4 Steps to Perform a Workplace Investigation
If you receive a complaint as an employer, it’s important that you take action to resolve the issue. Conducting in-depth workplace or employee investigations will help you get to the bottom of the problem and come up with an effective solution.
Resolving issues in your workplace can keep your employees happy and avoids litigation. It also boosts employee productivity and morale. Workplace investigations also identify wrongdoings and eliminate them in a fair and objective way.
Although every investigation is different and tackles a unique situation, you should follow a similar set of guidelines for every workplace investigation that you undertake.
Here are four steps to take to perform a professional investigation in your workplace.
- Choose an Investigator
When you’re investigating a serious workplace issue, you might want to hire a professional investigator who has experience dealing with problems in the workplace. They should also be trained in various investigation techniques and must not have any bias toward certain employees.
Investigators may also need to testify in court if necessary. If you can’t find anybody on your current payroll to act as an unbiased investigator, consider outsourcing to an external investigator.
- Collect Evidence
Before the investigation begins, it’s important to plan it out. Collect as much information as possible, including statements, written warnings, or physical pieces of evidence, such as threatening letters, drugs, or weapons.
Plan out a variety of questions that you’re going to ask both parties to determine what has happened. You might want to interview several employees and managers, or check CCTV cameras to use as evidence.
The goal is to collect as much evidence and gather as many details about the case as possible. This may take several weeks but it’s important not to miss any essential pieces of evidence that could change the outcome of the investigation.
- Evaluate the Evidence
Once you’ve collected all of the evidence that you can, you need to spend some time looking through it and assessing it to figure out what has actually happened. The goal is to determine who is telling the truth if you have contradicting stories from different people.
You may find that, after assessing all of the evidence, you can’t come to a conclusion as to what actually happened. If this is the case, consider hiring additional investigators to find more evidence.
- Take the Necessary Action
After looking through all of the evidence, you need to define a plan of action to resolve the issue. If there has been gross misconduct, you may need to take immediate action to prevent legal issues, and protect yourself and your employees from future harm.
Make sure to document everything that you do. When you take action, you will need to write down exactly what steps you have taken to resolve the issue. Your documentation should explain the what, why, and how.
