1. What a 30-60-90 plan is for
A 30-60-90 plan answers one question for each stage: what should this person be able to do by then, and how will we both know? It's not a list of meetings to attend or modules to finish. It describes growing capability: in the first month, learning how the work is done here; in the second, contributing to real work under supervision; in the third, owning a defined part of it to the organization's standard. #25 · #28
The format suits more situations than new hires:
- a new role, including a promotion into supervision, where the person knows the work but not the job;
- a new site or project, where an experienced person needs the local rules, people and risks;
- a new system or process, where a whole team moves to a new platform, procedure or plant line;
- a new partner, where a subconsultant or contractor joins mid-project and needs to work to your standards.
Two principles keep it useful. First, write it with the person, not for them, starting from what they already know. A diagnostic task in week one tells you which parts to skip, and experienced people given a novice's plan disengage, with good reason. Second, attach a checkpoint to each stage: a short conversation at days 30, 60 and 90, based on observed work, where both sides agree what changes next. LSC-CLT-02 · #49 · #14
The wording of each item matters more than its length. Compare "Attend BIM orientation" with "Set up a federated model for Level 3 and run the agreed clash tests, reviewed by the BIM manager." The first records attendance. The second describes something the person will be able to do, on real material, with a named reviewer, and both of you will know whether it happened. Write every item that way: a verb that describes doing, a real piece of work and a way to check it. If an item can't be written like that, ask whether it belongs in the plan at all. #28 · LSC-MSR-03
Keep the plan short. Five or six items per stage is plenty. A plan with forty items signals that everything matters equally, which means nothing does, and it won't be opened after the first fortnight.
2. Days 1–30: learn how the work is done here
The first month is about the person, the people and the real challenges of the role. Start with introductions to the people they'll depend on, the decisions they'll face and the risks that matter here. Then move quickly to supervised versions of real tasks. GL-15
- Safety and authority first. Who can stop work and for what; which steps can't be undone; where the hold points are. SOP-USE-03 · QMS-ITP-02
- Worked examples on real material. Study completed examples of the role's core outputs, using the organization's own templates: an inspection plan, a federation set-up, a maintenance work order, a progress report. LSC-CLT-01 · #16
- One supervised task. By the end of the month, complete at least one representative task with a supervisor watching. #2
- Find the experts. Identify who holds the knowledge that isn't written down, and start recording it. #18
For a new site supervisor, the first week might look like this. Day one: site induction, then a walk of the work area with the outgoing or senior supervisor, naming every hold point and stop condition on the way. Days two and three: shadow the morning pre-task briefings and read three completed pre-task plans from the past month. Day four: draft the next day's pre-task plan, with the senior supervisor correcting it before it's used. Day five: meet the inspector and the main trade foremen. By the end of the week the person has done real work, under supervision, and knows who to call. Most onboarding spends that week on slide decks. SOP-USE-03 · LSC-CLT-01 · #62
Day-30 checkpoint: what has the person done, not just seen? What still confuses them? Which parts of the plan can be dropped because they already knew them?
3. Days 31–60: contribute to real work
The second month moves from watching to doing. Give the person a bounded, real deliverable with a supervisor reviewing it: a section of a model, a pour package, a set of preventive-maintenance routines, one subcontractor's submittals. Pilot on something real but contained before widening their responsibilities. #1 · #2
- Practise from memory. Do the core tasks without the walkthrough, then get feedback on what was missed. That's what strengthens skill, not reviewing the material again. LSC-PRC-01
- Spaced refreshers. Revisit the skills learned in month one at roughly one, three and eight weeks, ideally when they're used on the job. LSC-PRC-02
- Supervisor coaching. The supervisor's job this month is to give the next task, review it and say what to change. Supervisor support is one of the strongest predictors of whether skills reach the job. #53 · LSC-TRF-04
- Safe mistakes. Give a sandbox, test environment or mock exercise where errors cost nothing, and treat them as learning. LSC-TRF-05
The size of the month-two deliverable is a judgment call. Too small, and the person learns nothing about the role's real pressures; too large, and a mistake lands on the project. A good rule is "real, reviewed and recoverable": the work is used on the project, someone experienced reviews it before it's relied on, and any error can be caught and fixed before it costs much. A BIM coordinator might run federation and clash reports for one zone while the BIM manager runs the coordination meeting. A maintenance technician might carry out preventive routines on non-critical equipment before moving to the critical list. #1 · BM-COO-02 · FAM-MNT-01
Day-60 checkpoint: review the deliverable together. What did the person do independently? What still needed correction? What will they own in month three?
4. Days 61–90: own a defined part of the work
By the third month the person should own something end to end, with a supervisor checking outcomes rather than steps. #28
- Verify, then trust. Observe a representative task done to standard, without help, before giving independent responsibility for anything consequential. #28 · LSC-MSR-03
- Check what stuck. Re-test a skill learned in month one; delayed checks show learning, immediate ones show performance in the moment. LSC-MSR-04
- Contribute an improvement. Ask the person what a newcomer sees that the team no longer does, and act on one idea. Fresh eyes are a short-lived asset. #64
- Plan the next 90 days. Agree the next stage of development and how it connects to where the role leads. #55
Day-90 checkpoint: is the person working independently in the agreed scope? Record it, and record what the next cohort's plan should change.
Checkpoints work best as short, structured conversations around real work. Bring the deliverable, not a feedback form. The supervisor asks three questions: what went well, what was hard, what should change in the plan. The person answers a fourth: what do you need from us? Write down the agreed changes in the plan itself, so it stays a working document. Twenty minutes is usually enough. If a checkpoint keeps getting postponed, that tells you something about how much the plan is valued, and that should be fixed before the next starter arrives. #53 · #49
Common mistakes are worth naming. Plans that list activities rather than outcomes. Identical plans for novices and veterans. All the learning front-loaded into week one. Checkpoints that ask "how's it going?" instead of reviewing work. And measuring success by satisfaction rather than by what the person can now do. LSC-MSR-01 · LSC-PRC-06
5. Six sector templates
The builder below starts from one of six templates. Each follows the same learn, contribute, own pattern with tasks drawn from the role. Pick the nearest one and edit it.
- Site supervisor or foreman: site rules, crews, short-interval planning, pre-task plans, hold points and stop-work authority, then running a work area.
- Project engineer or project manager (AEC): the contract and its notice clauses, the schedule and lookahead, RFIs and submittals, change control and cost reporting.
- BIM or information coordinator: the information requirements and BEP, the CDE and its states, federation and clash coordination, model QA and acceptance.
- Plant or maintenance technician: isolation and lockout, the plant's control systems and change control, critical assets, preventive and condition-based maintenance.
- New manager or team lead: the team's people and work, decision rights, one-to-ones and feedback, the team's measures and risks.
- System or process rollout lead: the old and new workflows, a pilot team, training ahead of go-live, support at launch and measures of use.
For experienced hires and internal moves, the builder swaps the worked-example steps for a diagnostic task and problem-first practice, because guidance that helps novices gets in the way of experts. LSC-CLT-02
Three adaptations come up often:
- Promotions. A tradesperson promoted to foreman, or an engineer promoted to project manager, knows the work but not the job. Keep the technical items short and weight the plan toward decisions, people and paperwork: who they now approve for, which conversations they now lead, which notices they now own. Give them a peer who made the same move a year earlier. #53 · #7
- Team rollouts. When a whole crew or department moves to a new system or procedure, the 30-60-90 shape applies to the team: learn on a pilot group, contribute through a wider pilot with support close by, then own it with the old way switched off. Train people ahead of access, not after, and measure use rather than logins. #52 · #10 · #22
- Partners joining mid-project. A new subconsultant or subcontractor needs a compressed version: the information requirements and CDE in week one, a reviewed first delivery by week three, and full delivery against acceptance checks by week six. Put it in the appointment so it isn't optional. BM-REQ-01 · BM-QA-01 · VCM-CMP-01
6. Build your plan
Choose a template and a start date. Tick items as they're done; your ticks are kept on this device only, and nothing is sent anywhere. Print it or copy it into your own documents.
Treat the output as a first draft. Sit down with the person in their first week, read it together, cross out what they already know, add what's specific to your site, plant or project, and agree the checkpoint dates in both calendars. The refresher dates are suggestions; move them to when the skill will actually be used. And at day 90, keep the marked-up copy: it's the best evidence you have for improving the next person's plan. LSC-PRC-02 · #64