Preparing for an Employee Counseling Meeting

Preparing for an employee counseling meeting is just as important as conducting the meeting. 

A key mistake managers make is not being prepared enough for employee counseling meetings. 

Maybe the manager is upset about the issue and hasn’t had enough time between the issue happening and actually conducting the meeting to prepare. Maybe the manager doesn’t have all the facts yet. Maybe the manager hasn’t spent enough time thinking things through. 

Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances where managers might not be as prepared as they’d like to be. But overall, it’s really important to prepare for an employee counseling meeting as early as you can. 

Preparation Steps 

1. Plan Ahead—For all employee counseling meetings you want to plan ahead, if you can. You want to think about where the meeting will take place; you want to think about who needs to be present at the meeting. You want to think about the time and date the meeting will take place. You also want to anticipate the employee’s reaction to the meeting ahead of time. Some employees may be upset about being counseled or they might feel attacked.
   
   
2. Consider Your Timing—Although having an employee counseling meeting is important, you want to consider the meeting’s timing to ensure you’re not putting the employee in a bad position.
   
   For example, if you were to conduct your meeting right before an employee has a presentation to give, the meeting could cause the employee to feel bad and not do well in the presentation afterwards. Or the employee might not be fully engaged in the meeting because he/she is focused on the presentation he/she has to give.
   
   You want to make sure you allow yourself enough time for the meeting. You want to make sure you have the meeting far enough after the occurrence (but not too far) so you have plenty of prep time to get the employee’s feedback and ask questions, etc.
   
   
3. Keep a Professional Demeanor—You want to make sure you are calm and composed before you conduct a meeting, otherwise you could end up appearing unprofessional to the employee, which is a bad idea. That’s why it’s important to have enough prep time in between the occurrence and the counseling meeting.
   
   
4. Consider the Meeting Agenda—You need to know what you’re going to say prior to going into the meeting.
   
   For example, if the employee you’re meeting with has had past verbal counselings or written counselings, you may need to recap the history in the meeting you’re having with the employee now.
   
   
5. Have Resource Documents Available—You want to make sure you have any resource documents available prior to your employee counseling meeting.
   
   For example, if you’re issuing a counseling for a policy violation, it’s always helpful to have the company’s policy at the meeting so you can review it with the employee.
   
   Or, for example, if you’re issuing a counseling for a performance issue, it will be helpful to have the employee’s job description with you so you can refer to different points and talk about what expectations the employee isn’t meeting.
   
   You want to make the meeting educational.
   
   
6. Do Your Research—Before you go into the meeting, you need to have done your research. You want to make sure you have the facts of the situation. You want to ask any questions and get any necessary feedback prior to the meeting. That way you can be specific, rather than making general statements. 

Final Thoughts

I have talked to a number of managers and supervisors about preparing for employee counseling meetings and all of them have told me, in their opinion, it helps to make a meeting as educational as possible. Obviously, the point of an employee counseling meeting is to be corrective, but the correction should come in an educational way. 

It’s always a good idea to contact your HR department and see if there are resource documents readily available for your meeting. Having a job description or policy with you in the meeting to review with the employee always adds to the fluidity of what you’re saying. 

Doing so will ensure the employee will walk away from the meeting having a better understanding of what he/she needs to change/improve on. 

Following these steps will help you get prepared to conduct an employee counseling meeting.

Preparing for an employee counseling meeting is just as important as conducting the meeting.