Trouble with a junior enlisted soldier. Any advice?

First things first. Congratulations on your promotion. You are now responsible for a team. Belive me when i say that getting this down is what will make you or break you as a senior nco. I am assuming your squad leader has given you direction as to how to proceed so this is general advice. Fist and formost. Your people are not mind readers! Assume nothing. If you want an acknowledgement text, tell them. Then there are no doubts. Second counseling,counseling, counseling. Do the initial- dont just throw somthing together, think through what your expectations are and then put it to paper. Doing this puts everyone one the same page. Third follow through. If 1st time late means a counseling statement, do it. I dont care if its your best guy do it. Your people will soon see that you are consistent. And lastly pay attention. Trust your experience. If somthing seems wrong its your job to help. Your people look to you for leadership and thats part of it. If you can master those three things, you will have laid a most excellent foundation for the rest of your career as an nco

You could seek help on getting a shell of counselling, make sure you make your initial, and monthly as well. The sheet for counselling (DA4856) is very easy to follow, but all the points in bullets, tell him his job description, what his performance should be, that you expect him to take care of his own stuff, like Medical readiness (checked on his AKO), APFT, Weapons Qual, and more important communication.

You have gotten very good advice already, but if you prepare before your counselling, putting all the minutae in your statement, and read it to him, point by point, your counselling would be organized. Just set the rules when you start the counselling, and explained what type of counselling is. I have gotten all sorts of shells, as acting PLTSGT, SQD LDR, TMLDR, Instructor, etc. If you want me to email them to you, would gladly do so.

Now, to the question of gauging his understanding, ask him to back brief and tell you back point what point what he understood of all of that, and when you have a chance ask him what is bothering him, or what does he expects from his service. It is important you get to know him. I also have personal Data Sheets, very useful, that way you can keep all his information with you, and impress your leadership as well. This data sheet includes family, uniforms sizes, last quals dates, schools, etc, names and numbers for next of kin, feel free to make contact with them. It is extremely important you get to know your soldiers, and know what ticks them, and find the best way to motivate them, or giving them the tools.

Hope you understand what I am trying to convey here.

Here is a valid question for you. Have you asked him what may be bugging him to cause this situation? How long has he been on Active duty, is he having family issues, is he suffering from depression, there are way to many variables that could be negatively affecting his performance. Until you know what is going on it's hard to offer advice as to what you can do to remedy the situation. You need more Intel Sergeant. I agree with the other advice here, Sit down and talk with him "off the record" first.

Utilize Management by Objective, aka the 10 and 50 program - 50 minutes of supervised work and a strict 10 minute break all day long. After a few days he will be more visible and compliant. A sling blade or similar becomes his T/O weapon until he gets his mind right. We got a lot of problem children from the 1stSgts at Quantico in 1980, and the system (minus violence) works. It's all about communication. Always offer another option, such as NJP, let them decide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUyZXhLHMk

For one thing communicate Directly with Your junior enlisted member in person Yourself. Record everything including times and date for both positive and negative actions and held onto that information Yourself. If no action is needed and He doesn't remain a problem that's fine but if action is needed those times and dates are critical especially if UCMJ action from the Commander becomes needed. You should always do this for ALL those under You supervision anyway, NOT just the problem people. Often, just general statements without time and date supports be they for positive or negative actions don't have much value for any future action. Another word of caution, don't just keep a negative record on any individual and nothing positive, than can and has been used as a defense that You were after him. Be it verbal or written record everything and keep a folder for each and every one of the soldiers under Your supervision

Welcome to the 21st Century. Tell your PV2 your expectations for the unit and get buy in from him. Make sure it is in writing [proof you tried should something backfire on you]. If not successful, elevate it to your supervisor. Paperwork is a must!

do the counsel , get the PSGT in evolved . learn the troops . get over the fear of righting them up & taking there pay . never threaten them with this or that ,, do what you say.. you only have 1 .. I was an acting SGT with a platoon, for 30 days. I had 6 em`s that keep disappearing. when there pay got short, they went back to work. good luck.

I agree with the comments regarding counseling, and sitting down for a verbal counseling session is a good place to begin.
However, before you sit down to talk with (counsel) the Soldier, you need to determine what is the standard for a Soldier to respond to a text (or voice message) from you to their personal phone (or email)? Who established that standard, and under what authority?
Hint: A Soldier is a Solider 24-hours a day, but they are not on duty 24-hours.
If there is no established standard, you may want to use the duty day to communicate with your Soldiers-in person. Yes, things change and there will be a need to communicate changes after duty hours, but that should be very infrequent. If it is a regular occasion, the cause for it needs to be fixed first, it's not the Soldier.
Next, you should determine why the Soldier wanders off, and who is supervising this Soldier when he needs to be hunted down. Where are you when this happens?
Establish standards for the duty day (not hunting down), and once you determine what you should expect from texts and emails off duty,
Questions/topics of discussion that come mind include:
I find myself having to hunt you down to keep you engaged, why?
I've sent you text messages and emails, and you haven't responded like I expect, why? (Again, are your expectations realistic and grounded in a real standard).
If unwanted behavior persists, then do formal (written) counseling.
If still persists, corrective training relevant to task/behavior documented in another formal counseling referencing previous counseling. (Note that NCOs can't assign extra duty). Supervise and participate in the corrective training, and document results of corrective training.

My first question to you as a battle is have you talked to him? What's going on in his life? If there is a personal issue then it's your responsibility to help that soldier. Is that an excuse for poor work ethic, not at all.

Second question what's his background? Is this normal behavior or is he just testing you? Again this can be figured out just by talking with him.

Third question. In the events your trying to get ahold of your soldier and he doesn't respond have you talked to his battles or have you gone to his room? It's going to suck but if you can't get ahold of him go see if he's in his room.

After doing all of this you should have a good understanding of your soldier to decide if this is a problem you can handle within your power as the Jr. Sgt or do you need to bring in dad. If you know that nothing you can do will remedy this soldiers behavior then throw the problem up the chain. Eventually this problem will reach a level that does have the authority. If you are out of options always remember that you have the CoC.

I had a soldier like that when I first became a team leader, initially I thought he just didn't care. I sat him down and had a heart to heart with him and found out he had a major personal issue going on at home which warranted emergency leave. After getting his leave granted he got to spend some time at home and take care of the issue, when he came back to the unit he was one of the best soldiers in our platoon.

My advice to you is sit him down and show him you care about him as a person, find out why this is going on. If he just doesn't care then it's paperwork time, but just maybe he has something going on and just doesn't have anyone to turn to.