The most expensive moment in a NZ small business is the first 90 days of a new hire. According to MBIE wage data, the cost of replacing a staff member who leaves in their first year ranges from 30% to 200% of annual salary depending on role complexity. The single most reliable way to reduce that cost is a structured 30/60/90 day onboarding plan — and the single most reliable way to fail at one is to keep it in your head instead of in a system.
This is a practical 30/60/90 template designed for NZ businesses with 5 to 100 staff, no dedicated HR resource, and no patience for theory.
Day 1 — the foundation
Before the new hire's first 30 days even start, day one needs to deliver:
- HSWA induction — site hazards, PPE, reporting (recorded, see HSWA training requirements)
- Privacy Act 2020 awareness — for any role handling customer or staff data (covered in Privacy Act 2020 staff training)
- Acceptable use of IT and accounts
- Pay, leave, and basic employment rights walkthrough
- Tour of facilities and introductions
- Where to find information — the SOP folder, who to ask for what, after-hours contacts
The goal of day one is not to teach everything. It is to make sure the person can survive the first week without needing to ask the same question seven times.
Days 1–30: capability and culture
The first 30 days establish whether the new hire can do the role and whether they will stay. The training plan should explicitly cover:
| Theme | What it includes | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Role basics | Core tasks, tools, and SOPs they will use daily | Module completion + supervisor sign-off |
| Product / service knowledge | What the business sells and to whom | Quiz pass |
| Customer interaction | Tone, expectations, escalation paths | Roleplay sign-off or shadow-shift record |
| Compliance basics | HSWA, Privacy Act, harassment, bullying | Module completion + acknowledgement |
| Manager check-ins | Weekly 30-min one-on-ones | Documented in HR system or notes |
A 30-day check-in is mandatory. The conversation is simple: what is going well, what is unclear, what do they need that they do not have. The single best predictor of 90-day retention is whether the new hire feels someone notices them in the first month.
Days 31–60: depth and contribution
The next 30 days move from "can they survive?" to "can they contribute?" The shift is from passive learning to active capability:
- Advanced role training — edge cases, less common tasks, system permissions levelled up
- Cross-functional exposure — shadowing adjacent roles to understand how their work fits
- First independent project or shift — measurable output, not just training completion
- Compliance refresh — anything they were rushed through on day one gets revisited with proper attention
- Feedback loop — formal 60-day check-in covering capability gaps and career conversation
This is also where many NZ small businesses lose new hires. The honeymoon period is over, problems with culture or role fit start to surface, and silence from the manager is read as indifference.
Days 61–90: ownership
By day 90 the new hire should be running their role with normal supervision, not training-level oversight. The plan should test:
- Independent execution — they own a customer, a site, a project, a shift without escalation
- Coaching others — they help train the next hire (the strongest evidence of mastery)
- Compliance currency — all required training completed, refresher dates set
- Performance review — formal 90-day review documented, decision made on probation conclusion
- Career conversation — what they want next, how the business supports it
The 90-day review is not a tick-box — it is a defensible record. If a probation does not work out, the documented training plan and check-ins are what protect the employer in any subsequent dispute.
Why this fails without a system
Almost every NZ small business has tried and abandoned a structured onboarding plan. The reasons are predictable:
- The plan is in someone's head — when they leave or get busy, it disappears
- Different managers do it differently — one new hire gets a great 90 days, the next is left to figure it out
- No record of what was covered — when the new hire asks "did I do that training?" no one knows
- Refresher dates are forgotten — annual training lapses without anyone noticing
- No visibility for the owner — by the time the owner realises onboarding is broken, the staff member has quit
This is what an LMS solves. The plan is templated once and applied to every new hire. Modules are consistent across managers. Completion is tracked. Check-ins are scheduled automatically. The owner sees a dashboard, not a story.
The same platform that handles LMS for NZ small business handles 30/60/90 onboarding without a separate HR system.
The WyzAZ template
WyzAZ ships with an editable 30/60/90 onboarding template:
- Day 1 induction modules (HSWA, Privacy Act, acceptable use, employment basics)
- Week 1–4 role-specific training, configurable per role
- 30/60/90 check-in prompts
- Compliance training assigned and tracked
- Manager dashboard showing every new hire's status
You add a new starter, assign their role template, and the system runs the schedule. The manager gets reminders, the new hire gets a clear plan, and the business gets a record.
Start free with WyzAZ — 6 months free up to 5 learners.
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