30-60-90 Day Plan

A new job can be both exciting and intimidating at the same time. There's so much to learn and, many people to meet, a completely new culture to adjust to. It's no wonder it can take up to 8 months for a new employee to become a full-fledged member. Meanwhile, 22% of new employees leave the company within the first 45 days. That means they're leaving before they've even had a chance to start making a return on their investment. Thus, the company is losing money.

What can be done to speed up the onboarding process and reduce the percentage of those who leave within the first few months?

One option is to create a 30-60-90 days plan for the new person in the company.

30-60-90 Day Plan is a formalized document containing the intentions, goals, and actions new employee plans to undertake to maximize their effectiveness in the new position.

The 30-60-90-day plan can be used for any position or company.

A good 30-60-90 plan should outline personal goals and break them down into achievable tasks. More importantly, it will outline the process for achieving each goal.

In each section of a 30-60-90 plan, you can use four main elements:

1. Focus
2. Priorities
3. Goals
4. Metrics

Let's look at them more closely.

It would be best if you had a particular focus each month that familiarizes new employees with how everything works at your company and helps them understand how they can contribute to its growth.

The first month may be devoted entirely to learning, the second to planning and development, and the third to execution and making active contributions and changes to the status quo.

The idea is to create a unified adaptation strategy that sets the tone of the company's expectations and serves your primary goals.

Once you have determined the main area of focus for the month, you need to define priorities. These should be more specific than the focus and less specific than the goals.

For example, in the first month, you may focus on studying the policies and procedures of the company. Depending on the role, the priority may be to familiarize yourself with the internal processes.

The priority for the second month may be beginning to work independently. The priority for the third month may be to present a solution to the problem the company is facing and prepare for an assessment of your work.

Setting goals is a roadmap to prioritizing. For the 30-60-90 plan, you should focus on short-term goals. These are small steps that make success achievable.

Each goal should follow the SMART acronym, meaning they should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Goals can also cover all areas of personal and professional development so that they can be grouped into the following categories:

• Learning Goals - Knowledge and skills to be gained to be successful.
• Productivity Goals - Specific things that should be done.
• Personal Goals - More closely related to meeting people to work with and finding your place in a new company or team.

Although measurement is part of the SMART goal's acronym, it should be highlighted as the last section to provide a clear image of when the plan is achieved.

The metrics can be a specific date, a completed task, or time spent on something. Anything that allows tracking success.

Remember that the first 30 days will require maximum structure and minimal workload, while the 60-day and 90-day segments may vary depending on the department and role.

Try using this plan in your career and personal life to unlock your potential fully.

Template for the 30-60-90 plan.