30, 60, 90 day check-in questions for new hires
Day 30, 60 and 90 check-in questions for new hires, with probes, who should ask each one, and how to read the answers across a whole hiring cohort.
A 30, 60, 90 day check-in is three short conversations with a new hire. At day 30 you ask whether they have what they need to do the job. At day 60, whether the job is what they expected. At day 90, whether they can see themselves here in a year. Below are three ready-to-use guides with questions and probes, who should ask each one, and how to read the answers across everyone who started in the same month.
| Check-in | Time | Main question | Best asked by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 30 | 15 min | Do you have what you need? | Manager, with the buddy’s view |
| Day 60 | 15 min | Is this the job you expected? | Manager |
| Day 90 | 20 min | Can you see yourself here in a year? | Manager, then HR or an AI interview for the cohort |
Why check in at 30, 60 and 90 days?
Because new hires make up their minds early. In a 2023 BambooHR study of 1,565 US employees, 70 percent of new hires said they decide whether a job is the right fit within the first month, and companies had on average 44 days to convince them to stay. The same study found the top onboarding frustration was not knowing who could answer their questions, named by 65 percent.
Most organisations do not get this right. Gallup reports that only 12% of employees strongly agree their organisation does a great job of onboarding. A first-week welcome and a 90-day probation review leave a long silence in between, and that silence is where people quietly start looking again.
SHRM contributor Paul Falcone suggests checking in with new employees in 30-day increments, asking for feedback on their experience, and then moving to quarterly reviews. One of his day-30 questions is worth keeping word for word: “Have you faced any surprises since joining us?”
What changes between the 30, 60 and 90 day check-ins?
The questions should move with the new hire. At day 30 people are still learning the building, the systems and the names. Asking about long-term goals then gets a polite guess. By day 60 they have done the job alone for a few weeks and can compare it with what they were told at interview. By day 90 they know the team, the manager and the workload, and they have an opinion about staying.
So the day 30 questions are about basics and blockers, the day 60 questions about fit and expectations, and the day 90 questions about the future and the manager. Keep the probation review separate. If the day 90 check-in is also the day someone learns whether they passed probation, every answer will be about passing.
Day 30 check-in questions
| Section | Time | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Settling in | 4 min | First impressions, surprises |
| 2. Tools and access | 4 min | Missing kit, logins, training |
| 3. People | 4 min | Who they ask, who they don’t |
| 4. Next 30 days | 3 min | One goal, one fix |
1. Settling in (4 minutes)
- What has surprised you since you started, good or bad?
- What has been different from what you were told at interview?
Follow up with:
- When did you first notice that?
2. Tools and access (4 minutes)
- Is there anything you still can’t do because you are waiting for access, kit or training?
- Walk me through the last time you got stuck. What did you do?
Follow up with:
- How long did that take to sort out?
- Who fixed it in the end?
3. People (4 minutes)
- Who do you go to when you have a question?
- Is there anyone you feel you should know by now but haven’t met?
Follow up with:
- Is there a question you’ve held back because you didn’t know who to ask?
4. Next 30 days (3 minutes)
- What would you like to be able to do on your own by day 60?
Day 60 check-in questions
| Section | Time | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The work itself | 5 min | Fit with expectations |
| 2. Workload | 4 min | Too much, too little, unclear |
| 3. Feedback | 3 min | Whether they know how they’re doing |
| 4. One change | 3 min | A fix you can make this month |
1. The work itself (5 minutes)
- Tell me about a recent day that went well. What made it good?
- Which part of the job is turning out differently from what you expected?
Follow up with:
- Is that better or worse than you hoped?
2. Workload (4 minutes)
- How does your workload compare with what you expected at this point?
- What takes longer than it should?
Follow up with:
- Is that the same for others on the team, or just while you’re new?
3. Feedback (3 minutes)
- How do you know whether you’re doing a good job?
Follow up with:
- When did someone last tell you, and what did they say?
4. One change (3 minutes)
- If you could change one thing about your first two months, what would it be?
Day 90 check-in questions
| Section | Time | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Looking back | 4 min | What onboarding missed |
| 2. Belonging | 4 min | Team, manager, culture |
| 3. The year ahead | 5 min | Growth, next step |
| 4. Staying | 5 min | What would keep or lose them |
| 5. Close | 2 min | Anything missed |
1. Looking back (4 minutes)
- What do you know now that you wish someone had told you in week one?
- What should we change for the next person who starts in your role?
2. Belonging (4 minutes)
- When did you first feel part of the team?
- What does your manager do that helps you most? What would you like more of?
Follow up with:
- Can you give me an example from the last few weeks?
3. The year ahead (5 minutes)
- What would you like to be doing a year from now?
- What would you need to learn to get there?
4. Staying (5 minutes)
- On a bad day, what is it that makes it bad?
- If a recruiter called you next week, what would make you listen?
Follow up with:
- Has that come up already, or is it a worry for later?
5. Close (2 minutes)
- Is there anything I should have asked and didn’t?
Who should ask the check-in questions: the manager, the buddy, HR or an AI interviewer?
The line manager owns the three check-ins. The manager can fix the missing login, move the shadowing shift or change the rota, and the conversations build the relationship from the start. Write down the one change agreed at each check-in and open the next one with it.
A buddy hears different things. New starters ask a peer the questions they think are too basic for the manager. Ask the buddy before day 30 what the new hire has been asking about. That list is often the best guide to what your induction left out.
HR is the right person for anything about the manager. The questions in day 90 section 2 get careful answers when the manager asks them. A short HR conversation, or a note that HR will see the answers, gives people room to say that their manager cancels every one-to-one.
An AI interviewer earns its place when you want the pattern across a cohort. Spradley interviews each new hire one on one, by text or voice, on their own phone or computer, invited by email or Slack, and asks a follow-up question on every answer, so “the first weeks were slow” becomes the scanner login that took a week. Within days you get the cohort’s themes with the quotes behind them, compared across departments and rounds, so you can set this month’s starters beside last quarter’s. If a theme needs more depth, the leader’s Personal Agent drafts a follow-up interview on it, sent after one confirmation. A fix the leader commits to, such as scanner logins ready on day one, gets a reminder at four and eight weeks until it is marked done. Numbers and ratings are never shown for fewer than five people, and a privacy judge checks each written finding, so the manager still holds the personal conversation. Our employee engagement page shows how this sits next to an existing survey.
How do you read check-in results across a hiring cohort?
One new hire’s answers tell you about one person. Twenty answers from everyone who started in the same month tell you about your onboarding. Take a regional distribution centre, invented for this example, that brings in 22 pickers and two team leaders in March, ahead of the summer peak. Their day 30 answers keep naming the same thing: handheld scanner logins took over a week, so new pickers shadowed others instead of picking. At day 60 the same cohort says the target rate feels out of reach. The two answers are linked. People who lost a week of practice are behind the curve the rate assumes.
A useful decision rule: if the same blocker shows up at day 30 and again at day 60 across a cohort, treat it as a process problem and give it an owner outside the team. If it shows up for one person, it is a conversation for that person’s manager.
- Group answers by checkpoint first, then by theme: access and kit, training, workload, manager, team, the job itself.
- Mark which themes repeat across checkpoints. Those are the ones that cost you starters.
- Compare cohorts by start month and by site. A theme that appears only for night-shift starters points at night-shift induction.
- Check small groups before you report. A site with three new hires should be merged with another before anything is shown. Our post on anonymity thresholds explains why five is the usual floor.
- Take the top two themes to whoever owns them, with two or three quotes each, and tell the next cohort what changed.
People who leave in the first months rarely say why. If you run exit interviews, line up early leavers’ answers against the cohort’s day 30 and day 60 themes. When they match, you know which fix to make first. After day 90, move people onto the same rhythm as everyone else, and use stay interview questions at around six to twelve months.
Frequently asked questions
What questions should you ask a new hire at 30 days?
Ask what has surprised them, whether anything still blocks them such as access, kit or training, who they go to with questions, and what they want to do on their own by day 60.
What is the difference between the 30, 60 and 90 day check-ins?
Day 30 is about basics and blockers, day 60 about whether the job matches what they expected, and day 90 about belonging, the manager and whether they see a future with you.
Who should run 30, 60, 90 day check-ins?
The line manager, who can act on the answers. A buddy, HR or an AI interviewer adds what the manager will not hear directly, and an AI round shows the pattern across a whole cohort.
Should the 90 day check-in be the probation review?
Keep them apart. If the same meeting decides whether someone passes probation, every answer will be about passing, and you will hear little about what needs to change.
Key terms
- 30, 60, 90 day check-in
- Three planned conversations with a new hire at the end of their first, second and third month, each with a different focus.
- Hiring cohort
- Everyone who started in the same period, such as one month or one intake, read together to see patterns in onboarding.
- Onboarding buddy
- A peer assigned to help a new hire with day-to-day questions during the first months.
- Probe
- A follow-up question that asks for a specific example when a first answer is general.
