When Complaints Arise: What Every Employer Must Know About Professional Workplace Investigations

A complaint arrives in your email on Tuesday morning. It comes from an employee and details a manager's inappropriate behaviour, or retaliation after the employee filed a complaint and was passed over for a promotion. How you react over the following days could affect your workplace environment, your legal liability, and your employees' faith in their management for years to come.

Every employer will face this situation at some point. Employers who handle it well have a plan prepared and understand the value of professional workplace investigations. Those who do not usually take steps that seem small but turn out to be damaging over time. Here's how to handle workplace investigation matters properly, and when to turn to professional workplace investigations for an independent, defensible result.

Why Professional Workplace Investigations Matter

Workplace investigation refers to an investigation into a particular allegation to find out exactly what has occurred in the situation. Workplace investigation is not just a process but rather a critical step that needs to be followed properly.

Organizations that fail to address or handle complaints appropriately will have to bear serious consequences:

• Legal liability: Lack of response or proper investigation may make your organization liable for various kinds of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation claims.
• Loss of credibility: Complaints ignored or unresolved lead to loss of trust among your employees.
• Increase in turnover and decrease in morale: Conduct not addressed will end up making your employees leave you.
• Bad reputation: Mismanaged complaints may turn into public issues and will result in bad publicity.

What Types of Complaints Require an Investigation?

A complaint in the workplace does not require an investigation at all times; however, there are several types of complaints that almost always warrant one:

Discrimination: Complaints about discrimination due to protected classes such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability.

Harassment: These include sexual harassment complaints or claims about a hostile work environment. Harassment usually consists of a pattern of conduct, which requires careful investigations.

Retaliation: A complaint made by one individual, participation in someone else's complaint, or a request for protected leave that results in retaliation.

Workplace misconduct: These include policy violations, abusive supervision, conflicts of interest, and ethics violations.

If there is any uncertainty regarding whether the complaint is serious enough, it is better to consider it as such from the beginning.

The Core Elements of Professional Workplace Investigations

While every case is different, credible investigations share several features.

1. Take Quick Action

Inaction is one of the biggest mistakes that employers make when handling complaints. After a complaint is filed, the time for collecting evidence passes and the memory fades; employees begin to doubt that anybody is paying attention. Acknowledge the complaint and start the investigation process without further delays.

2. Maintain Neutrality

An investigator should not be in any way interested in the outcome of the case. When the one who investigates the complaint is friends with the alleged offender or even has his/her decision-making process at stake in some way, the results of the investigation will be questionable.

3. Uniformity of the Procedure

Each person who gives testimony should do so within the same procedure, and each party has the right to answer the allegations made against them. Uniformity of procedure cannot be just a nicety; it is a necessary element to ensure that the conclusion can pass legal scrutiny.

4. Comprehensive Collection of Evidence

An interview is far from everything. A good investigation also considers emails, messages, personnel files, policy documents, and any other paperwork available, along with the timeline of events.

5. Credible Conclusions

A well-written investigation report includes all allegations, provides all the evidence that was used, and makes a conclusion regarding the validity of an allegation (whether or not it is substantiated, unsubstantiated, or inconclusive). When there are conflicting stories, the investigator has to explain the rationale of their conclusion.

6. Confidentiality

Only those who have to know something should know it.

Internal vs. External Investigators: When to Choose Professional Workplace Investigations

Typically, employers ask whether HR is capable of handling the problem on their own. In some cases, they can. However, there are certain scenarios in which workplace investigations carried out by an impartial outsider may be the better option:

• The person being investigated is an executive, leader, or owner.
• There is a conflict of interest or a relationship between HR or management and those involved.
• The problem itself is complicated or involves several complainants.
• Litigation or an agency complaint appears likely.
• The organization does not have enough time or experience to investigate properly.
• They require an investigation outcome that will be accepted by employees, authorities, and courts.

An impartial third-party provides objectivity and expertise. Since he or she does not have any connection with anyone involved, their findings will carry more weight than the ones obtained in an internal investigation.

What to Look for in a Workplace Investigator

Investigators are not created equal. When selecting a professional workplace investigator, you should consider:

• Legal training: The attorney knows what laws will apply and what can be challenged later.
• Licensing and credentials: Seek out an investigator who is professionally licensed and trained in workplace investigations.
• Independence: It is essential that there be no affiliation between the investigator and the parties.
• Deliverables: A report, an investigative file, and a debrief of the decision-makers are some of those.
• Local expertise: Employment law differs from state to state, which is a major benefit.

A Note on Discipline: Keep the Roles Separate

A part that comes as a shock to many employers is that while the investigator determines what occurred, he or she will not inform the employer on what disciplinary action should be taken. This is deliberate. The role of an investigator is to uncover the facts. It is then up to the employer to decide what to do with those facts.

How Transformative Workplace Investigations Can Help

Seattle employers and businesses throughout Washington State rely on Transformative Workplace Investigations for their professional workplace investigations in cases where an objective and credible response is required. The firm conducts workplace investigations for claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and workplace misconduct and operates independently as a neutral third party.

Transformative Workplace Investigations is a fully certified company; it is a member of the bar of Washington State, has a Washington State Private Investigator License, and has AWI-CH Certification from the Association of Workplace Investigators. It is also an approved Washington State vendor of investigation services.

Clients receive a detailed written report with conclusions and credibility findings, a detailed file of investigation containing all summaries of interviews conducted, reviewed documents and chronology, and live debriefing with decision makers.

Final Thoughts: Be Ready Before the Complaint Arrives

Preparing for complaints should be done prior to receiving any complaints at the workplace. Your policies should be set up properly, and you have to know who you need to contact in case there is an allegation which cannot be investigated internally.

When an allegation comes up, it is important that you ensure there is promptness, impartiality, consistency, and professional intervention if needed. While investigating one specific allegation, a well-documented and neutral investigation will show all staff members that it is safe to bring up any problem at work.

Are you having an allegation that cannot be investigated internally? Schedule your private consultation with Transformative Workplace Investigations to determine whether your workplace requires professional investigations.