Form DA-4856

The importance of Developmental Counseling Form

DA Form is a document that provides a proper information exchange in the Army. It is used to solve various difficulties and build trustful relationship in the military unit.

DA 4856 has to overcome problems connected with many actions.

  • Its first benefit appears in initial counseling. What does it mean: when a person starts a new job or employs some new employees, he or she should keep in touch with them for at least the first 30 days of the work process. Usually this type of using a form shows person’s expectations and sets some future goals.
  • The most common type of this form is used for all the E-4 rank soldiers. All of them should receive such a counseling once per month. In this case Form DA 4856 may include general piece of advice that every army non-commissioned officer provides to the soldiers under his or her command.
  • Furthermore, a person may use fillable form 4856 to highlight both good and bad sides of soldier’s behavior. It should also demonstrate counselee’s new skills and scores and any discipline issue.

The structure of a document:

  1. The first part of DA Form 4856 is dedicated to Administrative Data. It contains lines for personal info including name and rank of a soldier. The name of the counselor and the military group should be mentioned too.
  2. Then it comes to describing the purpose of counseling. A person should mention the three most important reasons for counseling including professional or event spheres.
  3. The summary touches the review of the main topics and key points of discussion. This part is the largest part of a paper and takes two pages. This block should be filled out during the process or immediately thereafter.
  4. The plan of actions is critically meaningful for two parties of the discussion. It should highlight future actions and figure out the leader responsibilities.
  5. At the last part of a form it is important to underline the completion of above mentioned tasks and goals. These details are usually written in few days after the counseling.