The first idea is to implement your own handler for the Add action execution. This handler will open the dialog and set some data into the lookup view. Having this data in lookup view you’ll be able to set any values you need.
Something like this:
@Autowired
private DialogWindows dialogWindows;
@ViewComponent
private DataGrid<Employee> employeesDataGrid;
@Subscribe("employeesDataGrid.add")
public void onEmployeesDataGridAdd(final ActionPerformedEvent event) {
DialogWindow<EmployeeLookupView> dialogWindow = dialogWindows.lookup(employeesDataGrid)
.withViewClass(EmployeeLookupView.class)
.build();
EmployeeLookupView view = dialogWindow.getView();
view.setSomeData("123");
dialogWindow.open();
}