Do's and Don'ts for Internal Investigations of Employment Issues

Speaker : Teri is the founder and President of Hindsight Human Resources Teri Morning, MBA, MS, specializes in solving company "people problems

Q/A from the last session

If I want to hire an external investigator who should I look for?

Faculty : If you're looking to hire someone then you should ask information about what their trading is and what their experiences have been because you don't wanna just google and find investigator in your area. You might wanna go outside of your area and find someone who specializes in those particular topics. Because investigation for place filling vs sexual harassment are different. So examine what their experience is and also what their philosophy is, do they have training in traumas, do they have training cultural competencies in unconscious bias etc. So based on these factors you can find someone worth for you.

Who Will Benefit

• This session is designed for anyone who has to do investigations, fact-findings, or solve customer or employee problems and/or disputes.
• Plant Managers
• Front Line Managers
• HR Directors, Managers and Generalists
• Managers
• Supervisors
• Those with Employee Relations positions
• Compliance Officers
• Small business owners

Areas Covered

• Minimizing liability risks
• Processes and procedures
• Witness interviews
• Documentation processes
• Report writing
• Closure and monitoring

Overview

Where there are people, there will be problems. Any company regardless of size, is guaranteed that one day there, will be a reported complaint or discovered problem(s) whether employee or customer. Where there are problems, good investigatory and fact-finding skills are crucial. Because with people being people, every situation will be different.

When an employer receives an allegation of workplace harassment, discrimination, other misconduct, even some types of customer complaints, conducting an internal investigation is often a legal responsibility to limit liability. However, whether the investigation defends the company and limits their legal liability or blows up into an incredible, embarrassing mess (that incurs great liability) may depend largely upon HOW the investigation is conducted. The quality of the investigation conducted depends largely on the training the investigator received (or not.)

Why Should You Attend

Employers conduct investigations for a variety of reasons; employee or customer complaints, background checks, regulatory or audit requirement(s), allegations of misconduct, losses of various types. The shared primary purpose of these investigations is the same - to find out the facts of a situation to determine a course of action to take - or not to take.

In these investigations, employers often depend heavily upon employee’s recollections. Most employees will do their best to be forthcoming, and recount truthful and factual information to the best of their abilities. Some employees will not, some going so far as to do the opposite of being truthful.

An investigator also needs to know how to write a good case report. Because just as a good investigation defends the actions an employer took or not, the report supports the company’s decision-making (or not.)

From fact-finding to writing reports, this webinar will cover dos and don’ts of conducting investigations.

Key Learning Objectives

• Taking complaints.
• Investigatory best practice policies, procedures and protocols to have in place.
• Interviewing witnesses, including uncooperative or angry ones.
• How to handle physical, testimonial and documentary evidence.
• Best practices in writing investigative reports.
• Preventing and handling retaliation and interference.
• Indicators of professional investigations

This activity has been approved for 1.5 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR, PHR, PHRca, SPHR, GPHR, PHRi and SPHRi recertification through HR Certification Institute (HRCI). Please make note of the activity ID number on your recertification application form. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HR Certification Institute website at www.hrci.org

This program is valid for 1.5 PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®