Workplace Investigations

As a Manager, sooner or later, you’ll have to deal with either employee dishonesty, or an employee complaint that requires you to investigate.  Join the Wily Manager guys this week, as they talk about how Managers can conduct good investigations.

Monday’s Tip: Assess the risk. The nature of the complaint will determine the level of risk the organization may be exposed to.  Your first decision is to determine how exposed to risk the organization may be.

Tuesday’s Tip: Figure out who needs to be involved. The complaint may require that you call the police.  In other cases you may want to involve your HR or Legal people.   In some cases (depending on the risk) you can manage the complaint on your own.

Wednesday’s Tip: Stick to the relevant facts.  Don’t get caught up in the myriad of trivia that others will inevitably drag into an investigation.  Focus only on what is material to the matter at hand.

Thursday’s Tip: Conduct investigative interviews. You will need to talk to all parties involved in the complaint, as well as any witnesses.  Sit down in advance, and determine who you need to talk to.

Friday’s Tip: Take action. You must move to action based on your investigation.  Even if you choose to do nothing, you need to do so deliberately (rather than just not getting around to dealing with the situation).