The CEO and two other executives of Honolulu’s Bishop Museum were recently terminated after a long investigation into the museum’s working conditions. After speaking to dozens of current and former employees, the investigation concluded that the workplace was unhealthy and failed to address employees’ concerns and issues.

Workplace investigations like these should be thorough, efficient, and thoughtful, as their conclusions impact many people’s lives. An ineffective investigation (or failing to conduct one at all) puts employees at risk and gives your company the reputation of being a toxic, unethical workplace.

Many HR, compliance, and security investigators don’t receive targeted training on how to conduct a workplace investigation from start to finish. Training may cover investigation planning, conducting interviews, gathering evidence, and other aspects of the investigative process, but often doesn’t provide a thorough approach for a full investigation.

So, what are the steps in the investigation process? This article will take you from the initial report or complaint to the conclusion and final investigation report, with examples and guidance to ensure your investigation follows best practices.

Decide to Investigate

When your company receives a complaint or report of wrongdoing via hotline, web form, or other avenue, you’re obligated to take the report seriously and act on it quickly. This is one of the most critical steps in learning how to write an investigative report.

Depending on the type of allegation, there may be regulations that govern how the complaint is handled and the timeline for the workplace investigation and resolution (such as a data breach). So, it’s important to have a procedure in place for receiving and triaging reports.

If the allegation warrants it, you may need to take immediate action, such as separating the reporter and alleged bad actor, speaking to them individually, or referring them for counselling, mediation, or both. Allegations of harassment, and sexual harassment, in particular, require sensitive handling and possibly immediate removal of one or both parties to another location.

First, decide whether the report justifies a workplace investigation. This decision cannot be taken lightly. Failure to investigate misconduct that should be examined can have dire consequences for the company, from reputation damage to a lawsuit.

Assuming the decision is made to investigate the report, you should have protocols for how to conduct an investigation, including a method for choosing the investigator, assigning the case, and tracking and reporting on the investigation.

If you decide not to investigate, this decision needs to be documented thoroughly. State the reasons for the decision and ensure they are defensible. Assume your choice will be questioned and make sure you have valid grounds.

Choose an Investigator

Next, you’ll need to decide whether to use an in-house or outside investigator for your workplace investigation.

There are many factors to consider in this decision. You may need an investigator with specific skills, experience, or legal knowledge that are unavailable in-house. You may have concerns related to perceived bias or even actual bias that would pose a risk when using a company investigator.

Depending on the type of investigation, you may need to consider the gender of the investigator (in a sexual harassment investigation, for example). Suppose your workplace investigation covers multiple locations, cities, or countries. In that case, you might need to use resources in another country, someone who speaks a particular language, or someone with local knowledge.

The bottom line is that you’ll need to choose an impartial investigator with the skills, knowledge, access, and experience required by the case.

Plan the Workplace Investigation

During the planning phase, you’ll need to determine the scope of the investigation. To do so, ask:

• What exactly are you investigating?
• Is it a code of conduct violation, a possible criminal violation?
• Are there privacy issues involved?
• Are there other incidents or issues related to the complaint that need to be triaged?

Creating an investigation plan helps you avoid one of the most extensive investigation mistakes: scope creep. Proper planning helps you to focus on the allegation or incident being investigated and ensures that your workplace investigation stays on course.

As part of the planning, you’ll also need to decide who needs to be interviewed, where, when, and in what order. You may need to conduct research and ask some initial questions to compile a list of the individuals involved and determine interview subjects.

Conduct Research

To gather information on the involved parties, look to online sources such as social media or even a simple search of their name. Do some digging into the backgrounds of your interview subjects to learn about them so you can build rapport.

For example, if your subject tweets about the New York Yankees, you know the person is interested in baseball. You can use this information to ease into the interview with some casual chat about the sport.

Be cognizant of how this preliminary digging may contribute to pre-judging people, resulting in a biased interview and investigation, and make a conscious effort to avoid this.

(Bias check: consciously disregard background knowledge gleaned from the internet when assessing a subject’s credibility or character during the interview).

How to Conduct an Employee Investigation

Conduct Interviews

The interview phase of the workplace investigation has a single purpose: to find out what really happened. With this in mind, you may use a variety of interview techniques and strategies to achieve that end.

The PEACE model, the REID technique, PACE, cognitive interviewing, interrogation, and the confession-seeking interview are all methods for getting to the truth in investigation interviews and all have their strengths and weaknesses. Many investigators find a balance among the different methods that work best for them.

The first step in conducting interviews is contacting the interview subjects and setting up times and places to connect.

To put your interview subjects at ease and increase your chances of getting them to communicate openly it’s a good idea to:

• Choose an interview location that is neutral and private
• Be flexible with scheduling to accommodate the interview subject
• Refer to the interview as “a chat about what happened” rather than an investigative interview
• Remove distractions, such as photos or decorations, from the interview location
• Ask the subject to put their phone on silent and keep it in a pocket or bag for the interview’s duration
• Explain up-front exactly what the interview is about and why
• Built rapport with the interview subject before launching into questions (using the research you conducted above, if applicable)
• Offer water and/or coffee or tea to keep the subject hydrated and alert

When deciding the order of interviews, consider the flow of information or the order of the story you need to collect.

1. First, interview the person who made the report. If there are others named in the report, such as multiple victims or the person who complained on behalf of someone else, interview them too.
2. Next, interview any witnesses to the incident or allegation. This can sometimes lead to more evidence or witnesses being identified, and you should interview them as well at this stage.
3. Finally, interview the subject of the report or allegation.

If you’re wondering what interview questions to ask during an investigation, read our article with questions for the reporter, subject, and witnesses here.

To Record or Not to Record the Investigation Interview

One advantage of recording interviews is that a recording leaves no doubt about the ethics of the interviewer and the quality of the questioning. If an interviewee claims your interviewing methods were unethical, you can use your recording to protect yourself and your organization.

You may wish to record your interviews using an audio or video recorder, but this is a matter of preference. Some investigators find that recording devices cause stress and can impede the flow of information from the subject. Others feel that recording the interview allows them to concentrate on the person and what he or she is saying rather than writing notes, allowing for a more natural conversation.

Before the interview, check to see if your state requires both parties to consent to the recording. It’s always nice to ask for consent no matter where you live, and it could ensure you comply with state laws, too.

Gather Evidence

Evidence gathering can be the most time-consuming part of the investigation. You’ll need to collect both physical (if applicable) and digital evidence.

Everything you find out is potential evidence. It’s important to consider every piece of evidence you uncover, whether or not it fits in with your impressions of the case or with the other things you’ve learned.

All physical evidence must be stored securely and logged. Digital evidence should be authenticated, captured, preserved, and stored somewhere (such as a secure server) as well. If you’re using a case management system like Case IQ for your investigations, you can upload your digital evidence directly into the case file. Here, it will be secure, organized, and easily accessible to the team.

It’s important to follow best practices for chain of custody when securing evidence. Chain of custody is a way of documenting evidence that shows the seizure, custody, control, transfer, storage, and analysis of a piece of evidence. It’s a mechanism to record everything done to a piece of evidence to ensure its integrity and prove that it hasn’t been tampered with.

Consider every document and how it contributes to the narrative of what happened. Remember that your job is simply to find out the truth and weigh each piece of evidence against this requirement. There are many types of evidence you might encounter, and each one can contribute to a successful workplace investigation.

Reach a Conclusion

The next step of a workplace investigation is to reach a conclusion based on your interviews and the evidence gathered. Your conclusion is simply whether or not the allegation or report is found to be correct.

A workplace investigation deemed to be inconclusive is a failed investigation. If you can’t come to a conclusion, try conducting more interviews, collecting more evidence, and/or reviewing the information you’ve already gathered.

Based on the conclusion you reach, the company must decide whether to take action and what action to take, if any.

Actions could include:

• Disciplinary action against an employee (i.e. written warning)
• Suspension of an employee
• Counselling or professional assessment of an employee
• Mediation between or among employees
• Termination of an employee
• Involving law enforcement in a criminal action
• Accommodation in the workplace (i.e. allowing the victim to work from home)

If the organization decides not to take any action, this should be documented, along with the reasons behind this decision.

Write the Investigation Report

The most comprehensive, fair, and timely workplace investigation is worthless without the documentation to prove that the investigation was all of those things.

Every stage of the workplace investigation should be documented, but the final product, the investigation report, provides a summary of all the steps, interviews, evidence, and conclusions drawn. It details all the tasks you completed and the information you gathered to arrive at your decision.

The investigation report is the final product and may be read by many audiences, including the C-suite, board members, and other stakeholders. Therefore it must be clear, accurate, succinct, free of jargon, and credible.

Analyze Data and Follow-Up

To reduce the number of incidents and investigations in your organization continually evaluate and analyze your risk. To do so, aggregate and study your investigation data to determine:

• Geographic areas where problems occur most frequently
• The types of problems occurring in the organization (e.g. theft, discrimination, harassment)
• What measures can be put in place to reduce them

This is where case management software can deliver ROI by providing myriad options for visualizing data in a way that is meaningful to the organization.

Investigation Follow-Up

Once an investigation has been completed, documented, and resolved, you’d think you can close the book and move on. But that’s not necessarily the case.

It’s important to follow up after the workplace investigation to gauge the effect that any actions have had on the individuals involved in the investigation and any others affected. Has the issue recurred? Do the parties feel supported?

Follow-up also includes looking at any changes implemented as a result of data analysis. Did these changes affect the issue or incident? This step should be ongoing and will put your company in a good position to anticipate and manage risk and spot trends before they become problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a workplace investigation?

A workplace investigation is a comprehensive process aimed at addressing complaints or reports of wrongdoing within an organization, involving thorough examination of allegations, gathering evidence, conducting interviews, and reaching conclusions based on findings.

What are the 5 steps of investigation process?

The five steps of the investigation process outlined in the article include:

1. Deciding to investigate: When a complaint or report of wrongdoing is received, it is crucial to assess its validity and determine if an investigation is warranted.
2. Choosing an investigator: Selection of an impartial investigator with the appropriate skills and experience is essential for conducting a fair investigation.
3. Planning the investigation: Establishing the scope of the investigation, identifying interview subjects, and outlining the investigative approach are critical aspects of the planning phase.
4. Conducting research: Gathering information about the individuals involved, such as through online sources, helps in preparing for interviews and understanding the context of the investigation.
5. Conducting interviews: Interviewing the relevant parties involved, including the reporter, witnesses, and the subject of the complaint, is a fundamental step in gathering evidence and reaching conclusions.

Do HR investigations lead to termination?

HR investigations may lead to termination if the investigation uncovers evidence of misconduct or violations of company policies that warrant disciplinary action, including termination.