What are Employer's Best Practices when Conducting HR Investigations in Los Angeles?

Every HR professional should have a foundation of basic skills to use during the internal investigation.  As the HR person becomes more experienced, the process becomes more comfortable even though each investigation is a unique event with idiosyncratic challenges.

A methodical and thoughtful process will be extremely valuable at each stage of the investigation and will result in a more reliable conclusion.  The investigation that has such integrity will be easy to defend, if necessary, if an issue goes to litigation.  Even more importantly, because so few investigations become part of litigation, the organization takes confidence in the process and employees understand their complaints will receive a fair internal review.  Every employer should ensure that its internal investigators, usually human resources professionals, are competent in this area.

The following are the most common issues that regularly come up in our review and assistance of our clients with internal investigations and most common problems that arise and suggestions for best practices when conducting the investigations:

1.         Define the scope of the investigation from the complainant. We suggest using an issue confirmation memo, which can be a simple e-mail, to the complainant that states what issues have been raised.  In that way, the complainant and the HR professional are on the same page from the start of the investigation.

2.         Prepare for the interviews. Preparation will allow the interviews to be more efficient and reduce the likelihood that a witness will need to be interviewed twice or that critical questions will not be asked.  Take the time to plan the process and identify the issues needed to be covered with every witness.

3.         Collect the facts.  Focus on the basic facts; ask the 5 W's (Who, What, When, Where and Why).  Listen and ask follow-up questions. Start your questioning by asking broad questions; do not focus too soon on the narrow questions that are directly pointed at the key issue.

4.         Check the internal procedures and identify relevant policies.  It can be very detrimental to the investigation process and the employer's ability to rely on the investigation as an attempt to do the right thing if the employer's internal procedures have not been followed.  The HR professional must be aware of a policy, procedure or guideline that impacts the investigation process itself. Consequently, the policies should be known during the investigation and referenced in the investigation summary.

5.         Make a decision.  A good HR investigator is a neutral fact-finder and must remember to get at the facts without asking questions that imply a legal conclusion, such as “Do you feel that you were harassed?”

Face the facts:  regardless of which way the HR professional finds in an investigation, someone will be unhappy.  Weighing the evidence and reaching a factual conclusion is the purpose of the investigation.  Inexperienced HR professionals sometimes are looking for the slam dunk video or the confession; unfortunately, those rarely appear.