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The 30 60 90 Day Plan Guide for Every Hiring Manager

By Arleen Atienza

Hiring Plan

February 1 2021 - The excitement of finally landing a job after you’ve been rejected countless times is undeniable. But aside from that giddy feeling of excitement also lies uncertainty, especially if the company is entirely new for you and you don’t know much about how they manage their employees. The same goes for the managers who did the hiring. This is where the 30 60 90 day plan comes in handy.

What is the 30 60 90 day plan?

Some people define the 30 60 90 day plan as a guidance system for new hires. This is a set of written goals for yourself in the first 90 days of your job. Something to gives structure and direction during your initial months in your new role or new company.

Others view it as something for your hiring manager, boss, and the rest of your management team to ensure that you are aligned to their goals and the goals of the company - a framework for success. That is, the 30 60 90 day plan is a documented strategy that will ensure that their hiring of you is deemed a success. This plan, as they view it, is a framework upon which you will build your career within the company.

For hiring managers, having this plan ensures a near seamless integration for their new hires into their new teams and to align them to the goals of the company. This will help ensure that your new hires will have career direction and not just a job.

Whichever definition or purpose suits you, one thing is clear: with the economy being especially volatile given the current circumstances, having a solid 30 60 90 day plan is an important part of your employment arsenal.

Why use a 30 60 90 day plan?

A solid strategy for the initial 3 months of a new hire will lay out a clear course of action for them to take as they try to mesh with their new team and get familiar with their new responsibilities. This identifies clear focus points for every stage of a new hire’s initial journey ensuring productivity and maximizing their learning potential.

Setting goals per milestone will help the management team and the new hire measure success; and having new hires see that they are hitting their goals in every milestone is both encouraging and empowering. On the hiring manager’s end, this gives them documented proof of a successful hire.

When to use a 30 60 90 day plan

Though the 30 60 90 day plan is most commonly used during the initial months of a new hire, this plan can also be used in other situations.

Some hiring managers ask their interviewees for 30 60 90 day plans during the later part of the interview and hiring process. This allows the hiring manager a peek into how their possible new hires strategize and set goals for their first 90 days.

Another situation where the 30 60 90 day plan is useful is right after a performance review. Managers may find a 30 60 90 day plan beneficial for both their employees and themselves to measure whether the goals they set during their performance reviews were met or not.

Things to consider when creating a 30 60 90 day plan

There are certain things to take into consideration when creating an effective 30 60 90 day plan.

One thing to consider is the tool with which you create the plan for your new hire. There are knowledge bases out there like Slab that allow even the tech novice to create content that is professional-looking and easy to access, therefore easier for your new employee to understand. It will also be very helpful if the knowledge management tool can be easily integrated to your already existing platforms so that there will be no need for your new hires to navigate too many tools during their first few days at the job.

Ensure that you are using SMART goals. SMART means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound. The SMART guide ensures that the goals you set are actionable and quantifiable. After all, the purpose of this plan is to measure the success of your new hire and to ensure a successful hire.

Creating a 30 60 90 day plan

There are templates available all over the internet for 30 60 90 day plans for almost anything. The only thing that mainly varies are the goals that are set. Goals are dependent on the role the new hire is filling.

Create a template

To start off, you need to create your template. Something simple and easy to read is always a good idea. Another good idea is to stay away from Comic Sans. You are going for a professional-looking template.

Set your goals

Remember that you need to set SMART goals. Let’s say you are setting goals for a new hire in sales. Stay away from unquantifiable goals like "Be better at sales." "Better" is not a quantifiable term. A SMART goal would be: "Sell 12 units of the company’s product within 60 days." Keep in mind that your goals need to align with the objectives of the company and the management team.

For each milestone, you can set learning, performance, and personal goals.

Identify your 30, 60, and 90 day targets

Set targets for each month of your 90 days. Each month should have a set theme. The usual theme for the first 30 days is learning. The second set of 30 days usually focuses on application. The new hire is contributing to the team by applying what they have learned during their first 30 days. The last 30 days’ focus will depend on the role of the newly hired employee. If the employee is filling a managerial role, the focus would be leadership. If the new hire is filling a non-leadership role, the usual focus would be taking initiative.

Set metrics

Metrics are a way for you to measure the success of every goal. Were the goals met? Up to what capacity were they met? Metrics are important tools in demonstrating and quantifying success.

30 60 90 day Plan Template

Below is a template of a 30 60 90 day plan. This plan can be edited to serve your purpose. You can change the theme, or the kind of goals you want to set, or change the metrics. It all depends on the situation.

Name:
Position:
Manager:

Days 1-30 (mm/dd/yyyy)
Theme:
Learning

Learning goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Performance goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Personal goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Days 31-60 (mm/dd/yyyy)
Theme:
Application

Learning goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Performance goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Personal goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Days 61-90 (mm/dd/yyyy)
Theme:
Leadership (or initiative, depending on the role)

Learning goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Performance goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

Personal goals
SMART goal 1. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 2. (Metric: pass or fail)
SMART goal 3. (Metric: pass or fail)

About the Author

Arleen Atienza has been writing for several organizations and individuals in the past five years. Her educational background in Psychology and professional experience in corporate enable her to approach a wide range of topics including finance, business, beauty, health and wellness, and law, to name a few.



 
 




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