90 business plan templates

Free 30-60-90-Day Business Plan Templates and Samples

By Joe Weller | September 4, 2020

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In this article, we’ve compiled a variety of useful 30-60-90-day business plan templates. Download them in PDF, Word, and Excel formats for free.

On this page, you’ll find a one-page 30-60-90-day business plan template , a sample 30-60-90-day business plan for startups , a sample 90-day business plan template with timeline , and more that you can use to develop an actionable plan.

Simple 30-60-90-Day Business Plan Template

Use this simple 30-60-90-day business plan template to map out main goals and deliverables. You can easily break down your high-level plan into bite-sized chunks to create an effective roadmap for accomplishing business goals. Add key tasks and descriptions, assign ownership, and enter deadlines to keep plans on track.

Download Simple 30-60-90-Day Business Plan Template

Word | PDF | Smartsheet

One-Page 30-60-90-Day Business Plan Template

Document key goals and tasks with this single-page 30-60-90-day business plan template. This template can help you create a high-level view of main business objectives and track the status of your goals in an organized and scannable manner. 

Download One-Page 30-60-90-Day Business Plan Template

Word | PDF  | Smartsheet

Sample 30-60-90-Day Business Plan for Startup 

Use this sample 30-60-90-day plan as a basis to build out and develop your organization’s startup business plan. This template enables you to produce and implement a plan of action — from idea conception to business plan finalization. There is also space to detail main goals and deliverables, assign task ownership, and set due dates to ensure your plan stays on track.

‌Download Sample 30-60-90-Day Business Plan for Startup Template 

Sample 90-Day Business Plan Template with Timeline

This sample 90-day business plan template is customizable and doubles as an action plan and timeline so you can track progress in 30-day increments. Easily break your plan into phases, then add key tasks, task ownership, and dates for each activity. You can also fill in and color-code the cells according to the respective start and end dates to create a visual timeline. 

Download Sample 90-Day Business Plan Template with Timeline - Excel

30-60-90-Day Business Plan to Increase Sales (With Gantt Chart)

Use this template to develop a 90-day action plan to increase sales for your business. This customizable template is designed to help you reevaluate and improve your sales strategy and business plan. Broken up into 30-day increments, this template comes pre-filled with actionable tasks, like defining and prioritizing goals, conducting market research, evaluating current processes, finding untapped opportunities, and refining your sales plan to reach sales goals.

Download 30-60-90-Day Business Plan to Increase Sales

Excel | Smartsheet

For additional resources to create and enhance the sales plan portion of your business plan, visit “ All about Sales Plans: Definitions, Tips, and Free Templates .”

30-60-90-Day Business Plan for Marketing

This 30-60-90-day business plan for marketing features a simple and scannable design to help stakeholders track the progress of key marketing goals and activities. Use this customizable template to provide an overview of main objectives and the status of tasks you need to complete.

Download 30-60-90-Day Business Plan for Marketing

Excel | Word | PDF

For additional resources to help develop the marketing plan portion of your business plan, view “ Free Marketing Plan Templates, Examples, and a Comprehensive Guide .”

Purpose of a 30-60-90-Day Business Plan

Unlike a 30-60-90-day plan used to interview for or transition into a new role, a 30-60-90-day business plan is a useful document for developing a roadmap covering the first 90 days of your business planning process.  

Small-business owners, entrepreneurs, and established organizations use a 30-60-90-day business plan to do the following: 

• Establish high-level goals, objectives, and deliverables for the first 30, 60, and 90 days.
• Align your team’s goals with overarching business goals.
• Outline key business activities needed to accomplish the established goals.
• Determine the necessary resources to effectively complete the tasks.
• Define success metrics.
• Assign activity ownership, define milestones, and create a timeline to keep the plan on track.

Looking for additional resources to help you develop your business plan? Visit the following pages for more free templates:

Simple Business Plan Templates

One-Page Business Plan Templates

Fill-in-the-Blank Business Plan Templates

Business Plan Templates for Startups

Business Plan Templates for Nonprofits

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How to create a 90-day plan for new hires

Borrow our templates for a 90-day onboarding plan that will help new hires succeed.

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5-second summary

• A comprehensive 90-day plan doesn’t just set expectations for new hires – it makes them feel welcome and included.
• Using the “buddy system” can make a 90-day plan even more effective.
• Building in milestones for checkpoints at 30, 60, and 90 days will ensure that new team members are set up for success throughout the onboarding process.

The first 90 days of a new job usually involve a pretty steep learning curve; so much information to absorb, so many people to meet. If you’re the new hire, you want to prove yourself. If you’re the hiring manager, you want to set your new teammate up for success.  

Based on our own onboarding practices, we’ve learned that using a 90-day plan can make it easier for newbies to get up to speed, understand their roles, and establish a strong team and company culture. Check out our templates below to see what we include. If you’re starting at a new company that doesn’t already use 90-day plans, consider using these templates as a starting point for gathering information. Schedule time with your new manager or a veteran coworker to fill in the blanks.

What is a 90-day plan?

Our definitive, road-tested virtual onboarding checklist

A 90-day plan is a framework for planning out how to onboard, acclimate, and educate new team members. It sets expectations for what the person will be expected to deliver in their first 90 days, which can include both learning goals and performance goals. Some people also refer to it as a 90-day action plan, which adds a nice emphasis on proactivity.

A 90-day plan should define the specific details that will allow the new employee to achieve success. A well-written plan should spell out how this person’s new role and day-to-day duties level up to company metrics and long-term plans. It should help them define priorities and checkpoints for follow-ups on their progress.

Ideally, a 90-day plan should:

• Serve as a single reference point for resources, outlets for support, and clarity on responsibilities and goals
• Introduce and foster an environment that supports regular growth conversations with managers so the employee can envision their path for advancement
• Orient the new employee to company and team culture by emphasizing relationships and shared objectives
• Reinforce strategies that support a growth mindset and a proactive work style

What should a 90-day plan include?

Keep in mind that an effective 90-day plan will vary depending on your company, goals, and the employee’s needs. 

Here are some great questions to think about when writing a 90-day plan for a new team member:

• How can you use this plan to help a new team member succeed?
• What quick wins can they ship to gain momentum?
• Who are the key stakeholders this person needs to know about?
• Since this person is coming in with a “clean slate” mindset, are there fresh insights you’d like them to contribute? 
• What feedback and observations would you like the new hire to include in a 90-day wrap-up blog or other written summary? 

As you’ll see in our templates, our 90-day plans lead off with an introduction. That helps the rest of the team experience someone’s writing voice, see pictures of family and friends, and learn about interests, hobbies, and whatever else they’d like to offer about themselves. One way to make a 90-day plan more effective is to use a kind of buddy system. Buddies show new teammates the ropes, introduce them to other Atlassians, and act as go-to resources for questions.

The first 90 days are precious. It’s important to have the right plan – and people – to act as a guide.

How to create a 90-day plan

Generally speaking, there are a few organizing principles to focus on.

• 90-day plans are often broken into three phases: Days 1-30, Days 30-60, and Days 60-90.
• Don’t overwhelm your newbies! You can’t learn everything there is to know about a job or a company in three short months. Focus on what matters most, and what’s realistic in the timeframe you’re working with.
• Consistent, frequent check-ins are very important, since you’ll be defining goals for what should be learned or delivered in each phase.
• Both the new hire and their manager should feel empowered to give honest and timely feedback (about systems, company habits, points of uncertainty, you name it) – don’t wait until the 90 days to clear up any points of friction.
• Don’t underestimate the power of open communication – it can mean the difference between clarity and confusion or empowerment and ineffectiveness.

90-day onboarding plans are good for your company culture

A 90-day plan isn’t just a task list – it’s the foundation for working together, learning together, and understanding team and company culture.

At Atlassian, we don’t think of a new hire’s first 90 days as a trial period or proving ground. Rather, we encourage an emphasis on knowledge gathering and sharing and relationship building. Initial tasks, goals, and deliverables should focus on helping someone feel more comfortable and confident about the road ahead.

Regular check-ins, honest feedback, and the support of learning (and failing), help establish a bedrock of trust, which should underpin all team and company interactions – during the first 90 days and beyond.

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30-60-90 Day Plan: 2024 Guide + Example

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:50am

Table of Contents

What is a 30-60-90 day plan, benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan, elements of a 30-60-90 day plan, when to make a 30-60-90 day plan, how to make a 30-60-90 day plan in 5 steps, 30-60-90 plan example, frequently asked questions (faqs).

It can take new employees time to settle in and learn the ropes of a new position. However, employers want to see productivity sooner than later. This is why developing a 30-60-90 day plan is a good idea. It’s a plan that outlines target milestones for employees to hit in the first 30, 60 and 90 days of employment. Follow along to learn more about the 30-60-90-day plan and how to create your own. To help give your employees the best start possible.

A 30-60-90 day plan is a document that is created either by a new employee or a hiring manager and outlines the goals to be accomplished during the first three months of employment. It breaks goals down into 30-, 60- and 90-day increments. Employees work to hit set milestones that are aligned with the mission of the organization. The goal is to maximize employee output in the first days of being hired, days which can be overwhelming and confusing in many cases. The plan helps simplify what the employee should be doing and focusing on.

The 30-60-90 day plan can be written by the employee or by the hiring manager. Managers may want employees to create their own plans to get the buy-in for the milestones and goals.

What Makes a Good 30-60-90 Day Plan?

A good 30-60-90 day plan takes larger goals and breaks them down into smaller, more digestible milestones. The plan has an ultimate goal set for 90 days and shows steps that are accomplished along the way at the 30- and 60-day marks. While the goals should be accomplishable, they should also be challenging.

A good plan also aligns with the mission of the company. Managers want employees to work on goals that move the company forward. Otherwise, the company may not meet its objectives and goals.

When managers utilize a 30-60-90 day plan for onboarding new employees , they help identify the key goals for the employee in the early days of employment. Not only does it set the parameters for success, but it also empowers employees to manage their own work to a large degree. When employees know what is expected of them, they can spend their day focusing on achieving those goals rather than on tasks that don’t support the plan. The 30-60-90 day plan is the roadmap for success.

A good 30-60-90 day plan has common components that are designed to explain expectations clearly. The first element of the plan is to have the company mission or purpose of the work stated. Then, of course, there are the goals. Goals should be concrete with measurable objectives. A good 30-60-90 day plan also lists resources to help employees accomplish their goals.

Make a 30-60-90 day plan when you onboard a new employee. It will serve as a way to help transition them from a new employee to a valuable team member in a short amount of time. You can also use a 30-60-90 day plan when rolling out new initiatives. This will help existing employees understand the goals and provide a workable path to accomplishing them.

It may also be helpful for a prospective employee to create a 30-60-90 day plan when preparing for an interview. This will show the hiring manager that you are serious about hitting the ground running and making an impact toward objectives and goals.

A 30-60-90 day plan doesn’t need to be complicated. It simply outlines the main objectives of a new employee and gives them guidance on how to accomplish them.

Here’s how to create a 30-60-90 day play in five easy steps:

1. Write the company mission

The very first thing that you should do when creating a 30-60-90 day plan is to identify and write down the company mission. Remember that the plan should align with the company’s mission and goals. By having it on the page for the employee to review, you can help the employee understand their role in the bigger picture.

2. Create the first 30 days’ objectives

Write down the goals for the first 30 days. Limit the goals to three to five to keep things clear. For each goal, write down a key metric that will be used to measure whether the goal is achieved or not.

3. Create the next 60- and 90-day objectives

Just as you did for the first 30 days, write down key goals for the first 60 days. Remember to keep goals limited to three to five goals for clarity. Have a key metric stated for each goal. Do the same for the first 90 days.

4. Provide ample resources for the employee

Because the plan is a guide, you should include any relevant resources that will help the employee accomplish their goals. Resources may include listing certain people to speak with or using certain computer-led tutorials. Give the employee the resources needed to succeed with as little oversight as possible.

5. Evaluate progress

For a 30-60-90 day plan to work, you need to give it time (as the name suggests). Part of the plan is to give said time and then follow-up with an evaluation. Did the employee manage to use the resources provided to hit their objectives?

Plan For: Employee name Date: August 1, 2022

Company Mission: To help consumers find the right resources for retirement and invest their money with our firm.

Goal 1: To complete all onboarding training. All boxes should be checked as complete in the employee file. Goal 2: Review investment products and become familiar with the key benefits. Goal 3: Pass state and federal licensing requirements to sell investment products.

Goal 1: Make first sales calls to potential clients. Goal 2: Work with your manager to develop a key product list to offer clients. Goal 3: Get the first sale in the program.

Goal 1: Consistently make 50 outbound calls per day. Goal 2: Hold at least three sales appointments per day. Goal 3: Generate at least $500,000 in sales.

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Bottom Line

A 30-60-90 day plan is a great way to help onboard new employees (or get an edge in an interview process) because it shows the key objectives for the first three months of employment. It aligns with the company’s mission, helping the employee integrate quickly into becoming a valuable team member. Set realistic goals in a 30-60-90 day plan to see success and build confidence in new team members.

The 30-60-90 day plan is just one tool in the employer’s toolkit. For more insights into managing staff and building strong teams, check out our article on strategic human resource management .

How do I answer what I will do in the first 30-60-90 days?

Prepare for this question in an interview. Make sure you approach it from the perspective of the company’s goals and say what you plan on accomplishing based on what you know about the job description. Don’t hesitate to ask questions to clarify the role before answering the question.

How many slides should a 30-60-90 day plan be?

If you are presenting a plan in a PowerPoint, you want to use three to four slides. The first slide should outline the mission and overall objective of the company, while the next three slides review the goals. Use one slide for each month.

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The Best 30-60-90 Day Plan for Your New Job [Template + Example]

Published: December 06, 2023

I remember my first day at HubSpot. I was so nervous and had a million concerns swimming around in my head.

Will I adapt to my new job? How long will it take for me to get the hang of things? Can I manage the workload and maintain a good rapport with my coworkers?

Fortunately, my outstanding manager at the time prepared a comprehensive checklist to be completed over a few months, and it helped me slowly but steadily adapt to HubSpot. Fast forward a few years, and I'm a rockstar at my job.

The checklist was called a 100-day checklist, but it followed the rhythm of a typical 30-60-90 Day Plan.

A 30-60-90 Day Plan, or something similar, is imperative to the success of a new employee as it helps them set and reach attainable goals and acclimate to their new position.

To help set your new employee, or yourself, up for success, here's what you need to know about crafting the best 30-60-90 Day Plan.

30-60-90 Day Plan

A 30-60-90 day plan lays out a clear course of action for a new employee during the first 30, 60, and 90 days of their new job. By setting concrete goals and a vision for one's abilities at each stage of the plan, you can make the transition into a new organization smooth and empowering.

Learning the nuances of your new role in less than three months won't be easy. But crafting a strong 30-60-90 day plan is your best bet for accelerating your development and adapting to your new work environment as quickly as possible.

You‘d write a 30-60-90 day plan in two situations: during the final stages of an interview and the first week of the job. Here’s how each type can be executed:

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30-60-90 Day Plan for Interview

Some hiring managers ask candidates to think about and explain their potential 30-60-90 day plan as a new hire.

As a candidate, this would sometimes confuse me in the past, but I now understand they just want to see if a potential hire can organize their time, prioritize the tasks they likely take, and strategize an approach to the job description.

For a new hire, a well-thought-out 30-60-90 day plan is a great way to help the hiring manager visualize you in the role and differentiate yourself from all other candidates.

But how can you outline your goals before accepting a new job? How are you supposed to know what those goals are? I've found that starting with the job description is an excellent stepping stone.

Typically, open job listings have separate sections for a job‘s responsibilities and a job’s qualifications. Work to find commonalities in these two sections and how you might turn them into goals for yourself.

Then, stagger those goals over three months.

For example, let‘s say a job requires three years of experience in Google Analytics, and the responsibilities include tracking the company’s website performance every month.

I would use these points to develop an action plan explaining how:

• I‘ll learn the company’s key performance metrics (first 30 days)
• Strengthen the company's performance in these metrics (next 30 days)
• Lead the team toward a better Google Analytics strategy (last 30 days)

30-60-90 Day Plan for New Job

The second situation where you‘d write a 30-60-90 day plan is during the first week of a new job, which I highly recommend whether you’re a new employee or a manager working with a new hire.

If you're the hiring manager, this plan will allow you to learn how the new employee operates, address their concerns or preconceived notions about the role, and ultimately help them succeed.

If you‘re starting a new job and are not asked to craft a 30-60-90 day plan during the first week of that job, it’s still a good idea to write one for yourself.

A new position can feel like a completely foreign environment during the first few months, and having a plan in place can make it feel more like home.

Even though 90 days is the standard grace period for new employees to learn the ropes, it's also the best time to make a great first impression.

How long should a 30-60-90 day plan be?

While there's no set length for a 30-60-90 day plan, it should include information about onboarding and training, set goals that you're expected to hit by the end of each phase, and all the people to meet and resources to review in support of those goals. This can result in a document that's 3-8 pages long, depending on formatting.

The purpose of your plan is to help you transition into your new role, but it should also be a catalyst for your career development.

Instead of just guiding you over your job's learning curve, the goals outlined in your plan should push you to perform up to your potential and raise the bar for success at every stage.

HubSpot's Senior Manager of Content (and my former manager) Meg Prater suggests having a solid template for your plan that allows it to evolve.

“Anytime I onboard someone, I review all training docs and ensure they're up to date,” she says. “I also ask for feedback from the folks on the team who have most recently been onboarded. What did they like? What didn't work for them?”

She also says moving the plan to a more interactive platform proved to be helpful to new employees.

“One of the most helpful shifts we've made recently is moving our 30-60-90 plan (or 100-Days Plan) from a static Google Doc to Asana,” she says. “The plan is organized by week, and each task contains relevant readings and links. It's much easier for folks to move through, and it gives me better insight into where folks are in the plan.”

Meg onboarded me when I started at HubSpot, and I can confirm that my checklist in Asana was a game-changer because it helped me stay on task and visually track my progress.

The checklist below isn‘t mine, but it’s one she set up and follows the same format as the one she created for me.

Free 30/60/90 Day Onboarding Template

Fill out the form to get the template., parts of a 30-60-90 day plan.

An effective 30-60-90 day plan consists of three extensive phases — one for days 1-30, one for days 31-60, and one for days 61-90.

Each phase has its own goal. For example, the goal in the first 30 days is to learn as much as possible about your new job.

The following 30 focus on using learned skills to contribute, and the last 30 are about demonstrating skill mastery with metrics and taking the lead on new challenges.

Each phase also contains components that help define goals and describe desired outcomes. These parts include:

The primer is a general overview of what you hope to achieve during the current 30-day period.

I prefer sitting down with my manager to pinpoint a primer that aligns with my goals and desired company outcomes, and I encourage you to do the same.

This ensures you and your manager are on the same page about expectations early on in your journey with the company.

The theme is a quick-hitter sentence or statement summarizing your goals for the period. For example, your theme might be “find new opportunities”, “take initiative,” or “be a sponge.”

Learning Goals

Learning goals focus on skills you want to learn or improve to drive better outcomes at your job. For example, if you're responsible for creating website content at your company, you should learn new HTML or CSS skills .

At the start of my career with HubSpot, some marketing trends and jargon were unfamiliar, and I wasn‘t used to the company’s writing style.

As a result, my learning goals as a new blogger were to become more well-versed in marketing and to adapt to HubSpot's writing style.

Performance Goals

Performance goals speak to specific metrics that demonstrate improvement. These include making one more weekly content post or reducing the revisions management requires.

For example, I was only writing one article per week when I started HubSpot, but it was my performance goal to be able to write multiple articles by the end of 30 days.

Initiative Goals

Initiative goals are about thinking outside the box to discover other ways you can contribute. This might mean asking your manager about taking ownership of new website changes or upgrades with a specific deadline in mind.

Personal Goals

Personal goals focus on company culture — are there ways you can improve relationships with your team members or demonstrate your willingness to contribute?

Draft a training strategy that can help guide your direct reports into new roles.

You won‘t be expected to promote people in the first three months of your new job, but you should still have learned more about your team to decide who’s good at what and how to coach them to where they want to be.

In the final 30 days of your 30-60-90 day plan, you might agree to a goal to develop a training strategy that outlines how to manage your direct reports and, ultimately, how to guide them into new roles in the future.

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What is a 30-60-90 day plan?

6 benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan, when to use a 30-60-90 day plan, what to include in a 30-60-90 day plan, 30-60-90 day plan template for managers, 9 tips for creating a 30-60-90 day plan.

"The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade." Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and BetterUp Science Board Advisor 

When it comes to setting your people up for success, a little help goes a long way. How are you setting up your workforce to reach its full potential ? 

Well, if you ask any leader, a lot of it comes down to helping your employees think strategically from the start. It’s beyond finishing a project, solving a problem, or completing the menial, day-to-day tasks.

Of course, the day-to-day duties help to get work done. But it’s also helping your employees connect their day-to-day to the larger purpose of work . Why does that purpose matter? How does their work connect to the organization’s goals, mission, or purpose? 

When I first started at BetterUp, my manager shared a fully fleshed-out spreadsheet and Google document as part of my 30-60-90 day plan. In these resources, there were targets to hit, milestones to reach, and tasks to complete. 

But more importantly than the line items was the sentiment: the strategy behind the 30-60-90 day plan helped to set me up for success. It was that extra mile to help out a new hire that allowed me to onboard successfully to my new role. And it was the help I needed to see the larger vision of how my work connected to organizational success , even if I didn’t fully know it yet. 

When we think about helping others around us be successful, having a plan is critical. In fact, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they had a good onboarding experience.

Having a roadmap for the first three months can help your employees acclimate to the company culture. It'll also help them ramp up to the role and meaningfully connect with others — and ultimately lead to better performance.  

Sure, the plan might change. After all, we’re in a rapidly changing world where plans are often etched in pencil instead of stamped in pen. But if you’re hiring new employees or onboarding teammates, it’s important to give your workforce a sense of where you want to see them go. 

In this post, we’ll walk through what makes a good 30-60-90 day plan. We’ll also talk about the benefits of a good plan — and even give a template example to help you help your employees. 

First, let’s understand what defines a 30-60-90 day plan. The 30-60-90 plan is a key part of a robust onboarding process . And in remote and hybrid work environments, the onboarding process is more important than ever. It’s critical that in these early days of onboarding, you’re building culture and connection with your new employees. 

A 30-60-90 day plan is a document or resource that outlines the goals and strategies for a new employee within the first 90 days. It serves as a guide, a resource, and a checklist for your new hires.

When a new employee joins your organization, there’s likely a stage of information overload. In the onboarding process, the employee absorbs a lot of information. They might be networking and setting up coffee chats with other employees. They’re probably in a good chunk of training sessions and other sorts of new hire workshops. 

Depending on how your organization runs the onboarding process, your employees are likely trying to ramp up in their new roles. At the same time, they're also soaking in everything they can about the organization. All while your employees are acclimating to the new role, they’re also making connections. Or, at least, they should be.

In short: it’s a lot. It can feel overwhelming to retain all the information a new hire receives. Sometimes, it can lead to confusion or misalignment on overall goals. 

But with a 30-60-90 day plan, you’re able to clearly outline the expectations you have for your employee. As a manager, it’s a useful resource and tool to help keep the onboarding process on track. It can also serve as an accountability tool, one where you can ensure your employees are meeting your expectations. 

Let’s talk more about what benefits come with a clearly outlined 30-60-90 day plan. 

There are plenty of benefits to a 30-60-90 day plan, for both the employer and the employee. Here are six of our favorite benefits to consider. 

• It helps optimize productivity  

It sets clear expectations 

• It helps with goal setting  

It can help alleviate the new job jitters 

It empowers employees to self-manage their work , it serves as a reminder of priorities , it helps optimize productivity .

Ashley Ballard, social media manager, BetterUp, shared why a 30-60-90 day helped their productivity in the first three months of work. 

“I'm someone who benefits from an itemized list of expectations so that I’m not hindering my productivity by feeling anxious about my work product. It also keeps everyone on the same page about the meaning behind your role and how you will directly support team goals.” Ashley Ballard, social media manager  

As you’ll notice in some of these benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan, there’s a lot of overlap in what makes an employee productive. For Ashley, it’s clear expectations, alignment on the role, and clear communication about the priorities at hand. One could argue that all the benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan can contribute to overall increased productivity . 

It doesn’t get much clearer than getting a document of expectations in written form. At BetterUp, our 30-60-90 day plans come with a “checkbox” field to notch once you’ve completed the task at hand. 

Clear expectations can be hard to set, especially at the nebulous start of someone’s employment in a new role. But with a 30-60-90 day plan, you’re able to clearly outline your expectations as a manager. 

It helps with goal setting 

On my 30-60-90 day plan, I had a list of more administrative or mundane tasks. For example, I needed to upload my information into our HR management system. I needed to review the necessary policies and documents. I needed to set my email signature with the appropriate information. 

But it also outlined higher-level objectives. As a marketer and writer, I needed to learn the BetterUp voice, tone, and perspective. My manager clearly outlined blogs and resources that I could read, practice assignments that I could take on, and even some videos to watch. In fact, one of my goals was to write a blog within 30 days. 

Many of the new hire checklist items served as foundational tasks to get to me my goal. And by providing me with all the information at once, I could more easily connect the dots to the “why” behind some of the work I was receiving, too. 

Have you ever started a new job and not really know what you’re supposed to do with yourself? 

In my last job, I attended a half-day new hire orientation . I still remember going back to my desk upstairs, meeting my new manager, sitting down, and logging into my computer. I played around with my systems and got myself set up on my laptop. But after about an hour, I found myself spinning my chair around to my new boss and asking if I could help with anything. 

Frankly, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing with myself. I felt that instant anxiety of not contributing anything meaningful, even though it was just my first day. 

There’s a lot of inherent pressure, stress, and anxiety that comes with starting a new job. New job anxiety is totally normal. It happens to all of us.

No matter how great we felt through the hiring process , on top of the world with our offer letter, as the new kid you can feel at loose ends pretty quickly. You waste time in self-doubt or doing unimportant tasks to look busy and loose confidence and momentum. But one way to help alleviate the jitters your employees are feeling is by giving them a plan. 

Ashley Strahm, content marketing manager, BetterUp, shared why she finds having set milestones in place can help reduce anxiety . 

“I’ve come to experience onboarding as a time where folks are the most hungry, curious, enthusiastic, and eager to please. Having a plan with milestones from the outset means that none of the initial emotions that come with starting a new job overwhelm or cause scattered or inefficient outreach — and anxiety about performance."  Ashley Strahm, content marketing manager

Without a 30-60-90 day plan, you couldn’t possibly have made the connections or digested the right resources to help quell those productivity nerves. And without it, you risk a big loss. Those early days are when new hires have the freshest eyes. It’s the best and most optimal opportunity to ask your new hires to observe and provide feedback. 

I’ve never heard of a manager that wants to hold their employees’ hands through every project. Sure, there are micromanagers who like to stay close to their employees’ work. 

But at BetterUp, we’re big believers in giving employees autonomy to self-manage their work. We talk about this in the context of some of our high-impact behaviors: extreme ownership, bias toward action, craftspersonship, and work to learn. 

Managers also need their time to focus on high-impact work and priorities. So when it comes to onboarding a new employee, it’s not plausible to walk your new hire through everything they need to know. And if you were to do so, it certainly wouldn't set them up for success. 

A 30-60-90 day plan empowers your employees to self-manage their work. By leveraging a 30-60-90 day plan as part of your onboarding strategy, you’re giving your employees autonomy to build their own schedules. It helps give them the roadmap but how they get to the final destination is up to them. 

Hand-in-hand with self-management comes managing priorities. We all know that work is busy. As your employees become more acclimated to the role, it’s likely their workload is gradually increasing. 

But with a 30-60-90 day plan, your employees are reminded of their priorities. And it’s on your employees to manage their priorities effectively, which is a good life and work muscle to flex. 

So, you might be wondering when to use a 30-60-90 day plan. When is it most effective? What situations will it have the most impact? Let’s dig in. 

30-60-90 day plan for an interview 

Job seekers, this is for you. If you want to knock the socks off a potential employer, consider putting together a 30-60-90 day plan for your interview. Even if it’s just an informational interview , you can show how you’d approach your first 90 days on the job. 

For example, let’s say you’re interviewing for a sales position. From the job description and from your informational interview, you know what markets you’ll be focused on. You also know about some target accounts and have a good sense of the industry.

While you might not know exactly what you are going to be doing, you have a good idea. You’ve worked in software sales for a while, enough to know how to approach breaking into a new market. 

So, you decide to come up with a proposed 30-60-90 day plan. You put together a rough sketch in a Google sheet about what you would focus on in your new role . 

30-60-90 day plan for a new job

More commonly, 30-60-90 day plans are used in the onboarding process. This is useful for both hiring managers and employees. For example, at BetterUp, I received my 30-60-90 day plan on my first day of employment. It helped to set expectations about what I would be focused on for the next three months. 

But some companies also use 30-60-90 day plans for things like performance reviews or even lateral moves within the organization. You can also use 30-60-90 day plans for project-based initiatives. 

First, it’s important to understand that 30-60-90 day plans should be personalized based on the employee. For example, a new employee in an entry-level position will probably have a radically different plan than that of a new executive. 

And 30-60-90 day plans for managers are going to look different than plans for individual contributors. There are nuances to these sorts of plans because of job responsibilities, work goals , expectations, and experience. 

But generally speaking, we can outline four key components of a 30-60-90 day plan. 

Expectations and concrete goals 

Go-to resources and information .

• New hire checklist or to-do list  
• Company mission, culture, the purpose of work  

Every 30-60-90 day plan should have clear expectations and concrete goals. As a manager, it’s important to clearly communicate the expectations you have for your employees. For example, my manager has created a couple of documents that very clearly outline the expectations of her employees. 

Oftentimes, expectations serve as the foundation for your working relationships. As part of my 30-60-90 day plan, my manager also asked about my expectations. In a lot of ways, it’s a two-way street.

I filled out a document that outlined my preferred working style, my communication style, and how I  resolve conflict . It helped both parties to essentially get a good sense of how the other works. 

Along the same vein of expectations are goals. My manager expressed some clear goals that she wanted me to reach within my first 90 days. But I also had the opportunity to think about my own personal goals and what I wanted to accomplish.

Together, we iterated on the plan to come up with an action plan. Some of these goals can ladder up to other big milestones that you’d like to have your employees reach along the way. 

The world of work is a complex one. Especially in today’s day and age, there’s a lot of information that’s probably changing rapidly. 

For example, is your workforce hybrid or remote? What sort of COVID-19 guidelines are in place? How do you submit your expense reports or ask for time off? What systems does your organization use for benefits ? What employee resource groups or culture programs does your organization have? 

A 30-60-90 day plan is a good one-stop-shop for all the resources your new hire will need. It’s a great reference and resources with a wealth of information (and can help your employee become more self-sufficient, too). 

New hire checklist or to-do list 

When an employee joins a company, there are a lot of “tasks” that need to be done. For example, I needed to enroll in my benefits and 401K. I needed to upload my personal contact information into our human resources management system. I needed to upload my Slack photo and put my preferred pronouns on my email signature and Slack profile. 

A 30-60-90 day plan is a great place for all of the one-off tasks that every new hire needs to complete. It also helps keep your employees on track with all the administrative and HR tasks needed within the first couple of months of employment. 

Company mission, culture, and purpose of work 

Last but certainly not least, your employees need to understand the purpose of work. This likely won’t “click” fully in the first 30 (or even 90) days. But it’s important to start drawing connections between their work and the company’s vision early on. 

In a recent Forbes article, Great Place to Work® released new data around employee retention . One of the top drivers? Purpose. In fact, employees at top-rated workplaces in the US reported that if they feel their work has a purpose , their intent to stay at said companies triples.

Don’t dismiss the role that purpose plays in your organization. At BetterUp, we’re on a mission to help everyone everywhere live with greater purpose, clarity, and passion . This can only happen if employees understand their purpose and the role of their work in the company’s mission. 

We’ve created a free draft 30-60-90 day plan template to use for managers. Access the draft template and start using it today. 

30-60-90 day plan for interviews

As mentioned earlier, there are some situations where an employee may prepare a 30-60-90 day plan as part of an interview. Or, perhaps as part of your company’s hiring process, you ask job applicants to put together their plans. 

With these elements, you’ll be sure the candidate is ready to hit the ground running. Here are some key components you should look for in a job applicant’s 30-60-90 day plan: 

• Short-term goals (generally achievable, time-bound goals)
• Long-term goals (that are also measurable goals)   
• Establishing metrics for success 
• Outlined priorities (especially for the first week) 
• Learning new processes 
• Meeting the new team and team members 
• Any learning goals (or professional development goals ) 

Of course, your 30-60-90 day play is going to be catered to each individual. We’re all human with different responsibilities needed. Keep these nine tips in mind as you put together your 30-60-90 day plans. 

• Set SMART goals  
• Consider what you want your employee to prioritize 
• Encourage professional development  
• Encourage reflection time 
• Outline goals into months: first month, second month, third month 
• Ask for input from your employees and direct reports 
• Promote ongoing learning about the company culture and purpose 
• Adjust (and readjust) as needed 
• Follow-up on the progress 

You can always work with a coach to help outline what might be needed in your 30-60-90 day plan. A coach will have a wealth of experience in the field and an objective, third-party perspective. With guidance from BetterUp, you can ensure you’re setting up your people for success.

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Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

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