Timestamps:

00:00:00 The Problem with Hiring
Entrepreneurs hire seemingly qualified candidates who underperform, leading to frustration and the belief that they must do everything themselves.

00:00:40 Introduction to the 30-60-90 Day Framework
A structured onboarding framework to set clear expectations and objectively evaluate whether a new team member is succeeding or failing.

00:01:11 Podcast and Host Introduction
Josh Hadley introduces himself, his e-commerce background, and the Econ Breakthrough Podcast before reintroducing the 30-60-90 day framework.

00:02:19 Why Onboarding Fails
Most entrepreneurs fail by having unclear expectations and assuming new hires can immediately perform miracles without proper guidance or systems.

00:04:29 The Entrepreneur’s Hiring Mindset
Entrepreneurs must hire people smarter than themselves for both their weaknesses and strengths to compound business growth effectively.

00:05:34 The Importance of a Clear Onboarding Sequence
A dedicated onboarding process is crucial for clarity, speed, and objectivity, increasing a new hire’s success rate significantly.

00:06:41 The Role Profile Template
Before onboarding, a clear role profile defining KPIs, success metrics, and tasks is essential to avoid ambiguity for everyone.

00:09:49 Using AI to Create Role Profiles
Leverage a custom GPT to quickly generate a comprehensive role profile template, completing 80% of the work for you.

00:11:24 Overview of the Three Onboarding Phases
A high-level look at the three phases: Observance (Days 1-30), Independence (Days 31-60), and Ownership (Days 61-90).

00:12:21 Phase 1: The Observance Period (Days 1-30)
New hires watch, follow, and re-document existing processes to demonstrate understanding before making any changes or executing tasks.

00:16:02 Meeting Cadence for Phase 1
The communication schedule includes daily 15-minute huddles, a weekly 45-minute one-on-one, and a daily end-of-day report.

00:18:50 The 30-Day Checkpoint GPT
Using a custom GPT to objectively evaluate a new hire’s performance by answering questions about their impact and ownership behaviors.

00:23:11 Phase 2: The Independence Period (Days 31-60)
The new hire begins executing tasks in “draft mode,” requiring manager approval before anything goes live, with reduced meeting frequency.

00:29:25 Phase 3: The Ownership Period (Days 61-90)
The team member takes full ownership, executing their role independently while the manager verifies work behind the scenes.

00:35:10 Onboarding Framework Summary
A recap of the meeting cadences and work expectations for each of the three 30-day phases in the framework.

00:36:33 Milestone-Based Progression
The 30, 60, and 90-day timelines are arbitrary; progression is based on milestones and demonstrating readiness to advance.

00:39:03 The Role of HR and Pre-Onboarding Prep
Before day one, ensure the role profile is complete and existing SOPs are documented to set the new hire up for success.

00:40:07 Why This Framework Matters for Scale
This system increases your hiring “batting average,” ensuring new team members succeed more often, which is critical for scaling.

00:41:35 Call to Action and Access to Resources
Josh asks listeners to review and share the podcast in exchange for access to the presentation slides and resources.

Links and Mentions:

Role Profile Creation
“Role Profile Template”: “00:07:38”
“Custom GPT for Role Profile Creation”: “00:09:49”

Hiring and Team Evaluation
“YouTube Video on Hiring A+ Talent“: “00:10:49”
“Custom GPT Checkpoint”: “00:19:29”

Process Documentation
“Loom“: “00:39:30”

Transcript:

Josh Hadley 00:00:00  Have you ever gone through an in-depth interviewing process to find A-level talent? And then you get the right person who has an incredible resume. They’ve passed all of your interviews and maybe even a case study or test project that you’ve given them. And then ultimately 30 days within the job, 60 days within the job. They’re not performing. And you’re frustrated, they’re frustrated. And then you chalk it up to say, hey, I think I just need to go do this myself. Nobody can do this better than me. Screw it. With all of this hiring, if you’ve ever said that yourself, then this is for you. I’m going to walk you through the 30 60 90 day framework that we use to onboard every single new team member onto the team. That allows us to gain clarity not only from their perspective in terms of understanding their role, but from our perspective of understanding what the expectations are at 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days to where we know whether that new team member is winning or losing in their new role, and whether we should keep them, or if it’s best to cut ties and free them back up to the marketplace to allow them to go do something that they are going to succeed at.

Josh Hadley 00:01:11  Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, I’m Josh Hadley. I’ve scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I’m actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I’m a man of faith. I’m a husband to a beautiful wife, and I am also the father of four children. I have been selling into e-commerce space for over a decade now, doing over $20 million in annual revenue and doing multi-million in revenue on different sales channels such as Amazon, TikTok, Shop and Shopify. I’m also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, and that’s ecomm breakthrough. Today we are going to be diving into the 30 60 90 day onboarding framework. This is the framework that we live and die by. Any new team member that joins the team, whether they are a entry level team member or whether they’re a senior level, a leadership level hiring decision for us.

Josh Hadley 00:02:19  Everybody is going to walk through this 3060, 90 day onboarding sequence because this is where everything starts and ends. It allows the new hire to understand what the expectations are and for you to understand what are your KPIs, how are you going to measure whether they are winning or losing in this new role? So let’s dive into this. Let’s talk about why do we even need a 30, 60, 90 day onboarding sequence? Well, here’s the problem that most people run into. Number one, they might have found an incredible team member. However, here’s the expectation that they have as soon as that person starts, they’re just like, hey, begin managing all of my PPC ads, okay? And then guess what? They start going and optimizing and doing their own things for your PPC ads, because that’s what you told them to do. And maybe you have some SOPs and some guidelines that they are following, but maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re just expecting them to say, hey, bring all of the knowledge that you’ve had in the past and go work some miracles in my business.

Josh Hadley 00:03:26  More often than not, this is the number one problem that I see with most entrepreneurs. They come to me and they say, hey Josh, like I think hiring is bogus because nobody can do this thing X, Y, or Z better than me. And I’m going to call BS on that because number one, if you’re an entrepreneur and if you’re a business owner, your number one responsibility is to go find and hire people that are smarter than you. Okay. Number one, I would say with my team members, my current Amazon PPC lead is, like smarter than me. She could run circles around me all day and night, and that’s a good thing. I should not be the smartest person when it comes to PPC on my team. Same thing applies to my supply chain manager. She is so in the weeds of knowing, hey, what’s the best way to maximize all of our cartons? And how do we pack the container? And what’s the best way to get this into AWP or into the best warehouse? And what is the best cost efficiency for the business? She could run circles around me all day long.

Josh Hadley 00:04:29  So that’s the number one mindset that you have to have as an entrepreneur and as a business owner is that you are trying to hire not just for your weaknesses. You’re also going to be hiring for your strengths. There might be something that you are extremely good at, right? And for me, like I’m good at sales and thinking of creative strategies, but now our business is getting to a point where it’s like, now I want to double down on those things, and now I’m hiring for my strengths. Who else has similar, you know, strength that I have. And let’s install them into the business as well. Because that’s where growth is going to compound. I know from experience that one of the number one greatest Rois in business is purely team members and human capital. Now, at the same token, because it has such a massive ROI. Guess what? That also means it can have an also very bad downside to it, right? You get the wrong team member in the wrong seat and in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it can do Wrexham like real damage into the business.

Josh Hadley 00:05:34  So where there’s high risk, there’s also high reward. And when it comes to hiring team members, that’s where it all begins. So guess what. Let’s assume that you already have found an experienced team member that you’re going to bring on to the team. The most important thing that you can do is have a crystal clear onboarding sequence from them. Because if you don’t, that’s where it’s going to stumble, and your chances of that new team member succeeding falls from, you know, a 90% success rate all the way down to a 5050 success rate, whether they’re going to win or lose. And it all comes down to whether you have a dedicated onboarding sequence. Now, this 30, 60, 90 day framework that I’m going to walk you through, this is about clarity, speed and not having subjectivity, okay? Especially as your business grows. What do you do if you have like a head of Amazon that is now hiring for team members that are going to report to them, and it’s no longer you as the business owner, you need to have a process and a framework in place so that it’s not just you always having to make the call to say, hey, yeah, this team member is good.

Josh Hadley 00:06:41  We should keep them or hey, this team member is not working out. How do you get your mind installed into the rest of your team members so that when you say this is what good looks like, your other leaders also understand what good looks like, and so they’re able to keep kill or cut based on the same principles that you’ve outlined in the past. So let’s take a step back from all of this, and let’s start where the rubber really meets the road with this okay. This is the role profile template. So if you’re just listening to the audio version of this make sure you come check it out on YouTube where I’m actually showing you what a role profile looks like. Now, in this case this is a role profile template for like a supply chain manager for the business okay. So number one I’m going to be defining hey here’s what the KPIs are for this role. Right. They need to be achieving these KPIs. By the way you should only have a maximum of 3 to 5 per role.

Josh Hadley 00:07:38  I define what success looks like in this role and then I define hey, here are the large rocks. Here are the most important critical tasks and projects that you should be prioritizing in this role. And then I have a laundry list of other tasks that just need to be maintained. They’re not the core features of this role, but they are things that just like they happen on a frequent ad hoc basis as well. So I’m going to define every single one of those actions and tasks that occur in this specific role. So if you are unfamiliar with this, I actually have a role profile template. This is like a Google Doc. Scan this QR code and you can go create your own role profile document before you can execute an efficient onboarding process for any team member, you must have this role profile documented. If you don’t, you are flying blind as the owner, as the leader, whatever you are in the business, you are flying blind. And guess what that means this new team member. If you don’t have a defined role profile and you just hired them to let’s, let’s call it like managing supply chain, they’re your new supply chain manager.

Josh Hadley 00:08:50  And you’re like, hey, I just want you to manage our supply chain and make it more efficient. My goodness, that is an extremely nuanced statement right there. But that is what most entrepreneurs default to because they’re so busy in the day to day grind that are just like, oh, I just need to go hire somebody smart. And then again, they’re going to start doing maybe things that they’ve done in the past for other businesses that may or may not be good for your business. And that’s where you get the clarity from the get go. Is this role profile template. So scan the QR code. Fill this out yourself. Now here’s an even better way to do this because guess what? It used to take me about 6 to 8 hours just to define the role and actually think through and craft the specific role profile template for any given role in the business. Well, with the advancement of AI and now we’ve got all these llms to use between cloud and ChatGPT. Great. What I’m going to do is I’ve, I’ve created this custom GPT.

Josh Hadley 00:09:49  So go ahead and scan this QR code and all you have to do is say, hey, I’m hiring a supply chain manager or a PPC manager or a project manager for my business, and guess what it’s going to do? It’s going to follow that framework for creating a role profile template. It’s going to give you 20 different ideas of different like KPIs that you can choose from. Now the most important thing is 80% of the work is done now for you. Now you’ve got to come back in here. You’ve got a wordsmith that you’ve got to make sure it applies specifically to your business. But guess what? 80% of your work is already done, so you just have to kind of put a bow around it and move forward. So last but not least, if this if I’m what I’m speaking to you is kind of like a foreign language right now, I go into even more detail in terms of how we go find a plus talent out in the marketplace. I have a seven step process that I follow, and crafting the right role profile is a big portion of that.

Josh Hadley 00:10:49  So here is the link to that YouTube video where I go into in-depth detail of like the seven step process I follow to hire A+ talent. So this will walk you for walk you through creating that role profile to getting that job posted online, how we recruit for that role, and the different filters that we embed into the process to weed out 90% of the applicants very quickly and ultimately come to the final decision of hiring the top 1% talent that exists throughout the world. Okay, now that we’ve got our role profile solidified, now we’re actually ready to dive into this 3060, 90 day onboarding framework. So let’s take a look at these three different phases at a glance. So number one the first phase is day kind of one 230. This is your observance phase okay. And what’s happening during this phase we’re going to dive into each of these buckets individually. But it’s just a lot of like observing and following what’s already going on in the business. Okay. Phase number two, day 31 through 60. This is about actually like a slight independence period.

Josh Hadley 00:11:58  So you’re going to begin giving them control. You’re going to loosen the reins a little bit. You’re going to see how they actually perform. And they and then phase number three is day 61 through 90. This is where it’s kind of like your ownership period. You’re going to give them full ownership. And then you’re going to evaluate whether they’re winning or losing in this role. This is where the rubber really meets the road in day 61 through 90. So let’s dive in. First days one through 30 into the observance period. What does this look like? What does the cadence look like? And how do we walk through every single one of our new hires through this period? Okay, so the first 30 days is about watching, following, demonstrating that they understand, like what our existing processes are. Okay. So one of the first things that I want, Even if this is a senior leader, maybe this is somebody who’s come from, like they’ve been crushing it in another business. I don’t care where they’ve come from.

Josh Hadley 00:13:00  I want them to first seek to understand what we are already doing. And that’s where like, there needs to be a little bit of humility. And oftentimes, especially when you’re hiring like senior level roles, you could get it. You could hire somebody that’s like a bull in a China shop. And it’s like, this is crap. That’s crap. I’m going to make this thing better. And it’s like, no, obviously, like we’ve got good things going on. I need you to first seek to understand what we’re doing. Then we can progress with making improvements to our existing system. This is honestly like before, I’m going to let loose of any reigns in the business. I want first to confirm that they understand what’s already working, what might be broken. They can begin documenting that, but I want them to understand the existing processes as it stands today. So that’s phase number one. So what does this actually look like in days one through 30. Let’s dive in. So during this observance period what does this look like.

Josh Hadley 00:14:02  They’re reviewing training videos that we’ve already documented for this role. They’re watching or going through maybe some of the SOP documents that we’ve already gone through. And here’s what they’re doing. They’re going to re document what they just watched or what they just read like, does this sound counterintuitive? And it’s like we’re duplicating efforts. It’s like you already have like this document or this SOP. Why in the world do you want them to go read document it for you? Because I want them to truly understand this process and then guess what they’re going to do? They’re going to regurgitate the SOP back to me. And here’s what it does for you as a leader. Number one, it’s going to allow you to understand, like, hey, is there anything outdated in our current processes? Because now it’s forcing you to kind of like revisit your processes as they are today. So that’s number one. Number two, this team member, as they go through these processes, You want to ensure like they understand it, but be while they’re going through these things, they should be taking notes of things that they might want to improve.

Josh Hadley 00:15:09  Right. And so here’s the nice part. You tell them I want you to document your processes. But while you go through our existing processes, just write on a separate piece of paper and document things that you think could be improved and how you might improve these in the future. And then they’re going to regurgitate all of that back to me. And as the hiring manager, I’m going to look at that and be like, ooh, I like these ideas. I like where this is going. Or I could be like, Holy cow. No, like you’re off in left field. Let me, like, steer you back here. Like, let’s just get aligned with what the processes look like today. All right. So I hope that paints the picture of, like, why this is so important in days one through 30 to just like document, document, document. Do you understand our existing processes? They’re not even doing any work yet. Like they’re not adding value to the business yet. They are just regurgitating existing processes.

Josh Hadley 00:16:02  That’s the clear. That’s what I want everybody to understand, as we go through this. And then here’s the interesting thing. You want that feedback loop where hiring managers review the recordings and they’re providing specific feedback on a regular basis. So what does that look like? So here’s the meeting cadence that we have in place with any new team member that joins during day one through 30. So every day they have a 15 minute huddle with that hiring manager okay. That means truly every day they are touching base at the beginning of the day for 15 minutes and ideally another 15 minutes. At the end of the day, it’s like you start the day. You end the day because guess what? The more repetition and the more communication you have during days one through 30. I promise you this. I have seen it happen in multiple businesses. The faster that team member will get onboarded, period. Full stop right there, the more you frequently you communicate with them, the more quickly you answer their questions, the more quickly they get context about your business and the faster they ramp up.

Josh Hadley 00:17:12  Okay, it’s the exact same thing. It’s like the perfect analogy is this with AI. How helpful is AI? If you open it up on an incognito browser and you’re not logged into your account and you’re asking it specific questions about your business, it’s like genuinely unhelpful at that point, right? Well, compare that to being able to have a large brain and lots of meetings and lots of documents that you can provide to that LLM of choice and be able to upload that information, then ask it questions about your business. Context matters. The exact same thing matters for humans as well as it does for AI. So give them context. Help them ramp up faster. All right, so meeting number two, we have a weekly 45 minute one on one call as well. So at the beginning of every week on a Monday, we outline, hey here are the priorities for this week. What happened last week. What worked. What didn’t work. What are you going to be focusing on? What SOPs are you going to be re documenting and regurgitating to me? And what ideas have you already established as like, hey, some enhancements to our existing SOPs.

Josh Hadley 00:18:21  You’re just documenting everything. Okay. And then the last thing every single day I want, whether it be a text or an email from this team member, that is an end of day report. And there’s four questions that they’re answering in this end of day report. Number one, what did you do today? Number two, what went well. Number three, what did not go well. And number four, what do you need support with. That’s it. Simple. This allows you again to understand where they might be held up, what’s not clear, and allows you to provide more context to them and get them moving faster and faster in their individual role. Okay, now the final thing that we do, once we’ve gone through 30 days of this, we go through and I’ve actually created this custom GPT checkpoint. All right. So go ahead and scan. This QR code gives you access to this custom GPT that I’ve set up that even my existing team uses as well by using this custom GPT. It removes the subjectivity of determining, hey, this team member is winning or losing in this role.

Josh Hadley 00:19:29  It’s not about whether you’re hiring manager has a good personality that likes this team member or not. It all becomes very subjective. Okay, so let’s take a look at what this looks like. So here’s this custom GPT. Ultimately it just says hey what what’s the name of this team member? So in this example, as you can see on my screen, it’s John Smith. Okay. For John I need the basics before I can score and evaluate this person on the 30 60 90 day framework that is built off of. Guess what this process that I am showing you today. So it’s going to and it’s going to ask you like, hey, answer these four questions. What checkpoint is this. Is this the 30 day, 60 day or the 90 day checkpoint? What is John’s role? Who does John report to? And in one sentence, how does it feel managing John right now. And then you’re going to go through that and you’re going to answer these questions. And then guess what. It’s going to give you a few more questions.

Josh Hadley 00:20:24  So after I say that it’s going to say, okay, if John left tomorrow, would your life get easier or harder or stay the same? How? How often do I, as the hiring manager, have to clarify or explain expectations? Is he proactively solving problems or is he just escalating or waiting for next steps? And then finally has this new team member helped reduce my cognitive load since they’ve started? Okay, so you’re going to answer all these questions. The next one it’s going to you know. So the first thing that it’s doing is trying to analyze. Does this team member help reduce drag for you as the team member, as the, hiring manager, the next one it’s going to score is the ownership behavior. So again, you can see some of those questions here on the screen. Does John bring solutions or just updates. Number two does he manage urgency without being chased. Number three does he think in outcomes or just tasks. And has he taken initiative without permission. Go ahead and answer those questions.

Josh Hadley 00:21:31  And then lastly it’s going to say hey, now let’s talk about whether, they have ownership or whether they’re coachable, okay. And whether they’re able to adapt to our standards. So let’s talk about this number one. Have they internalized our 411 expectation. That is our weekly one on one meeting that I referred to. We call it our 411 meeting. Number two, does he use the 131 thinking, which is if you run into a problem number one state the problem provide three recommended like solutions or possible solutions to that problem. And then finally number one recommend one of those three solutions. And why you would use that solution to resolve that problem. I want to see that they are like proactive, taking the initiative, trying to solve problems, not just bringing problems to my plate. Number three, are they executing our playbook without resistance? And then number four, how fast do they adjust after feedback? Okay. And then guess what it’s going to do after all of these questions. It’s going to give you like a diagnosis.

Josh Hadley 00:22:35  And ideally you want these team members that are getting scores that are 4 or 5 right and above. Okay. And it’s out of five. So ultimately you want team members that are scoring threes fours, fives. That tells you you have somebody that like you’re able to work with. And ultimately this like provides a remove subjectivity from your overall hiring process. And then again it’s going to tell your hiring manager, hey, over the next 30 days this is maybe what I would work on. Our hope is by the time we get to day 90, like somebody is like a five out of five. That’s how we know, like somebody is really crushing it. Or maybe they’re a four out of five. But there’s very specific things we know that we’ve given them feedback on, and they’re actively working to pursue those things. All right. So now we’re ready to move into phase number two. This is days 31 through 60. And this is what I titled the independence period. Why this is because this is where actual real work starts to begin.

Josh Hadley 00:23:36  But it begins with some guardrails. The team member begins executing tasks, but all of the work is just pushed into draft mode. Nothing is going live. Nothing is being published. If there is a supply chain manager, they’re not actually initiating the POA. There may be creating the POA and then providing it to me for my approval first. and then but ultimately, like you’re just setting up the guardrails and isn’t this ironic? Is this not the exact same thing that you are doing with AI? Right? If you are trying to create an AI agent, ultimately you’re just setting up guardrails and you’re going to let it begin executing on tasks. And the first and foremost, you’ve got to give it constant feedback, say like, hey, why did you do this? Why did you do that? So like the same principles that you are applying to hiring people and managing people are the exact same skill set that you should be applying to developing AI agents or custom GPT or skill sets on cloud. It doesn’t matter what it is like, you’re just continuing to hone and give feedback.

Josh Hadley 00:24:41  But before I would ever release like an AI agent into the wild, or before I would ever release a team member out into the wild, this is my chance to say, hey, go ahead, do that. One thing that I asked you to do. Give it to me as a draft. Then let me tweak, refine it, give you feedback until I can make sure that like, yes, you are doing this on repeat successfully without me having to provide much feedback. So how does it work and what does the framework look like in this independence period. So draft before anything goes live okay. And then the daily huddles are going to shift from just meeting for 15 minutes every day to now we’re going to shift to every other day. Okay. So 15 minute huddles at the beginning of every other day. I’m still executing my 45 minute, one on one meeting every Monday with them. That never that that remains the same even after they passed the 90 day onboarding sequence like you should always be meeting with your team members to coordinate like their priorities for their role every single week at the beginning of the week, ideally.

Josh Hadley 00:25:49  And then lastly, the end of day reports still continue. So you’re still asking the questions, hey, what did you do today? What went well? What did not go well, and what bottlenecks are you running into? What questions do you have? All right. And then ultimately this you’re going to just like this is where they’re going to begin doing actual real work for the business. Okay. But then before anything goes live, it’s getting your sign off and your approval before it actually goes live. Okay. So a real example of this is like when we were hiring a an accounting specialist in our role, we already had like an accounting controller on the team, but we wanted like a specialist to go help out to just execute more tasks within our accounting department. And so what we did is like, hey, they yes, they went through all of the SOPs, but then what they had to do next is okay, begin reconciling some of our payments based on the SOPs you already documented those.

Josh Hadley 00:26:49  We we know you understand them, but actually begin reconciling. But before they’re reconciling on our true PNL statement, guess what? It was in a draft section of our PNL statement, and so the accounting controller could come back, reassess, and be like, what in the world? Like you understood the SOP, but why in the world are you putting these things over in that bucket? So again, this is where ultimately this team member never got through, this phase because like, they never they never demonstrated that they could get that feedback and make the necessary course corrections. They could talk about the SOP all day long. But when it came to like creating these drafts, like the work was always wrong and it didn’t matter how long we had given them feedback, it continued to be wrong. And so this is why this onboarding sequence is so, so valuable. We were able to release this new team member back out into the market so that they could go find a new home where they will have more success.

Josh Hadley 00:27:54  Right. I believe that everybody has great gifts that they can contribute. But for our specific use case that we are hiring for, this team member was not the best fit, and we wanted to release them back out into the market to go find that that true home where they would succeed. That’s the mindset shift that you have to have as an entrepreneur. It’s not like, oh dear. Now, if I let them go now, they’re going to struggle to pay their like provide food for their family. Like you’ve got to disassociate yourself with all of that and say there’s a better opportunity just around the corner for them, but they’re never going to get to that opportunity if I keep them here, and I’m just berating them with, like, you’re not doing it right, you’re not doing it right. Nobody likes to do that. Everybody wants to be on the winning team and so allow them to be on a winning team. But this is why this phase is so critical, is like if they can never demonstrate that they take your feedback, they correct the process, and then it becomes better to where you’re like, oh yeah, I don’t even need to review this.

Josh Hadley 00:28:52  Like they never move on past this phase. That’s why this is so important. Okay. And again, what do we do here. We go back to this custom GPT at the end of 60 days. Once we feel like this team member is like, oh they’re getting it. They are pushing things into draft mode. I’m now not even having to give them any feedback because they’re doing it correctly. They’ve taken all my feedback and they’re doing it right now is when you come back, you fill out this custom GPT, answer the questions, and again, get kind of the next phase of what are some things you should call out for this new team member to make sure they’re set up to succeed in days 61 through 90. So let’s now move to our final phase. This is day 61 through 90. This is what I call the ownership period. This phase tests true ownership. The team member executes the full scope of their responsibilities independently. The work goes live without your approval. But you are still going to verify that the work was good after the fact and behind the scenes, even without this team member knowing.

Josh Hadley 00:30:02  Okay, now again, you’re not trying to like sneak around their back, but like, what you’re doing is like, hey, this team member, new supply chain manager, go execute the Po. But make sure you copy me on the Po. And so guess what I’m going to do that day or the next day when I see that Po go through, I’m I’m going to look at it and be like, yep, it does look good or wait, hold on. This this is not good. Again, this is where the ownership period exists. And again, you’ve already gone through the trial phase and you’ve drafted and things like that. This is now like can you actually Execute properly. So here’s how it works. You give them full scope live output. Work goes live without manual approval. The team member owns their role end to end. Okay. Silent verification. Like I said, you’re just like behind the scenes. You’re just checking. Did this go out the right way that I wanted it to? All right.

Josh Hadley 00:30:58  Now you’re the last thing that you’re going to do. Let’s talk about the meeting cadence. You’re going to reduce your meeting cadence to one mid week 15 minute huddle okay. In addition to your weekly 45 minute one on one. And guess what? Your daily end of day reports, they still continue all the way through day 90. So the only thing that’s changing is that 15 minute daily huddle is now just moving to like once a week. So now you’re touching base with that team member at least live whether you’re in person or just meeting on zoom, it doesn’t matter. But you’re meeting now with them two times a week live, okay. And it may be more based on the needs, but this is just an overall framework. This is not the Bible. It doesn’t mean, oh, you must do this. It’s like if you like the every other day occurrence with your current rhythm, like then keep it. but this is a, this is an opportunity. If they’re demonstrating extreme ownership and they’re succeeding, I’m going to be able to back off of the daily huddles with them, which obviously gives you more time back on your calendar.

Josh Hadley 00:32:02  And again, at the end of day 90, assuming that they have gone through and they’re like executing this role end to end. This is when we come back and we we now this definitely happens no matter what. At the end of day 90, every team member, the hiring managers, even myself will come in here and give a final assessment at day 90. Has this new team member earned this job or not? And I think that’s the biggest mindset shift that you need to experience just because you hire somebody does not mean that they’ve earned the job on day one just because they were hired, just because of their resume, or just because they passed the interviews or the case study, that doesn’t matter. They don’t earn the job until day 90. And that’s one of the most important things that you can communicate from day one, because this allows you a partial rip cord. Okay. So that come day 90, you’ve already articulated to this new team member, hey, if things go sideways and I’m not, you’re not loving the job.

Josh Hadley 00:33:13  I’m not loving your performance or whatever it is. If this may not be the right fit, we’re going to have a check in at day 90. And that’s where I’m going to tell you, like, hey, here’s our feedback. Here’s what it looks like to keep working here. Or maybe it’s just best what’s best for us to part ways. It becomes a very easy conversation because it’s already been like established at the get go, whereas it’s a lot more sticky if you’re, you know, 90 days into the job and you never like, prefaced that in their initial hiring or onboarding to say, hey, we’re going to check in at 90 days, but at day 90 you’re like, I don’t love this at all. I’m going to have to, like, jump on an awkward conversation and let them go like that’s a little bit more sticky than like, hey, at day 90, most likely you’ve given them so much feedback and you’ve been in so much rep repetitive like communication with them. The writing’s probably already on the walls at this point, and you’re probably both mutually going to part ways if it’s not aligning.

Josh Hadley 00:34:11  That’s why this onboarding framework is so vitally important. If you skip this, I promise you, number one, your team members will not get onboarded as quickly. Number two, you’re going to spin your wheels a heck of a lot more than you would if you actually document and systematize this process for your business. If you’re just lazy and you just hire them and expect them to succeed on day one. Man, you’re going to be in a world of hurt. And this comes. This comes from me. Based off of all of my years of experience, over ten years of experience like working and hiring and firing different people. This is what I this is the mistake that I made right from the get go is just assuming day one. They were a master at this job and then getting frustrated 3060 days in because they’re not succeeding. Because frankly speaking, I set them up to fail. I was not doing them a service by having a lazy onboarding process. All right. So let’s review all three of these phases.

Josh Hadley 00:35:10  And what kind of like the meeting cadence looks like. Because this like frequent communication and repetition is one of the most important things. So days one through 30 you’re having a 15 minute daily huddle with them. Okay. you have a 45 minute, one on one meeting with them. You have an end of day report that is happening every single day. And then the work that is being approved or going out is zero during days one through 30. Like everything is just about documenting and understanding the process. Days 31 through 60. Again, your your daily huddles are now just every other day for 15 minutes. You’re still meeting one on one with them for 45 minutes at the beginning of every week. They’re still sending end of day reports. And now during this phase, they’re actually drafting things for you. They’re actually taking on ownership of their role. But you are the final approver for every task still. And then days 61 through 90, this is where again you can scale back the daily huddles to just like once during the midweek probably like ideally a Wednesday.

Josh Hadley 00:36:13  And then you have your weekly one on one meetings with them, still have the end of day reports, and now they’re executing independently like they’re actually owning the role. They’re publishing things live. You’re checking on things behind the scenes. That’s the overall synopsis and summary of these different frameworks. Now, here’s a big caveat to this I know I provided you with timelines. Day one through 30. Day 31 through 60. Guess what? Those timelines are frankly, arbitrary. At the end of the day, this is all milestone based progression. And here’s what often happens if you have a senior leader that comes in, guess what? They are going to fly through phase number one where they’re just like documenting the process, understanding what you’re doing, and getting up to speed. Theoretically, they could be done in week one or even week two. Okay, the time frame doesn’t necessarily matter. It’s the comprehension. It’s the understanding. It’s the ownership and the completeness of being able to say, I’ve owned and I’ve documented and I have done everything in phase one.

Josh Hadley 00:37:20  Okay, same thing for phase two. You may be only like two weeks into phase two. And you’re like, good grief, we’ve done every single thing that we need to do in this role. And like, I’ve never had to give you feedback or I gave you like, feedback one time. You’ve made those changes and we’ve never had any issues since. Great graduate to phase number three already, where it allows less hand-holding and it’s more ownership. So again, the right people that are succeeding right from the beginning can totally scale through all of this framework extremely fast. 90 days is arbitrary. That doesn’t matter. But at the end of 90 days, it doesn’t matter who it is, doesn’t matter if it’s a leadership role or an entry level role. I am going to have a check in with that team member to be like, we’re winning or we’re losing. We’re going to keep this relationship. Or maybe it’s time to part ways. How do we measure readiness? Whether we do move people faster through these different phases? Number one, tasks are approved with little or no feedback.

Josh Hadley 00:38:24  Corrections are rare. Manager is not like having to find mistakes during silent verification. That’s how people move faster through this. If they’re stuck in kind of like phase two, like 75% of the tasks require rework consistently or significant feedback, repeated mistakes based off of the same SOP or the task they’re not ready to advance. And if you get to day 90 and somebody has never been able to get out of phase two, it’s where you have to cut ties like that is like the hard stop. If by day 90 you cannot get out of phase two like this team member is not the right fit for your business. Okay? And so that’s the most important thing. This is the objective measures that most people miss. Okay. So what’s the role of like HR. Or if you don’t have HR in this process? Number one the most important thing you need to do is like plan before day one. Make sure you have that role profile and make sure you’ve already documented where your existing SOPs are. If you don’t have existing SOPs, like again, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Josh Hadley 00:39:30  And so if you need help creating SOPs. Guess what? My best friend is me doing the job itself. Recording a loom video, talking out loud to the loom video of why I’m making this decision, why I’m clicking these buttons, etc. taking that transcript, uploading it to ChatGPT or Claude, and then asking it to create an SOP for me. And then guess what? Those new team members watch the loom. They go through the SOP and then regurgitate it back to me. This applies to every single role senior leaders, entry level roles. And then you have those milestone checkpoints every 30, 60, 90 days where you’re using that custom GPT that I showed you, that then tells you what you should be focused on next based on how this team member is performing thus far. So why does this matter? For scale? This matters because in order for you to scale and ramp up, it is all about being able to make sure that when you find somebody and you hire somebody. Your batting average of hey, selecting the right person and having them succeed in the role, this becomes a a like a deal breaker for you in the business, and it actually becomes one of the biggest constraints if you can increase your batting average, meaning you have a higher hit rate of when you onboard or make a new hire onto your team, your chances of them succeeding, or a 75% or above, you are actually going to be crushing it, and you can scale a heck of a lot faster if your batting average is below 50%, meaning 50% of the team members that you hire work out, and 50% of them don’t work out.

Josh Hadley 00:41:07  And if it’s below that, it’s like, what if it’s 25%? My goodness, you’re going to be spinning your wheels a heck of a lot longer. This onboarding framework is the catalyst that allows even a very experienced person that may be a plus level work for you to help them succeed and hit the ground running, and for you to know more quickly whether you have a winner or a loser on your hands. All right, so if you want access to these slides or SOP, here is kind of my incentive for you. Number one, please leave a review on your favorite podcast platform of choice, whether that’s on iTunes or on Apple or if that’s on Spotify, if you would be so kind. Scroll all the way to the bottom at the end of that episode, or at the end of like, go to the actual like podcast, home aspect itself. Go all the way down to the bottom. That’s where you can review and rate it. That is the best way I know to actually get feedback, because otherwise I’m just talking to this computer just for fun.

Josh Hadley 00:42:11  Number two share this episode with another operator who needs to hear it. That can get value from this. That’s the most like that’s the best thing that you could do today is like help somebody else out. And last but not least, drop this link, for this podcast into a mastermind group letting them know like, hey guys, you guys should all check this out. If you’re willing to do that. All right. That would be the biggest kudos that you could give me. And in lieu of you, I know you’re already going to follow through and do these things. So in lieu of you giving me a review and rating and sharing this podcast, here is access to the slides here. You can download them, scan this QR code and then guess what. Go give this to a team member. Go give this to your Director of Operations. Go give this to your project manager for your business. Or maybe it’s your executive assistant and help them help you install this into your business at the end of the day.

Josh Hadley 00:43:09  Focus and system scale the business while distraction kills the business. So I hope with that you’ve learned something today. Go execute this. Go install this framework into your business and I can’t wait to see the success that it brings to you and your brand.