Practitioners in the employee relations field provide advice and guidance to supervisors on how to address poor performance and employee misconduct. In such instances, a complex host of requirements concerning performance and misconduct govern matters such as progressive discipline and procedural due process, and these requirements must be considered in effecting disciplinary actions. The most severe of these actions, such as suspensions of more than 14 days, demotions, and removals, are often referred to as "adverse actions."

The Civilian Employee Assistance Program (CEAP) is a mandated by Federal Regulations to give short term non-medical problem solving to civilian employees on personal issues that may be affecting their employment. It is a vital component of the Drug Free Workplace Program, emergency preparedness, civilian post deployment, and management support. In the Department of the Navy, CEAP services are de-centralized with each major Echlon 2 command responsible for providing these services to their civilian employees. To locate CEAP services for a particular major command, please contact the command servicing human resource office or the Director of Civilian Personnel Programs. To locate the CEAP points of contact, please click here.

Employee relations involves maintaining employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, and morale. At its core, the field of employee relations is concerned with preventing and resolving people problems that can arise out of or affect work situations.