Now that the ink has dried on the offer letter, it’s time to send the swag bag and dive into onboarding your new employee. Effective onboarding will help them learn your company history and important policies, but it’s not complete without a 30-60-90 day plan.
As the final step of a hiring process, or during the first week, HR departments or managers often create 30-60-90 day plans to set goals for the first three months on the job. As an HR leader, this may be part of how you evaluate prospects and gauge their level of interest and buy-in.
It also gives you concrete ways to track and support new employees with their integration and onboarding process. The plan will inevitably change between Day 1 and Day 90, but the 30-60-90 plan offers the employee a chance to think creatively about their future with the company and secure the support they need to start on the right foot. 30-60-90 plans enhance the onboarding process.
Whether you’ve never used them before, or you want to polish your framework, here’s a step-by-step guide to 30-60-90 success.
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What’s their experience? Have they been in a similar role before, or is this a brand new opportunity? For example, if they’ve been a marketing consultant before but now they’re moving in-house, their 30-60-90 goals will focus more on the specifics of your organization than gaining marketing 101 knowledge.
Use the initial get-to-know-you meetings to listen for where they sound confident, or where they may be asking for guidance and more training. As the HR leader or manager, start taking note of upcoming projects you may want to include them in, and additional training resources you can suggest to personalize their learning plan.
Be sure that you and the employee are both setting reasonable expectations for progress in their first quarter. Never say never, but it’s unlikely that you’ll see 3x sales leads in two months, or a 2x increase in the current speed of R&D.
Long-term goals still belong in the conversation as overall guardrails. They help the employee work towards personal career goals while they learn their new role and support the business.
This will vary depending on your business and how quickly you want new hires to be up and running. Usually, you will start seeing progress within the first month, and measurable results by the end of the third.
Here’s an example of different overall objectives for each month:
SMART goals are essential in 30-60-90 plans. Of course, the overall goal is for your employee to feel welcomed and confident in their new job. But those are subjective feelings, and we can all relate to how often our confidence ebbs and flows in the first few months of a new job.
It helps to categorize the 30-60-90 plan goals into learning, performance, and personal development goals.
The short and long-term goals in the 30-60-90 day plan need clear criteria so you can measure success. Encourage the employee to be specific and realistic to actually see confidence-boosting results.
Check out these examples of clearly-defined success for inspiration:
The 30-60-90 day plan also provides a reasonable timeline of checkpoints to connect with your employees on their progress. Checking in too soon adds unnecessary pressure. But if you wait too long, you may miss your opportunity to correct any wrong information or misunderstandings picked up during their onboarding.
At a minimum, you should both prepare to review, share, and evaluate overall progress at the 90-day mark.
As the HR leader or manager, a 30-60-90 plan is a responsible way to give employees more autonomy and support in their new role. They can check their progress against the original goals and look to the plan for their next steps during inevitable moments of anxiety or uncertainty. But you should stay present and active with any support they need along the way.
Using an LMS for onboarding, you can support employees with extra resources, courses, and company information to make their first 90 days as successful as possible. After working through their required onboarding training sequence, they can re-watch training videos and find quick reference guides at any time. An LMS also provides the detailed reporting and assessments you will need to track the measurable outcomes of their training and their 30-60-90 day plan.
30-60-90 day plans aren’t just a rote exercise used during hiring or onboarding. They can poewrfully reshape your company culture as each new team member creates a customized plan to embrace their new role and take ownership of their learning from the start.
It’s also an opportunity for your HR or L&D team to showcase the strengths of your training program and the LMS features (like helpful integrations, searchable content, and social learning) that will help learners achieve their 30-60-90 plan goals. You can continue to support employees well beyond three months for long-term success and satisfaction.
If your 30-60-90 day plan template is ready to go, then it’s time to add it to your process and deliver a memorable (and helpful!) onboarding experience that will benefit the whole business.
Emily MasonEmily is a copywriter and content marketer specializing in Learning and Development. Emily is currently based in West Michigan. She loves words, coffee, and walking by the lake.
As year-end approaches, it’s vital to start thinking about how you will tackle 2024. With your employees being your biggest asset, supporting their success should always be a priority. Investing in your team starts with your employee onboarding process.
Implementing an onboarding program can be challenging, especially if you’re building one from scratch. However, it’s well worth the time and energy, as 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years if they have a positive onboarding experience. Hiring is a lengthy and costly process that places a strain on your existing team, which may be stretched thin due to staff shortages. This strain puts pressure on your hiring team to fill the role(s), which can lead to a rushed hiring process and potential bad hires, costing your business in the long run.
Taking the time to build a thorough and effective onboarding process can help with your attrition rates, boost morale, and increase engagement rates. Constructing a roadmap for at least the first three months can help your employees get acclimated to the company culture and their job responsibilities to set them up for success.
A 30-60-90 day plan is a set of objectives for new employees to achieve in their first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job. It entails the high-level priorities, actionable goals, and metrics you’ll use to measure success in those first three months. This plan aims to make the transition into the new role easier and gives your employees a sense of direction in a confusing and stressful time. In addition, it allows managers to set expectations and monitor progress during the first few months. In summary, the benefits of a 30-60-90 plan include:
GMS’ Director of Human Resources Lisa Dassani shares, “30-60-90-day reviews allow employees to reflect on their first 90 days and give them a chance to ask questions about their position. Managers may use this time to clarify expectations and learn about the training needs of each employee. These check-ins help to set the employee up for future success at your company.”
Each performance review should have clearly defined objectives communicated to your staff in advance. During the review process, fostering collaboration rather than a one-sided conversation is essential. To achieve this, you and your team should prepare a short list of questions to facilitate a constructive dialogue.
Furthermore, your company should place a strong emphasis on reflection and future goal setting during these reviews. You should understand that employees may feel anxious about each review, as it often serves as their probationary period. Assure them that expecting them to operate at 100% capacity from day one is unrealistic. Instead, focus on providing constructive feedback regarding areas for improvement while emphasizing that the first three months are primarily about learning the role and becoming acclimated to the organizational culture.
If you currently conduct 30-60-90-day plans for your employees, great! By following the steps below, you can ensure that you’ve taken every possible measure to provide an efficient onboarding process. However, if your business has not yet implemented a 30-60-90 plan, use the following tips to guide you in creating your plan:
The first step determines the expectations of your new hire. What do they have to accomplish in each phase? What will you do as their manager to help them succeed? Completing this step as early as possible is essential to set your team up for success.
There are three stages: the first 30 days, days 31 to 60, and days 61 to 90. The first 30 days are all about learning — which is typically very intensive and hands-on. This is the phase where you introduce the new hires to tools and projects and set small goals for them to achieve.
The second phase focuses more on role-specific duties and eases off training. This is when your employees take on more responsibilities and implement what they learned in the first phase.
The final stage is when employees gain more independence in their roles. As their manager, you hold them accountable for their work and encourage them to accomplish projects with limited guidance from you. Employees should be able to take what they’ve learned in the first two phases and apply it to their work.
Once the main objectives are in place, and your new hire understands what they need to do within their first 90 days, determine how they will achieve these objectives. Work with your staff to create SMART goals. At each review, assess their progress and help make adjustments as needed. Offer guidance and connect them with more experienced peers to assist in their growth.
You want your employees to succeed from the start because it not only makes you look like a suitable leader but also helps your business succeed. Creating a thorough onboarding process that includes a 30-60-90-day review allows your employees to understand their progress and integration. It also allows you to ensure each new team member is a positive addition to your staff. This structured approach not only facilitates smoother transitions for new hires but also enhances the likelihood of retaining and nurturing excellent talent, which is pivotal for your company's growth and success.
As HR professionals at GMS, we understand how challenging it is to create an efficient onboarding process that benefits you and your new hires. Performance management allows you to set clear goals and expectations for each employee and provide feedback about their performance related to those goals. Furthermore, it plays a pivotal role in shaping decisions related to identifying training requirements for your team, recognizing team members deserving of promotions, and addressing any necessary personnel actions, including terminations when warranted.
Performance management is also valuable to your employees as it can offer opportunities for them to grow within your organization and advance their careers. GMS’ performance review system provides:
Contact us today to get started!