COUNSELING MEMORANDUM

Counseling is not discipline. Rather, it is a supervisor’s effort to provide an employee feedback regarding their performance, behavior or a situation that is considered unacceptable or below established standards and to motivate the employee to irprove.
It should be done in a private meeting. The meeting should clarify what occurred and what is expected. The discussion should be very specific. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, the first meeting may be verbal, but should be noted in the supervisor’s personal file. Subsequent counseling, if necessary for a similar situation should be in writing. After the meeting, the supervisor should write a memo to the employee citing the time, date and place of the counseling. The memo should detail what was discussed including the facts of the situation or incident that raised the concern, the proposed acceptable behavior or standard, possible further action if not corrected, and assistance available to the employee.
Though not required, the supervisor may prefer that they both sign the counseling memorandum. The signature of the employee should only indicate that they received the memo, not that they agree with it. If the employee refuses to sign the memo, this should be noted on the memo by the supervisor.

The employee should receive a copy and a copy should be sent to the employees Personnel File in the Human Resources Office. The supervisor should retain a copy.

It is important that the supervisor follow through on monitoring the matter discussed in the counseling memorandum, including providing available assistance to the employee.

Counseling is ineffective if a supervisor ignores the situation until it spirals out of control down the road.
Since counseling is an effort to correct behavior and not discipline, an employee is not entitled to a union representative. This does not mean that a supervisor cannot permit a union representative to be present if they choose.