The template

Rated before the meeting

Four statements the new starter answers on a scale ahead of time. The point is not the score, it is seeing which one they rated lowest and starting there.

I'm clear on what's expected of me in this role12345
I have what I need to do my job12345
I feel part of the team12345
I know how my work connects to what the organisation is trying to do12345

How the first month has actually gone

What has gone better than you expected this month?
What has been harder than you expected?
Is the role what you understood it to be when you accepted it?

What good looks like from here

What are the two or three things worth focusing on over the next 60 days?
How will we both know they have gone well?

Support and training

What do you still need to learn to do this role confidently?
Is anything blocking you that I could remove?
Who have you not met yet that you probably should have?

Before you finish

Is there anything you have been hesitant to raise?

What this one assumes

There is more than one way to run this. Here is what we assumed, so you can tell quickly whether it fits — and what to change if it does not.

A manager and their new starter meet one-to-one at around the one month mark

The new starter answers the four rated statements before the meeting, so the conversation starts from their answers

Nothing here feeds a performance rating — this is a check-in, not an assessment

What a 30 day check-in is for

One month in, a new starter has formed opinions they have not said out loud yet — about the role, the team, and whether the job matches what they were sold. The value of this meeting is getting those opinions into the open while they are still cheap to act on.

It is not an assessment. A rating this early measures your onboarding more than it measures the person.

How the template is built

Five groups, and the order is doing work.

Rated before the meeting. Four statements answered on a scale beforehand, each one feeding a group below: expectations, whether they have what they need, whether they feel part of the team, and whether they can see how their work connects to anything. Ignore the average. Look for the lowest one and open with it — a new starter will rate a problem honestly on a form before they will raise it out loud.

How the first month has actually gone. Deliberately two-sided. Asking what has been harder than expected gives explicit permission to say something negative, which most people will not volunteer at one month. The question about whether the role matches what they accepted is the one most likely to surface a mismatch while it is still recoverable.

What good looks like from here. Two or three things for the next 60 days, and an agreed way to tell whether they went well. That is enough structure at this stage — a longer list this early tends to be guesswork.

Support and training. The gaps they have found on their own: the system nobody demonstrated, the process they have been guessing at, the person they still have not met. Asking who they have not met yet catches the gaps an org chart will not.

Before you finish. One question doing a specific job. A month in, a new starter is still working out what is safe to raise, so asking directly is usually the only way it comes out.

What we would change, and when

If your onboarding runs longer than most, the same five groups work at 60 days with one change: ask what they would do differently if they started again. By then the answer is useful.

And if a manager only has fifteen minutes, cut to three questions — what has been harder than you expected, what should you focus on next, and what is blocking you. The rest is useful, not essential.

30 day check-in template