30-60-90 Day Onboarding Checklist
30-60-90 Day Onboarding Checklist
Employee Name:
Position Title:
Start Date:
Manager Name:
First 30 Days - Learning Phase
Finish every assigned training module including compliance, safety, systems, and role-specific courses within the first month.
Hold introductory meetings with all direct teammates, cross-functional partners, and key stakeholders you will work with regularly.
Review the team's quarterly objectives, active projects, and performance metrics to understand what success looks like.
Study the full product or service catalog, value propositions, target customers, and competitive differentiators in your market.
Keep a running list of questions, process observations, and improvement ideas to discuss with your manager at the 30-day review.
Meet with your manager at the end of month one to review what you have learned, get feedback, and align on next steps.
First 30 Days - Quick Wins
Find a small but meaningful workflow or process that could be streamlined and propose a practical improvement to your manager.
Take ownership of a component of an active project and deliver a tangible result that demonstrates your early capabilities.
Attend important internal meetings and customer-facing sessions as an observer to understand dynamics and decision-making patterns.
Become fully proficient in using the core systems, tools, and processes you need to do your job independently each day.
Days 31-60 - Contributing Phase
Begin leading your designated projects with increasing independence, making decisions and driving progress with less day-to-day guidance.
Strengthen working relationships with partners in other departments by collaborating on shared initiatives and providing mutual support.
Put the skills and knowledge from your training into practice on actual work assignments and demonstrate growing competence.
Start recognizing challenges before they escalate and take initiative to propose and implement solutions without being asked.
Actively ask your manager and teammates for feedback on your work and adjust your approach based on their input.
Meet with your manager at the two-month mark to assess your contributions, discuss challenges, and refine goals for the final phase.
Days 31-60 - Skill Building
Identify skill gaps revealed during your first month and enroll in additional training or seek mentorship to address them.
Share what you have learned with anyone who joined after you and start contributing to the team's collective knowledge.
Prepare and deliver a brief presentation on a project update, industry trend, or process improvement idea to the team.
Choose one domain relevant to your role and invest focused time becoming the team's go-to resource in that area.
Days 61-90 - Leading Phase
Handle your full workload, make sound decisions, and manage your priorities with little to no hand-holding from your manager.
Deliver quantifiable outcomes on the goals and KPIs established at the start of your onboarding period.
Develop a well-researched recommendation for a new project, process change, or strategic initiative that adds value to the team.
Consistently deliver quality work on time, support colleagues proactively, and demonstrate strong collaboration and communication skills.
Attend company events, join employee groups, and build relationships beyond your immediate team to increase your organizational awareness.
90-Day Review and Beyond
Write a summary of your accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges faced, and goals for the next quarter to share with your manager.
Meet with your manager for the official review to discuss your performance, receive feedback, and set expectations going forward.
Collaborate with your manager to establish clear, measurable objectives for the upcoming quarter that build on your onboarding progress.
Outline your career goals and the skills, experiences, and milestones you will pursue over the next six to twelve months.
Acknowledge the successful completion of the onboarding period with your team and transition fully into your ongoing role.
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What is the 30-60-90 Days Onboarding List?
The 30-60-90 days onboarding list refers to a goal-based tool that splits up a newcomer's first three months of work at the organization into three different stages, which have separate objectives and requirements. Specifically, in the first month, learning takes place, then, in the second month, contributions start happening, and, finally, during the last month, the new employee leads some projects and works autonomously.
Reasons for the Manager and the New Hire to Have This Checklist
Because there is no set of goals, the new hire feels confused about how well they are doing and what else should be done. At the same time, the manager finds it hard to assess whether the newcomer is integrated properly or not. The 30-60-90 days onboarding list is a way to ensure alignment of expectations at the end of each month.
Key Areas Included in This Checklist
This checklist involves topics related to the Day 1-30 learning objectives, which include organizational knowledge, role clarity, and relationship building. The topics for Days 31-60 involve participation via task ownership independently, making process improvement proposals, and increasing stakeholder engagement. Finally, the key topics for Days 61-90 will involve leadership with the help of project ownership and strategic contribution, along with performance achievements.
How to Use This Free 30-60-90 Day Onboarding Checklist?
Use the Brief version for an experienced professional who is just joining another similar company, while using the Detailed version for career changers and professionals taking up complex roles. Customize this template according to your organization's needs and job requirements, and discuss the same with the employee within their first week.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should be achieved in the first 30 days by a new hire?
What should be accomplished during days 31 to 60?
What should be done on days 61 to 90?
Who creates the 30-60-90-day plan?
How do I conduct check-ins at each 30-day milestone?
What if a new hire is not meeting their 30-60-90-day goals?
Should the 30-60-90-day plan differ by role level?
How does a 30-60-90-day plan support retention?
Related HR Glossary Terms
Adithyan RK is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hyring, an AI-native recruitment platform that has run over 900,000 AI interviews for companies ranging from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500. He has spent 18 years building technology businesses, starting with a digital consultancy in 2008 and a staff augmentation firm in 2017, before founding Hyring in 2022 to rebuild hiring around evidence instead of guesswork.
Expertise
Surya N is the Co-Founder and CTO of Hyring, where he architected the AI interviewing engine that has now conducted over 900,000 interviews for companies ranging from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500. A mechanical engineer who moved into artificial intelligence, he spent 6 years building AI applications inside a technology consultancy before co-founding Hyring, and wrote the first version of its AI interviewer from scratch: a system that listens, adapts its questioning in real time, and flags fraud rather than following a fixed script.
Expertise