River
Y CombinatorBacked by Y Combinator
Log InStart Free

Free template

30-60-90 Day Onboarding Plan Template

The plan for a new hire's first 90 days, built from what their interviews showed, with a task checklist, buddy brief and check-in questions.

Edit with AIDownload Word and CSV

Free download · No account needed

What you get

Pack of 9 files: 5 documents, 4 spreadsheets

30-60-90 Day Onboarding Plan Template
  • How the Plan Is Built from the DebriefDocument
  • 30-60-90 PlanDocument
  • Manager GuideDocument
  • Buddy BriefDocument
  • Check-in QuestionsDocument
  • Evidence Carry-ForwardSpreadsheet
  • Milestone TrackerSpreadsheet
  • Task ChecklistSpreadsheet
  • Access and Equipment RegisterSpreadsheet

How to write a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan

A 30-60-90 day onboarding plan sets out what a new hire should learn, do and prove by the end of each of their first three months. A good plan is written for one person: each goal names something they will produce, the skill it shows and who signs it off. It comes with dated check-ins and a checklist that gets their laptop, accounts and paperwork ready before day one.

Write it from what you learned about this person while hiring, not from the job title. The interviews already showed which skills they have demonstrated and which nobody checked.

Two women talk across a wooden conference table, one taking notes on a pad and the other with a laptop open
Walk through the plan together in the first week. Photo: Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

Start from what the interviews showed

List the role's must-have skills from the job description, not from the interview notes. A skill nobody asked about won't appear in the notes, and it's the one you most need to find. If your must-haves were never pinned down, a job description and requirement register gives each one a test.

One verdict for each must-have skill

VerdictWhat it meansIn the plan
ConfirmedAn interviewer watched them do it, or heard enough detail to checkNo item. They've already shown it
ContradictedSomeone probed it, and the answer pointed the other wayA task that settles it, by day 60
AssertedThey claimed it, and nobody tested the claimOnly if the work will test it anyway
Never testedNo interviewer covered itFirst, by day 30, somewhere low-stakes

Be strict about confirmed: a rating of 4 out of 5 is a conclusion, not an observation, so it stays asserted until someone can say what they saw. Interview panels without assigned topics often overlap and leave gaps. The hiring debrief tool sorts a stack of scorecards by skill and counts the gaps.

Order the 30-60-90 goals by risk

The usual plan spends month one reading and shadowing and saves the real test for month three, after the new hire has met customers. Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days, calls it a common mistake to treat new hires too gently1 and hope early problems will fix themselves. The longer a problem lasts, he warns, the harder it is to reverse.

What each stage of the plan settles

StageWhat it settlesWhat the new hire produces
Days 1 to 30Every skill nobody tested, in front of colleagues rather than customersA first real piece of work, such as a training session for the team
Days 31 to 60Each contradicted skill, as real ownership beginsWork with their name on it, such as a project decision log
Days 61 to 90The whole job, with the manager watching rather than steeringOne project delivered end to end

Each item names the skill it settles, what the new hire will produce, who they need and a due date. Keep the plan to 10 items or fewer. Leave out skills they've already shown and "meet the team," which nobody can sign off. Reading isn't an item either: it's how an item gets done.

ExampleOne item from a 30-60-90 planAn illustrative example written for this guide. The names are made up.

Role: Senior implementation consultant. Never tested at interview: running customer training.

Item: By day 30, run a 90-minute rehearsal of the customer training week for six colleagues, in a test account.

Signed off by: Priya Raman, customer success lead.

  • It closes a named gap. No interviewer tested training, yet every project in this role ends with a training week.
  • Low stakes, right judge. Colleagues see the first attempt, and the person who runs customer training signs it off.

Schedule training in work hours

For US staff eligible for overtime, training counts as working time unless four federal conditions2 all hold, including that it's voluntary and not directly related to the job. Courses or study a manager requires for the current job fail both tests.

Give every setup task one owner

Day-one problems tend to sit between two teams. IT ships a standard laptop, but nobody installs the software the role needs, because IT and the hiring team each thought the other would. So give every task one named person, never a team, and split any task two teams touch into two rows.

Tasks to split where they cross a handoff

Usually one rowSplit into two
Laptop readyLaptop shipped; laptop loaded with the role's software
Badge issuedBadge set up for the right doors; badge tested at the door
Account createdAccount created; login tried and working

Date each task as days from the start: Day -3 is three days before, and anything needed on the first morning is due by Day -1. Two days out, check every early task and try every login while there's time to fix them. Keep a list of every account and device you hand over: their offboarding checklist starts from it.

In the US, some dates are fixed by law. Under federal employment verification rules3, the new hire must complete section 1 of Form I-9 by their first day of work. You must examine their documents and complete section 2 within three business days of their first day.

Check the rules where you hire

These are US federal rules. States can add their own forms and deadlines, and other countries' rules differ. Have an HR adviser or employment lawyer check your new-hire paperwork. This guide and the template aren't legal advice.

Brief the manager and the buddy

Gallup, the workplace research firm, found that when the manager takes an active role, new employees are 3.4 times as likely to feel their onboarding was successful4. Microsoft's HR analytics team found that a one-on-one with the manager in the first week5 has outsized benefits. Three jobs fall to the manager alone:

  • Hand over live work by about day 31, so contradicted skills get a real test
  • Route each sign-off to whoever can judge it best, even if that isn't them
  • Book what the plan needs, like the audience for a day-30 session

A buddy is a peer who answers the questions a new hire won't ask their manager. At Microsoft, of new hires who met their buddy at least once in their first 90 days, 56% said the buddy helped them become productive quickly5. Among those who met more than eight times, 97% did.

Give the buddy a few dated commitments, such as a walkthrough on day 2 and a weekly half hour until day 30. Microsoft's team advises telling both people up front how long the arrangement lasts. Keep the buddy out of judging the new hire, or the awkward questions stop.

Check in on what actually happened

Hold check-ins at day 7, 30 and 60, and ask about events, not feelings. "How are you settling in?" gets "good, thanks." "What were you told would work that didn't?" gets a problem you can fix.

  1. Day 7: is your setup working?

    Ask what they couldn't find, who they couldn't reach and which document was wrong. The answers grade your onboarding, not them.

  2. Day 30: the untested skill

    Ask about the day-30 item: what caught them unprepared, and what they'd change.

  3. Day 60: ownership

    Ask which decisions were theirs and which milestone was unrealistic.

Record each sign-off with a name and a date. If a milestone is missed, mark it missed and leave the date alone. Moving the date hides the gap the plan exists to find, and a skill isn't proven just because time passed.

Before you share the plan

  • Every must-have skill has one verdict, and each confirmed one says what someone saw
  • Untested skills are settled by day 30, somewhere low-stakes
  • Each item names what gets produced and who signs it off
  • Every task has one named owner, and day-one needs are due by Day -1
  • The I-9 dates and the day 7, 30 and 60 check-ins are booked

Hiring a manager? Pair this with the new manager onboarding plan, which shows which direct reports to meet first. Or choose Edit with AI at the top of this page, and River drafts the verdicts, plan and checklist from your interview notes.

How to use this template

The files work on their own: fill in Evidence Carry-Forward first, then the plan and the checklist. Choose Edit with AI and River asks for the interview notes or scorecards in any form, the job description, the start date, and who handles IT, facilities and HR.

River gives each must-have skill a verdict and shows you that sheet before writing anything else. Then it writes the plan with untested skills first and builds the checklist with one named owner per task, counting any task that has none. No written debrief? It asks what the hiring manager remembers instead, and it won't guess a verdict.

  1. Download it or open it in River

    Download the five Word documents and four CSV sheets, no signup needed, or choose Edit with AI to open them in River.

  2. Sort the must-have skills

    Give each skill one verdict in Evidence Carry-Forward, or send River the interview notes and it sorts them for you.

  3. Write the plan and checklist

    Close untested skills first in the 30-60-90 Plan, then put one named person against every Task Checklist row.

  4. Check readiness, then check in

    Two days before the start, check that every early task is done and every login works. Then hold the day 7, 30 and 60 check-ins.

What's in the template

What the debrief already told youEvidence Carry-Forward gives every must-have competency one verdict. The never-tested row sets the day-30 milestone. Task Checklist reports the unowned count, not the task count.
30-60-90 Day Onboarding Plan Template
RiverEvidence Carry-Forward

Evidence Carry-Forward

Illustrative for a fictional warehouse software company, Marloe Logistics. Senior Implementation Consultant, four-person panel.

Must-have competencyVerdictWhat was actually observedTested byProve by
End-to-end WMS go-live ownershipContradictedDescribed running her second go-live, then deferred to the partner PM on who made the cutover call3Day 45
SQL for migration data validationConfirmedWrote a three-table join on the whiteboard to reconcile a mismatched item master, including the null supplier codes1—
Delivering customer staff trainingNever testedNo interviewer covered this competency0Day 30
3PL or retail distribution knowledgeContradictedDescribed a putaway strategy in terms that only work read off a slotting diagram1Day 12
Written communication at VP levelAssertedWritten sample strong; the weak read came from a verbal answer, a different medium2Day 55
Travel readiness up to 40 percentAssertedStated in the screen, nobody probed it1Day 45

Eight interviewer-competency probes across four interviewers. Three landed on go-live ownership. Zero landed on training delivery, on a role where every implementation ends in a training week.

RiverTask Checklist

Task Checklist

23 tasks. 17 arrived with an owner. 6 arrived with none, and every one of the six sat between two functions.

TaskOwnerDueFirst pass
Laptop ordered and shipped to the Columbus officeMarcus ChenDay -7Owned
Laptop imaged with the implementation toolchain and SQL clientMarcus ChenDay -3Unowned: IT / Facilities
Monitor and dock installed at the allocated deskMarcus ChenDay -1Unowned: IT / Facilities
Badge encoded for the Columbus office and implementation floorTessa BrightDay -2Unowned: IT / Facilities
Badge tested at the turnstile before the start dateTessa BrightDay -1Unowned: IT / Facilities
Handbook and policy acknowledgements collectedJoanne FerrisDay 5Unowned: People Ops / manager
Buddy named and briefedDaniel OkaforDay -4Unowned: People Ops / manager
Form I-9 Section 2 completed within three business days of hireJoanne FerrisDay 3Owned
Training-week rehearsal booked with the CS teamDaniel OkaforDay 15Owned

Not one of the six was unknown to anybody. Each was on two lists as somebody else's job. Owner split after assignment: Marcus Chen 7, Joanne Ferris 5, Daniel Okafor 5, Tessa Bright 3, Nadia Ellis 3.

RiverMilestone Tracker

Milestone Tracker

Three milestones. Each closes a named competency and is signed off by one named person who is never the new hire.

DayWhat is demonstratedCompetencies closedSigned off by
30Training-week rehearsal delivered to the internal CS team, plus two days on the Trelloch floor at peakCustomer staff training (never tested); 3PL knowledge (contradicted)Priya Raman, CS Lead
60Ridgeway workstream owned end to end including the cutover decision log, plus one steering committee updateGo-live ownership (contradicted); written communication (asserted)Daniel Okafor, Implementation Director
90Ridgeway go-live owned end to end with the director observing rather than steeringAll six at the level the role requiresDaniel Okafor with the project sponsor

Day 30 is signed by the CS Lead rather than the hiring manager, because she is the only person who can tell a training session that worked from a training session that finished. Two competencies are closed by no milestone: SQL, because it was confirmed at interview, and travel, because the first two customer trips are weeks three and six.

  • How the Plan Is Built from the DebriefWhy the plan starts from the interview record, and what each of the four verdicts means.
  • 30-60-90 PlanDated items for each stage, each naming the skill it closes, what gets produced and who helps.
  • Manager GuideThe skill nobody tested, the three things only the manager can do, and who signs off each milestone.
  • Buddy BriefThe buddy's three dated commitments, ending at day 30, and what to tell the manager and what not to.
  • Check-in QuestionsSix questions each for days 7, 30 and 60, with what a worrying answer sounds like.
  • Evidence Carry-Forward sheetEach must-have skill with one verdict, what an interviewer actually saw, and the date to prove it by.
  • Milestone Tracker sheetMilestones at days 30, 60 and 90, the skills each one closes, its signer and whether it was met.
  • Task Checklist sheetEvery onboarding task with one named owner, a due date counted from the start, and who confirmed it.
  • Access and Equipment Register sheetEach system and piece of equipment, why the role needs it, who grants it and who saw it work.

Common questions

What should a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan include?

A short list of goals for each 30-day stage. Tie every goal to one skill, with something the new hire will produce and the person who signs it off. Add the dates of the check-ins with the manager, and keep equipment, accounts and paperwork in a separate checklist where each task has one named owner.

Who writes a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan?

The hiring manager, ideally before the new hire starts, since they know the role and what the interviews showed. HR usually supplies the paperwork and setup tasks. Go through it with the new hire in their first week. Job candidates sometimes write a 30-60-90 plan for an interview, but that's a pitch, not an onboarding plan.

What if nobody wrote down the interview feedback?

Ask the hiring manager for five minutes of recall: which skills they felt sure of, which they doubted and which no interview covered. Count a skill as confirmed only when someone can describe what they watched the candidate do. Mark the rest asserted or never tested, and write the debrief down next time.

How long does it take a new hire to become fully productive?

Usually much longer than 90 days. Gallup's experience suggests new employees typically take around 12 months to reach peak performance4. So treat day 90 as the point where they do the whole job with support, not the end of onboarding, and keep regular check-ins going after the plan ends.

Is this 30-60-90 day onboarding plan template free?

Yes. All nine files (five Word documents and four CSV sheets) download free with no account. Each comes filled in for a made-up warehouse software company hiring a senior implementation consultant, so you can see how it works before you swap in your own hire. Edit with AI opens the same files in a free River workspace.

What does Edit with AI do?

It opens this template in a free River workspace. River asks for the interview notes, job description, start date and who handles setup, then sorts each must-have skill by what the interviews showed. It drafts the plan and checklist, then tells you how many skills went untested, how many tasks lack an owner and the one date to act on first.

What should happen in a new hire's first week?

Their laptop, accounts and badge should already work, so the week goes on the job itself. Hold a one-on-one to walk them through the plan, have the buddy show them how things really get done, and end the week with a short check-in. In the US, section 1 of Form I-9 is due by their first day and section 2 within three business days.

Sources

  1. Harvard Business Review. “7 Ways to Set Up a New Hire for Success.” hbr.org (opens in a new tab)

  2. eCFR. “29 CFR 785.27 — General.” ecfr.gov (opens in a new tab)

  3. eCFR. “8 CFR 274a.2 — Verification of identity and employment authorization.” ecfr.gov (opens in a new tab)

  4. Gallup. “8 Practical Tips for Leaders for a Better Onboarding Process.” gallup.com (opens in a new tab)

  5. Harvard Business Review. “Every New Employee Needs an Onboarding ‘Buddy’.” hbr.org (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedInGitHubX

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedInX

Related tools and templates

More free templates