How to Develop and Facilitate a 30-60-90 Day Plan for New Hires

A 30-60-90 day plan is a three-month schedule that outlines core goals and critical tracking metrics for your new hires as they begin their company position. By following this planning structure, a hiring manager can help their team become even more effective. 

From a smooth onboarding process to helping your team achieve more down the line, developing a 30-60-90 day plan is a fantastic way to boost your team's productivity and ensure all hires understand your company’s mission.

In this article, we’ll be going over:

1. What a 30-60-90 day plan is
2. How to structure the 30-60-90 day plan
3. What to include in each 30-, 60-, and 90-day segment
4. The main benefits of the 30-60-90 day plan 
   

Let’s get into it. 

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What is the 30-60-90 plan?

As suggested by its title, the 30-60-90 day plan establishes a new hire's objectives and hopes for the first 30, 60, and 90 days of their new position. Within these three time periods, a new hire should work with their manager to develop a list of goals they expect to achieve.

Each milestone developed during this period should be measurable, using the S.M.A.R.T goal principles to build their plan.

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Achievable
• R - Realistic
• T - Timely
  

The above acrostic lists the five principles that every goal should have. When developing a 30-60-90 day plan, the milestones should rely on these five elements. When executed correctly, a 30-60-90 day plan can ensure that a new hire stays on track and remains focused during their first few months in the company. 

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Focus on goals like:

• General onboarding and getting to know the team
• Job-related progress milestones
• Personal and professional skill set goals
• Information processing and skills building
  

You’ll quickly notice that some goals, like onboarding and learning necessary software, fit better in the 30-day plan than in the third month.

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How do you structure the 30-60-90 day plan?

The 30-60-90 day plan is most commonly broken down into three periods, each month or thirty days. Within each of these three months, you should outline milestones. The goals set in the first 30 days should be built upon in the 60 day period, and likewise onwards into the next 90 days. 

Due to this progressive system, the goals for 30 days should be more achievable than those in 60 days. 

Let’s take a look at the type of goals you should place in each one of these periods.

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What to place in the first 30 days of your 30-60-90 day plan

As expected with starting a new job role, the first 30 days should be all about getting on the right foot. Within these first 30 days, you should outline with your new hire all of the new skills they should expect to take on and make sure they immerse themself in the company. 

A typical first 30-day plan could look something like this:

1. Learn how to use essential software and demonstrate a proficiency in the team’s existing strategy
2. Meet all team members and discover how they intercommunicate (Slack, Skype, Teams)
3. Understand required daily tasks and how to participate in projects
4. Begin managing daily projects individually and carrying clients through the process
5. Learn about the company’s culture code, values, and critical responsibilities, going beyond just what’s listed in the job description
   

We’d recommend scheduling frequent 1-1s with your new hire within this first period. In these meetings, you’ll be able to help them with any questions they might have, as well as point them in the right direction if they’re struggling with meeting their goals.

As a general principle, considering that 67% of employees are more likely to work harder once they get positive feedback, it’s a good idea to schedule 1-1s with all of your team regularly. This will allow you to give feedback and ensure that everyone is on the right path.

If you want a template for your next 1-1, take a look at this selection by Hugo.

What to include in the 60-day segment of your 30-60-90 day plan

Once your new hire has moved through the first 30 days in the new workplace, they should already be fairly familiar with the general processes that they’ll be conducting on a day-to-day basis. These next 30 days should all be about improving their productivity and efficiency. 

Instead of running second in projects, they should now have the skills needed to take things into their own hands.

A typical 60-day target sheet would look something like this:

1. Boost {measurable metric} by 20%
2. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the company’s processes
3. Step fully into their role and immerse themselves in the daily workings of the team
4. Develop new ideas about how to streamline processes within the business
   

You want every new hire that you bring onto the team to be able to start performing their role in an efficient manner during these next 30 days. While the first 30 were about understanding what they need to do and how to do it, the 60-day goals will revolve around actually doing the job they’ve been assigned. 

At this point, your 1-1 meetings will move away from teaching them anything they don’t know and will look more similar to your 1-1s with veteran employees. Be sure to include personal and performance goals for your new employees in this section.

What to include in the 90-day segment of your 30-60-90 day plan

As your new employees move into their third month of working at your business, they’ll now have a firm grasp on their own team’s processes and will have conquered the job’s learning curve. Instead of needing help with techniques, they’ll now be able to act as a helping hand for other team members, especially newer hires.

From starting in a completely foreign environment on day zero, they’ll now be a complete team member with personal responsibilities, a setlist of already fulfilled goals, and a track history of improvement on both a professional and personal level.

Typical goals for this final 30-day period will be similar to:

• Can efficiently carry projects to their finish across multiple teams
• Understands the company’s key performance metrics and demonstrates success in them
• Fully versed in the team’s processes and how their department works
• Moving to the final stages of training and will rarely need help with new tasks
  

By following the SMART goals you’ve set out for your new hire, they’ll be well on the way to becoming an influential team member.

If you want to make your own 30-60-90 day plan for new hires, be sure to include a range of:

• Learning goals
• Performance-oriented goals
• And personal goals
  

Above all, the 30-60-90 day plan helps your new employees hit the ground running, understand a new role’s learning curve, and overcome it with time.

Of course, depending on the department your new hire is in, the exact goals they set will vary. If they’re part of the sales team, one objective might be to learn how to conduct a sales call, work with the product marketing team, or understand the logic behind the team’s budget. 

On the other hand, someone that is working in the marketing department may want to come up with a content strategy idea, boost blog traffic over time, understand an SEO insights report, or be able to run their team’s monthly meeting.

Finally, someone on the social media team may need to learn to optimize the lowest performing blog post, develop a google analytics strategy, structure blog posts, or understand their team’s process of creating content. Exact goals will always change based on the team’s director and the new hire’s main purpose.

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What are the benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan when starting a new job?

The main focus of a 30-60-90 day plan is to set up your team for future success. Instead of just hoping that a new employee does well in a role, you’ll have a more concrete process to measure success and ensure they’re on the right path throughout their first three months.

There is a range of other benefits to this plan:

• Allows a new employee to see what their essential tasks are and keep track with them
• Helps new employees understand how their team operates
• Acts as a new employee’s north star
  

Let’s break these down further.

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Keeping track of essential tasks

By developing SMART goals for the 30-60-90 day plan, you’ll be able to help your new employee learn what is expected from them in their new role. 

As a hiring manager, you’ll be able to set out performance goals, helping the employee to know if they’re on the right path or not. The time-bound element of this plan allows you to develop concrete goals that can either be passed or missed, allowing you to build a training strategy into their goals.

Getting to know team members

Coming into a new workplace can be a strange experience. Some people feel like they’ve been in the team forever, while others may feel isolated from the other hires. By including social integration goals within your 30-60-90 day plan, you’ll make sure your new employees feel at home in their new position.

By including them as quickly as possible in weekly team meetings and making sure they contribute, they’ll quickly become used to working with their new team. 

Harvard Business Review has demonstrated that teams that get along better are more productive, meaning that these social goals will boost your team’s success in the future. 

Understanding of the company’s mission

As a hiring manager, although you can put as much information as possible into a job description, your new team members may not completely understand what’s expected of them when they join the business. 

By developing a 30-60-90 day plan, your new team members will have something to refer back to constantly. This will allow them to work on specific goals, understand their core job responsibilities, and how their performance goals are assessed.

Working with your new hires on these goals and regularly checking up on them with 1-1 meetings will keep your employees on track towards future success.

Final Thoughts About the 30-60-90 Day Plan

When developing a set of concrete goals, you’ll help your employees understand the tasks you expect them to complete in time-bound stages. Every 30 days of this 30-60-90 day plan will have a different focus, each becoming more difficult.

When developing your own 30-60-90 day plan for new employees, be sure to include a range of personal goals, professional goals, and goals that ensure they understand all the processes they’ll be working with daily.

When done well, this onboarding strategy ensures that right from the interview process onwards, your new hire training will go off without a hitch. 

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