The 90-day plan 

So, you’ve got a new team member of staff! Hooray! But where do you go from here? 

The first few weeks of a new role can inform the rest of a team member’s time with you, so it’s key to instil the right ideas and not allow bad habits to set in place. How are you going to make sure this happens?

It’s important to have a plan in place, both for the onboarding and initial induction process. It might be vastly different from person to person, but putting a framework in place ensures consistency and makes sure you can see progress against key goals. 

What should that induction look like?

It will help to break it down into chunks. Let’s take a look at it over 30, 60, and 90 days, and what you want to achieve in that period. 

30 Days

Onboarding

Does the team member have all the tools they need to complete their job? Put together a checklist and make sure they have everything from day one, including technical equipment and login details. You want to make the best impression you can, and having people sit around waiting won’t achieve that. 

Introductions

Make sure the team member has met everyone they need to meet, both internally and externally. Give proper introductions and make sure they know exactly who they’ll be dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Note: Don’t forget to introduce clients to the new team member too!

How we work

Give the new team member a full understanding of how things are done within your business. How do you hold meetings? Are there rules around phone conversations or booking time off? What about the way conversations are held between team members? These are all important things to make sure the team member feels welcome and has a strong understanding of business practices.

Learning goals

What do you want the team member to have learnt by the end of the first 30 days? Where are the gaps in the team member’s knowledge and what are their key requirements for development? Put a training plan in place to make sure these key milestones will be hit. 

60 Days

Goal-setting 

Get the team member to think about how they want to progress within the role. I’ll go into this another blog about Personal Development Planning (PDP), but it’s important you get the framework in place early on to make sure you’re progressing team members in a way that’s valuable to both them and your business. Giving your team member the freedom to create their own development plan, allows them to ask themselves where they’d like to grow, and how they’d like to achieve it. 

Progress reviewing 

Having regular meetings to check on progress will make sure you’re on track, and will identify any key training requirements or concerns. 

Learning goals 

What do you want the team member to have learnt by the end of the first 60 days? Think about how you can develop them further into the role, and make sure this is in line with any set PDP. 

90 Days

Expanding knowledge 

After two months into the role, is it time to expand the responsibilities of the team member? Think about cross-business training, or further functions they could take on. Does this fit with any agreed PDP? 

Progress reviewing 

Continue those check-ins to see how they’re progressing, keep on track and identify those key training requirements or concerns. 

Learning goals 

What do you want the team member to have learnt by the end of the first 90 days? Is the team member on track for the knowledge they should have? How can you now stretch that to make sure they are not only achieving, but growing?