30 60 90 Day Plan: An Ultimate Guide For an HR

The 30-60-90 day plan is a tool used to onboard new employees and ensure their success during their first three months at a company. It is a guide that outlines exactly what a new employee should accomplish during their first 90 days on the job, from their first week to the end of their third month. The goal of the plan is to give new employees a concrete roadmap for getting up to speed and accomplishing their learning goals, while also ensuring they feel welcomed into the company and understand the responsibilities of their role.

Developing a sound 3-month plan is well worth the effort, as good onboarding is the foundation of employee engagement and satisfaction during the entire employee lifecycle. As many as 93% of companies are concerned about employee retention, making it crucial to have a plan in place to help new hires succeed.

This article will tell you what 30-60-90 plans are, what they consist of, why they are important for onboarding, and how to correctly write a 30-60-90 plan. By the time you finish reading this piece, you will know how to create an effective 30-60-90 plan that will serve your new hire from day one

30 60 90 day plan phases

As the name suggests, a 30-60-90 plan consists of three phases:

1. Days 1-30
2. Days 31-60
3. Days 61-90

While every business and every role has its own unique needs, generally speaking, three phases look like this:

• The primary goal of the first 30-day phase is to get familiar with the environment, tools, and colleagues and to get exposed to all aspects of the new workplace.
• The second phase usually involves onboarding the new colleague to specific tasks they will perform in their particular role and showing them how things are done and what success at the company consists of.
• The third and last phase of the 30 60 90 day plan is where the new teammate is encouraged to take the initiative in real work assignments they will perform in their new job, and start contributing by solving challenges they are brought for.

The importance of 30 60 90 day plan in onboarding

By the time the 30 60 90 day plan is complete, your company should have a fully capable employee who knows how to do their job well and fully understands the entire organization, fits company culture, and can contribute immediately.

And ensuring personal goals are on the same page with the company's goals is important on all levels – whether you are bringing a new sales rep to your sales team or are looking to onboard someone higher up in the corporate chain – the 30 60 90 day plan will help.

In case that alone is not enough, here are some more benefits:

• Faster onboarding: In three short months, you will have a new employee ready to respond to all work assignments and challenges at their new company without feeling overwhelmed or burned out.
• Reduced stress: A good 30 60 90 day plan will leave enough room for the new employee to learn their role gradually and align their personal goals with the company mission. That relieves tension and empowers employees as they will know that learning and making mistakes are part of the plan.
• Improved employee engagement and retention: Because they will have manageable pieces in front of them, employees won't feel overwhelmed, increasing their engagement and making their learning even more effective. 
• Clearer goals and easier assessment: New employees will know exactly what's expected from them, as they will have easily measurable goals so there will be no surprises when the assessment time comes. 

How to write a 30 60 90 day plan well?

While you can write your 30 60 90 day plan in a simple document, it will be much better to use a performance management software such as Plai. Plai will allow you to track the plan quickly but will also continue to be the central tool of your HR activities in the future. 

Plai will show you detailed analytics about each employee and have all their reports in one place. Plus, Plai is a perfect tool for gathering and sharing feedback, making it your go-to choice for all of your processes, from the job description and onboarding through performance reviews, 1:1 meetings, and reports, all the way to the exit interview process.

In a nutshell, this is what you should do to create a good 30 60 90 day plan that will get you the results you want:

Define success

The goal of your 30 60 90 day plan should answer this question: "After 90 days, what do we want the new hire to be able to do on their own?" The answer will not only make you rethink the objectives, as you will understand three months isn't that long, but will also force you to think about the milestones and the tools and mentorship your new team members will need to succeed.

Create a goal for each phase

While you don't have to share the goal of the entire plan with the employee, they should know what is expected of them in each phase. Setting smart goals for each phase could look like this:

• Phase 1: Getting familiar with the company's mission, core values, company's vision, work environment, people, tools, and methodologies.
• Phase 2: Understanding the new position, team dynamics, and relationships with other teams and stakeholders to the new role.
• Phase 3: Working alongside the new manager on concrete goals, increasing job responsibilities, highlighting key competencies to develop, and gradually moving towards complete independence.

Set mini-goals within phases

This is optional, but setting mini performance rating goals that will tell the employee how to reach the goal of each learning phase will increase their engagement. Don't try to micromanage them, as you don't want them overwhelmed – that's why it's better to set mini-goals instead of strict milestones.

Assign a mentor (for each phase)

Assigning a mentor to each new employee is a great way to help them learn and develop connections between teammates, positively impacting your entire work environment. 

Depending on the complexity of your organization or the particular role, you may assign one mentor for the entire 30 60 90 day plan (which is better for smaller organizations or simpler roles) or assign a new one for each phase (which is better for larger organizations). 

A good mentor for the introductory phase could be the hiring manager, or someone else from the HR department, while the second and third phases should be mentored by someone more in touch with the role, such as the team leader or a veteran colleague.

Provide regular feedback 

It's a good idea to provide regular feedback at the end of each phase and summarize the entire process after the plan is complete. That will help the employees know where they stand, get them used to receiving future performance reviews, and understand the importance of setting performance goals. 

Frequent reports and surveys improve engagement, another reason you should team up with Plai – you will save enormous time while giving better quality, data-driven feedback.

How to help employees evaluate their plan's success

If you have designed the 30-60-90 plan correctly, your new hires will know exactly what to focus on to measure success and their own progress. But, to help them, you can ask direct questions such as:

• How would you rate your overall success of the entire 30-60-90 plan process?
• Did you have any difficulties following instructions?
• How would you improve the phases?

Conclusion

Creating a solid 30 60 90 day plan can skyrocket the effectiveness of your onboarding, resulting in more engaged employees ready to hit the ground running in their day-to-day work once finished. 

By following the steps from our guide and introducing Plai to your HR workflow, you are guaranteed not only to set up and implement a solid 30 60 90 plan but also to improve your future people management capabilities significantly. Try Plai completely free and see why hiring managers and HR teams trust us as their go-to performance management tool.

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