Avoid Investigating Yourself in Business and at Work

Conducting workplace investigations, particularly in response to an employee harassment complaint, involves deep and broad workplace investigation experience, empathy, discretion and intense listening and documentation skills.

If you have no experience in conducting workplace investigations, this is not a task to freestyle or improvise. Below are a few quick recommendations to ensure successful workplace investigations that uphold the esteem of all concerned, including but not limited to the complainant and the target of the investigation.

• Use an experienced workplace investigator. If you don’t have an experienced workplace investigator on staff, hire a third-party investigator ASAP.
• Consult experienced employer-side labor counsel to further protect everyone involved from a compliance and safety standpoint. Labor law is complex and often contentious – non-labor lawyers don’t do well when they dabble in labor law.
• Take investigation training from an experienced investigator with actual workplace investigation experience; rinse and repeat. After more than 25 years of investigation experience, I always learn something new from each investigation training, continuously improving my own skill set.
• One of the best ways to learn how to conduct a workplace investigation is to take notes and be the witness for an experienced workplace investigator during actual witness interviews. It’s how my boss and mentor taught me how to investigate over 25 years ago, and I’m forever grateful to him for his exceptional coaching and instruction.
• Keep the witness circle small. 75% or more of the investigations I’ve conducted over the last 25 years involve the complainant, the target of the investigation, and one or two witnesses at most. Don’t interview every employee, it’s rarely necessary.
• Maintain confidentiality if at all possible. While confidentially can’t be guaranteed, strive for confidentiality, out of respect for all parties involved.
• Observe the rule of 2 – always have an interviewer and a note-taker. It allows for focus on each of these key investigation tasks, and provides a necessary witness.
• Don’t forget the electronic documentation – voicemails, emails, text messages, security footage, etc. Contemporaneous documentation, deliberate or not, is the best witness.
• If the complaint involves you and/or you’re the target of the investigation, recuse yourself ASAP. Actual or perceived conflict of interest is guaranteed to negate the efficacy of the investigation and destroy any trust or credibility in your workplace.
• Don’t use workplace investigations as a weapon to intimidate or control employees. Doing so demonstrates a lack of savvy and respect, and can also damage your credibility and reputation.

How do you avoid workplace investigation pitfalls to maintain the esteem, safety and credibility of all involved, in business and at work?