Free tool · for owners, managers & small HR teams
Coaching Note & Verbal-Warning Record
Two free fillable templates for the steps that come before a formal warning: a coaching note, the record of an informal conversation that is explicitly not discipline, and a verbal-warning record, the written record of a spoken warning. Each one comes twice — blank and genuinely fillable, then filled in for an invented employee, manager and company — so you can see how much detail is enough before you write a word.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the file.
What it does
- Gives you two fillable PDF forms — a coaching note and a verbal-warning record — each with click-to-type fields and three-line blocks where a real answer belongs.
- Follows each one with a worked page — key sections filled in for an invented employee, manager and company — so "how much detail is enough?" has an answer you can look at.
- Carries a rewrite panel on each: a vague phrase like "has a bad attitude lately" beside the same point written as observable, dated fact.
- Prints a filing-and-retention line on the face of each record — which of the two employee files it belongs in, and a suggested retention period to check against your own policy.
- Flags the clauses that turn on your state and on what your own handbook already promises — the process before a warning, what can be said about next steps — and asks rather than asserting.
- Opens in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader — click an amber field and start typing. Browser and phone viewers often show PDFs flat, so save the file first, or print it and fill it in by hand.
Related reading
Own it, don't rent it
Want the other twenty-two HR documents, not just the first two steps?
These two records are the start of the sequence. The full HR Letters & Employment-Document Template Pack adds the other twenty-two documents — offer letter, job description, written and final warnings, performance improvement plan, leave response, accommodation letter, investigation notes, separation letter, final-pay checklist and more — plus a router mapping 40 workplace situations to the document each one calls for and which documents it suggests should already be on file, a filing and retention schedule for all twenty-four, an issued-document log, a 66-page guide, and an editable Word version of every document.
A one-time purchase you keep and reuse for as long as the business exists — the structured pack between a one-off free template and a per-seat HR platform.
General templates and general guidance, not legal advice, and downloading them does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Employment rules differ by country, state and situation. Have qualified counsel or an HR professional review anything before you issue it. The example employees, managers and company are invented. Free to use within your own organization; please don't resell or redistribute.