You have an employee who has not followed a few policies and/or has behavioral issues. Perhaps they are consistently tardy, which puts a strain on the department, or they are insubordinate, refusing to listen to a manager. What is any HR Department, Office Manager, or Owner supposed to do? Counsel the employee. It’s not just a slap on the wrist or a punishment. Don’t correct their action or behavior in public. Don’t cut their hours. Instead, you want to make sure you speak with the employee — privately. You want to make sure they understand you have a vested interest in their success. To be successful, they must follow policies and have a productive attitude. So you speak to them ... Translation: You counsel them.
You (1) discuss their problem action(s) or behavior(s), (2) how they can improve it, setting goals, and (3) promise to followup with them in a prescribed number of days or weeks to reevaluate (this reinforces your interest in their success).
These are conversations you want to document with the employee, giving them the chance to review the “write-up” and sign it to acknowledge the conversation. Remember to always put a copy of it in their personnel file as well.
But with so many employees, and no time to review each file, how does the manager document it for their records? Some like a calendar system where they note their calendar, but then you can be scrolling through your calendar for hours in search of a record of conversation you recall having but cannot find. Some, unfortunately, favor sticky notes which just get messy and lost. What do we favor? A journal! Using a journal keeps all those conversations in one neat, easy to find system. Why? It easily allows you to cross reference the page with those notes from that conversation. And luckily we have created such a journal — just for you!
Exclusively sold on Barnes & Noble this My Counseling Journal© will solve all your counseling problems!
Description: My HR Counseling Journal© is designed for supervisors and managers alike, whether in the HR Department or not. And it is promised to become your favorite practice tool!
Counseling an employee is no one's favorite part of the job. Aside from the emotional stressors associated with having to confront an employee, the logistics of documenting your every conversation can be overwhelming. Where do you document it? Do you put it on your calendar? Electronic or paper? How will you find it when you need it? Searching files is tedious. My HR Counseling Journal© solves all of those concerns by putting it in one handy place for easy future reference.
For best results, use in conjunction with Documentation is Key: A Manager's Guide to Effective Counseling, also by us - available now as an e-book.
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