30-60-90 day plan for directors of operations
On this page
- How is a director of operations different from an operations manager or a COO?
- What does the 30-60-90 day plan look like?
- Why do common KPI definitions come first?
- Which OSHA recordkeeping duties does a director of operations inherit?
- What does "on track" look like at day 30, 60 and 90?
- A filled example
- How should the hiring executive use this plan in the final interview?
- What should the hiring executive ask at the check-ins?
- What the hiring executive owes a new director of operations
- Common mistakes
- Adapting the plan
- Questions people ask
A 30-60-90 day plan for a new director of operations should visit every site in the first 30 days and turn each site's numbers into one scorecard on common definitions, use days 31-60 to run a single operating cadence with the operations managers and pick two cross-site priorities, and own the results, one measured improvement and next year's operating budget by day 90. The director is judged on the system of sites and managers, not on one floor. Safety records are part of the first month: OSHA's recordkeeping rule sets duties per establishment, with electronic submission and severe-injury reporting deadlines, summarized below as of October 2026.
This page is for the COO, general manager or CEO hiring a director of operations who leads several operations managers or functions. For a manager running one site, the 30-60-90 day plan for operations managers fits better; for the executive above, see the 30-60-90 day plan for COOs.
How is a director of operations different from an operations manager or a COO?
| Area | Operations manager | Director of operations | COO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | One site or function | Several sites or functions and their managers | Operations across the company, with decision rights agreed with the CEO |
| Numbers | The site's KPIs | One scorecard comparing sites on common definitions | The company's KPI tree and operating cadence |
| Improvement | One fix on the floor | Spreading what the best site does to the others | Cross-functional fixes between operations, sales and finance |
| Money | Labor plan and overtime | Operating budget and capital requests across sites | The operating plan and footprint decisions |
| People | Supervisors and leads | Operations managers: hiring, development, succession | The operations leadership team |
What does the 30-60-90 day plan look like?
30-60-90 day plan — [Name], Director of Operations, [company]
Reports to: [COO / GM / CEO] Start date: [date]
Sites or functions: [list] Operations managers: [names]
Headcount: [N] Operating budget: [amount] Capex: [amount]
Systems: [ERP / WMS / MES / ticketing / timekeeping]
DAYS 1-30 — See every site; make the numbers comparable
Goals:
- Visit every site or function; work a shift beside each
operations manager, including one night or weekend shift
- One-to-one with each operations manager, the finance partner,
the safety lead and the heads of sales or customer service
- Collect each site's KPIs and write one definition per measure
- Review safety records for every establishment: OSHA 300 Logs,
open corrective actions, last year's 300A summary
- Read the operating budget, open capex requests and vendor
contracts
Deliverables by day 30:
- One KPI scorecard across sites, on common definitions
- Site-by-site risk list: safety, service, cost, people
DAYS 31-60 — Set the cadence; pick the priorities
Goals:
- Weekly operations review with all managers on the scorecard
- Monthly capacity review against the sales or demand forecast
- Pick two cross-site priorities, each with an owner: one practice
to copy from the best site, one cost line to fix
- Standardize one process that differs between sites for no reason
- Review each operations manager's development needs with HR
Deliverables by day 60:
- Operating cadence running without the director chasing it
- Priority plans with a baseline, a target and a date
DAYS 61-90 — Own the results and the budget
Goals:
- Report the scorecard to [COO / GM] with a cause for every miss
- Deliver one measured improvement, held for at least two weeks
- Present next year's operating budget and capital case
Deliverables by day 90:
- Budget and capex plan reviewed with finance
- Development plan for each operations manager
Check-ins: weekly with [manager]; day 30, 60 and 90 reviews.Why do common KPI definitions come first?
Most multi-site operations measure the same things in different ways. One site counts temp hours in productivity and another does not; one measures on-time against the promised date and another against the requested date. Until the definitions match, the best site may simply be the one with the friendliest formula. The measures below are examples; the right-hand column is the definition question to settle before comparing sites.
| Area | Example measure (example only) | Definition to settle |
|---|---|---|
| Safety | Recordable incidents per 200,000 hours worked | Whether every site records the same way and counts the same hours |
| Service | On-time or on-time-in-full | Promised date or requested date; order line or whole order |
| Productivity | Units or jobs per labor hour | Whether temp, overtime and indirect hours are included |
| Quality | Order accuracy, scrap or rework rate | Measured by audit or by customer complaint |
| Cost | Cost per unit, overtime share of hours | Which overheads each site carries |
Which OSHA recordkeeping duties does a director of operations inherit?
Where a company must keep OSHA injury and illness records, several duties attach to each establishment, which is why a multi-site director checks them in month one. Checked against the eCFR as of October 2026; this is not legal advice, and states with their own OSHA-approved plans have recordkeeping rules of their own (29 CFR 1904.37).
| Duty | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A log per establishment | A separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to operate for one year or longer; records may be kept centrally if information reaches the central location within seven calendar days | 29 CFR 1904.30 |
| Severe injury reporting | Report a work-related fatality to OSHA within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours | 29 CFR 1904.39 |
| Electronic submission | Establishments with 20-249 employees in listed industries, and those with 250 or more that must keep records, submit Form 300A data; establishments with 100 or more employees in designated industries also submit Form 300 and 301 data; due by March 2 each year | 29 CFR 1904.41 |
| Annual summary | Certified by a company executive and posted from February 1 to April 30 | 29 CFR 1904.32 |
| Retention | Keep the 300 Log, privacy case list, annual summary and 301 forms for five years after the year they cover | 29 CFR 1904.33 |
Companies with 10 or fewer employees throughout the last calendar year are partly exempt from keeping records, but every covered employer must still report severe injuries (29 CFR 1904.1). The COO is often the executive who certifies the annual summary; the COO plan covers that sign-off and federal WARN notice timing for site closures.
What does "on track" look like at day 30, 60 and 90?
| Checkpoint | On track | Worth a direct conversation |
|---|---|---|
| Day 30 | Has been to every site and on a night or weekend shift; scorecard on common definitions; safety records reviewed per establishment | Scorecard built from each site's own formulas; sites visited only on day shift |
| Day 60 | Weekly review runs with managers reporting their own sites; two priorities with owners and baselines | The director runs every site's problems personally; priorities have no measure |
| Day 90 | One improvement held for two weeks; budget and capex case reviewed with finance; manager development plans written | Budget is last year's plus a percentage; capex requests without a payback case |
A filled example
Director of operations: Luis Ferreira (invented), joining a food distributor with three warehouses and a fleet, reporting to the COO, with three site operations managers and a transport manager.
Day 30: Each warehouse measured on-time delivery differently; on a common definition, the "best" site moved to second. One site kept its OSHA 300 Log on a spreadsheet that had not been updated since spring, and the other two logs were current.
Day 60: The weekly review ran on one scorecard. The site manager with the most accurate picking agreed to teach her slotting method to the other two sites. The out-of-date log was brought current with the safety lead, and log updates became part of the weekly review.
Day 90: Picking accuracy improved at both sites that adopted the method and held for a month. The capex plan replaced the oldest forklifts first, with the maintenance cost behind each request.
How should the hiring executive use this plan in the final interview?
Give finalists the same brief: sites, headcount, last year's KPIs by site and one known problem. Ask for a two-page plan and score it with the rubric in how to evaluate a 30-60-90 day plan in an interview; the interview guide for operations roles covers the rest of the loop. Questions that test the plan:
- "These three sites report very different productivity. What would you check before believing it?"
- "Your strongest site manager resists a standard process. What do you do?"
- "What would you look at in our safety records in your first month?"
- "How would you decide between two capex requests with the same cost?"
What should the hiring executive ask at the check-ins?
- Day 30: Which site is really the best on common definitions? What safety gap worries you?
- Day 60: Which practice are you copying between sites, and who owns it?
- Day 90: What improved and held? What does next year's budget ask for, and why?
What the hiring executive owes a new director of operations
- Access to every site's systems and the underlying data, not only the monthly summaries.
- A named finance partner for the budget and capex case.
- Authority to set common definitions and processes across sites.
- The history: past incidents, citations, customer escalations and manager performance concerns.
Common mistakes
- Comparing sites on different formulas. The wrong site gets praised and the wrong practice gets copied.
- Running every site personally. The managers stop managing and the director becomes the bottleneck.
- Standardizing everything at once. Pick the one process where differences cost the most.
- Leaving safety records to each site. A missed log or late report is the company's problem.
Adapting the plan
- Service or office operations: replace shifts with process walk-throughs (order to cash, onboarding, support) and trace real transactions end to end; OSHA recordkeeping may be partly exempt by industry under 29 CFR 1904.2.
- Manufacturing: add downtime by cause and changeover time to the scorecard; the 30-60-90 day plan for plant managers shows the site-level view.
- Hiring operations managers: the operations manager screening questions test floor time and measuring before changing.
The general 30-60-90 day plan template for new hires covers the structure for any role.
Questions people ask
What should a new director of operations do in the first 30 days?
Visit every site or function and work a shift beside each operations manager, meet finance, safety and the customer-facing leaders, collect every site's KPIs and write one definition per measure so sites can be compared, review each establishment's safety records, and read the operating budget and capital requests. The month ends with one scorecard across sites and a site-by-site risk list.
How is a director of operations 30-60-90 day plan different from an operations manager's?
An operations manager runs one site or function and is judged on its shifts, KPIs and one improvement. A director of operations leads several operations managers, so the plan is about comparing sites on common definitions, running one operating cadence, spreading what the best site does, developing the managers, and owning the operating budget and capital requests.
What OSHA records does a director of operations need to check?
As of October 2026, where the company must keep injury and illness records, 29 CFR 1904.30 requires a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to operate a year or longer, 1904.41 requires certain establishments to submit Form 300A data, and some Form 300 and 301 data, electronically by March 2, 1904.39 requires reporting a fatality within 8 hours and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours, and 1904.33 requires keeping the records for five years. This is not legal advice.
What should a director of operations present at 90 days?
The scorecard across sites with causes for every miss, one improvement held for at least two weeks, a development plan for each operations manager, and next year's operating budget and capital case reviewed with finance.