Building Your First Nearshore Team in Colombia: A 30-60-90 Day Plan

Before day one

A 30-60-90 plan begins before the employee starts. Confirm the role scorecard, manager, systems, security approvals, equipment, recurring meetings, first assignments, and people the employee needs to know.

Write a short operating charter explaining why the role exists, which outcomes matter, what decisions the employee can make, and how work should be escalated. This creates a common reference when expectations inevitably evolve.

• Approved device and identity access
• Named U.S. manager and onboarding partner
• Documented first workflow
• 30-, 60-, and 90-day outcomes
• Meeting and communication norms
• Security and confidentiality training

Days 1–30: Learn and deliver something real

The first month should combine context with controlled delivery. Introduce the product, customers, organization, systems, and workflow. Explain who uses the employee's output and what a good decision looks like.

Assign one contained piece of real work during the first week. Review it closely and turn feedback into documentation. By day 30, the employee should understand the operating environment and deliver a recurring task with supervision.

Days 31–60: Build repeatable ownership

The employee should begin managing the workflow with less prompting, documenting recurring decisions, and communicating status before being asked. The manager can expand complexity while maintaining a predictable review cadence.

Use weekly one-to-ones to discuss priorities, feedback, roadblocks, and career context. Do not turn the meeting into a task-list recital; operational status can live in a shared written update.

• Own a recurring deliverable
• Identify one process improvement
• Produce clear weekly status updates
• Demonstrate appropriate escalation
• Build relationships with U.S. stakeholders

Days 61–90: Prove the operating model

By day 90, evaluate both the person and the system around the person. If work is late, determine whether the cause is capability, unclear ownership, missing access, changing priorities, or inadequate review. A nearshore hire cannot compensate for a broken management process alone.

The employee should own the agreed workflow at the expected level, understand quality standards, and know how to respond when the process deviates. The manager should know whether additional scope or headcount is justified.

Measure the right outcomes

Use a small set of role-specific measures. Examples include reporting turnaround, defect rate, reconciliations completed, pipeline reliability, support backlog, or hours returned to senior U.S. staff.

Avoid measuring activity alone. Online status and meeting volume do not demonstrate business value. Pair objective metrics with stakeholder feedback and the employee's ability to operate with appropriate independence.

What to do after day 90

If the role is working, deepen ownership before immediately adding unrelated tasks. Then consider a complementary hire, junior support beneath a successful lead, or another workflow that uses the same systems and stakeholders.

If the role is not working, correct unclear scope and management gaps quickly. When capability or fit is the issue, coordinate a documented performance or replacement process with the local employment partner.

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