously. Don't make it weekly — it loses the novelty.

Ready to Make Week One Memorable?

New hires won't remember slide 14 of your benefits deck. They'll remember the round where their new manager guessed the wrong CEO. Build your onboarding Feud game now — first one is free.