Questions to ask a new employee are few and are asked twice. At the end of the first week: what is unclear, and what do you need? At thirty days: what was missing on day one, who helped most, what would have made the first month easier, what do you want to learn next, and what should I know that I do not? The answers change the next hire's checklist and this hire's first goals. The onboarding checklist on this site carries both sets as lines with dates, free and without an account.
Week one
Two questions, asked by the manager in ten minutes on the Friday, answered honestly because the hire has not yet learned what not to say. What is unclear becomes Monday's explanation; what they need becomes Monday's order.
Day thirty
Five questions, sent a few days before the thirty-day review so they are thought about. What was missing on day one and what would have made the month easier become changes to the checklist. Who helped becomes the next buddy. What they want to learn becomes the first goals. What I should know is the open door.
What the answers change
The checklist on this site is regenerated with the changed lines, so the next hire benefits; the employee review template on this site turns the learning goal into the first review goal. An answer that changes nothing is a question that should not have been asked, and the checklist is the test of that.
The record
The answers kept against the hire with the checklist and the thirty-day review. HeadcountDesk Pro keeps them; the tools print them. From the vendors' own pricing pages, cited below: Homebase lists its Essentials plan at $30 per location per month billed monthly or $24 billed annually, with unlimited employees, and a Basic plan at $0 for one location with up to 10 employees; BambooHR starts at $10 per employee per month for Core and $17 for Pro; Deputy's Core plan is $6.50 per user per month. HeadcountDesk Pro is $24 per month per location.
Questions people ask about questions to ask a new employee
Should the questions be anonymous?
No; they are a conversation with a record, and the follow-up depends on the name.
Should the owner ask them or the manager?
The manager; the owner reads the answers across hires once a year.
Is the checklist free?
Yes, without an account.