30-60-90 Check-In Questions

An effective performance management strategy is one that’s continuous. These frequent evaluations at regular intervals provide necessary support to help your people achieve their goals and problem solve issues.

While this is important for all employees, constant check-ins are critical for new hires. In the first 90 days, employees are learning about your company, taking on new responsibilities, and discovering opportunities within their role. During this time, they may require a lot of hands-on engagement from their managers.

It’s therefore best practice for managers to have proactive check-ins with their new direct reports at the 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day marks.

These 30-60-90 check-in meetings should have clearly defined agendas that cover all areas of the new hire's work-life, reflection, feedback, and goal-setting. Every company has unique contexts to consider, but here's a list to get you started building out your questions to best support your people.

30-Day Check-In: The Discovery Phase

The 30-day review is beneficial for the new hire, manager, and company as a whole. It allows the employee to reflect on their first 30 days and ask any questions about the company or role. This check-in also gives managers the time to restate expectations and better understand the employees’ strengths and weaknesses so far.

Additionally, 30-day check-ins provide insights as to the effectiveness of your organization’s onboarding process. If employees are confused or overwhelmed, it may be time to reconfigure your onboarding strategy.

Reflection Questions

• How do you feel after your first month?
• So far, is your role what you expected it to be?
• Have you felt welcomed by your new team?

Planning Questions

• What was your biggest time waster?
• What accomplishment would make you happy?
• What was your biggest challenge this past month?

60-Day Check-In: The Ownership Phase

During the ownership phase, employees are better able to discuss their day-to-day tasks and relationships within the team. They’ll now have more experience to dive deeper into the following questions.

Reflection Questions

• How do you feel after your second month with the company?
• What's something you discovered recently that you wish you would have known sooner in your onboarding process?
• How well positioned did you feel to accomplish your 60-day goals?

Planning Questions

• What are some of the missing pieces to the puzzle you'd like to learn in the next 30 days?
• What goals do you feel like should be your priority?
• What would make the next 30 days feel like an accomplishment?

90-Day Check-In: The Growth Phase

Now that your employee is three months in, you can work together to set long-term goals, identify professional development opportunities, and ramp up responsibilities. By this point, it’s also easier to recognize if this person is a strong fit for the position and company, or if they’re better suited elsewhere.

Reflection Questions

• How do you feel after being with the company for 3 months?
• What have you enjoyed most in your first 90 days?
• Do you feel that your onboarding process was successful?
• What has been the most surprising about your role? The company?

Planning Questions

• How do you see your role progressing from now on?
• Is there anything you need more time on in terms of onboarding?
• What from your onboarding experience should we change to better help new hires get acclimated?

Make the Most of Your 30-60-90 Check-Ins

Your people should feel supported no matter how many days, months, or years they’ve worked at your company. However, those first 90 days are crucial to employee success (and, in fact, retention), so it’s important to schedule check-ins to ensure they understand role expectations and are meeting their goals.

Looking for suggestions on how and what to prioritize when it comes to performance management? 2022 People Pioneer Devin Blase discusses how her team at Truework got it done.