Maximizing Your New Hires' Potential: Tips for Mastering the 90-Day Review Process

Employee attrition is critically high, especially in the first 90 days of a new hire’s tenure. According to the 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report, nearly one in three new hires will quit in the first 90 days. That is why implementing a 90-day review process in your company is crucial.

When one in three new hires quit within the first 90 days, you’re not just losing potential top talents – all the time and resources you spent also go to waste. With a 90-day review, you can demonstrate commitment to employees' growth, address issues early and collect and provide feedback.

In this article, we’ll explain the best ways to conduct a successful 90-day review process, so you can get the best out of your recruiting efforts while reducing employee attrition. 

Let’s begin by explaining the basics of a 90-day review. 

What is a 90-day review?

A 90-day review is a form of performance evaluation for new hires after the first 90 days at their job. In this case, the manager checks in on the employee to know how they are doing, raises any issues or concerns, and provides feedback on their performance. The 90-day review focuses on topics like:

Why do you need a 90-day review?

Here are five reasons to start implementing a 90-day review in your company. 

1. Gaining valuable insights about your onboarding

According to a study by McKinsey, 48% of people are leaving their current jobs. 

With the rise in employee attrition, gaining valuable insights about your onboarding process is crucial to retain top talents in your organization. 

Implementing a 90-day review in your organization can help you know if you welcomed the new hires well enough and provided adequate training on business processes and organizational policies.

2. Evaluating new employees’ performance 

90-day reviews help managers to assess a new hire’s potential in the organization. At the end of the new employee’s first 90 days, you would have had the opportunity to evaluate their overall performance, including the goals they met. 

These insights can help you determine whether the new employee is a fit for your organization. 

3. Providing feedback to employees

The 90-day review provides an opportunity to share constructive feedback with employees regarding their overall performance. For instance, if you notice an employee hasn’t met their work goals or isn’t productive, you can highlight these issues and provide support where needed.

4. Determining goals

After 90 days, the employee would be familiarized with fundamental business processes and be better suited for more challenging goals. With the 90-day review, you can help the new hire determine their progress goals and lay out the structure to meet them. You must set specific goals within the employee’s strengths and capabilities. 

5. Building a manager-employee relationship

A 90-day review can help build a solid manager-employee relationship by showing employees you appreciate their hard work, providing suggestions for improvement and asking them for opinions on how the company can improve.

Employees participating in the 90-day review process will build better rapport with their managers and be more willing to approach them for feedback and support.

How to conduct a 90-day review

A 90-day review process is successful when you apply the right practices. Here are some tips to help you conduct a successful 90-day review process in your organization. 

1. Identify objectives

While your goal for conducting the 90-day review may center around evaluating an employee’s performance, the employee may be looking forward to achieving something else. 

Before you begin the 90-day review process, you need to identify what you and the employee hope to take away from the review so that everyone is on the same page.

2. Provide employees with questions before the meeting

To get the best out of the meeting, provide employees with the questions you plan to ask during the review process. This will not only help them to be best prepared for the meeting but also be less uncomfortable.  

3. Prepare a performance evaluation

Before you begin the meeting, prepare a performance evaluation highlighting specific examples of wins and areas where the employee needs to improve. Ensure you use the performance evaluation as a reference when conducting the meeting to help guide the process. 

4. Provide constructive feedback

Based on the employee’s performance evaluation, you should give constructive feedback and address the employee’s struggles. That being said, if an employee is underperforming, don’t just highlight the issues but also provide support and resources to help them improve. 

5. Make it a two-way conversation

The best 90-day reviews allow employees to express their views and concerns. To prevent the conversation from being one-sided, give the employees a chance to provide feedback on the onboarding process, their roles, the organization’s culture, and management. 

6. Set future goals

The review process doesn’t end with asking employees a series of questions. To get the best out of your meeting, you need to set future goals based on your findings during the meeting. Here are some questions to help you during this process:

7. Document the review’s main points

Another vital part of your review process is to document the main points. This can help you reflect on the crucial aspects of your meeting and serve as a reference when implementing changes based on your evaluation. You should also give the employee a copy of the necessary information they need to apply changes. 

When conducting a 90-day review process, employee information and review data can pile up quickly. You can use customized HRM software such as Effy to organize employee data and automate onboarding and feedback. 

Questions to ask in a 90-day review

What questions should you ask for the best answers in your 90-day review process? We’ve highlighted some 90-day review questions to help you improve the overall process for new employees.

Self-evaluation questions

 Onboarding questions

 Role and position questions 

Conclusion

The 90-day review process allows you to discover your new hire’s potential while addressing any issues that hinder their job performance. Remember to keep the meeting more conversational and allow room for new employees to provide valuable feedback regarding your company’s managerial processes and overall systems. 

Remember, while new hires may underperform and encounter challenges during their first 90 days, the company must also be open to feedback highlighting gaps and incompetencies. 

FAQs

What is the purpose of a 90-day review?

A 90-day review is a benchmark for evaluating a new employee’s performance and gathering feedback. With a 90-day review, you can identify issues or challenges that impact new hires' performance and provide the necessary support while gaining valuable insights about your onboarding process and how the company can improve its processes.

What questions should I ask in a 90-day review?

Here are some questions you can ask during the review process:

How do you conduct a 3-month review?

Here are some ways to conduct a successful 3-month review