An Insider's Guide to Workplace Investigations: Building the Process in Your Company

The trust of a company by its customers is one of the most important ingredients in a company's success. Central to that trust is the company's ability to effectively police itself. Another foundation of success is conducting internal investigations and imposing discipline in a manner that employees find trustworthy and consistent with its values. But what happens when someone reports an incident of actual or potential employee misconduct? Does the company respond to the report to investigate it, remedy it or learn from it? Is the responsibility to investigate the report delegated ad hoc to a human resources manager or in-house attorney to resolve in addition to their regular duties? A robust investigations process is not about good corporate citizenship. Investigations furnish knowledge. The process of knowledge management determines what we know about our company's risks and influences how that information can be applied. This information lets a company manage risk effectively. The products of the investigative process should be a practical and personal piece of advice to executive management. The investigation goal must be to prevent future damage to the company - by using investigation findings as a form of organizational intelligence -- rather than rebuilding it after the damage is done. The economics of capitalism and private enterprise favor risk taking. But the only way to accept a risk is if that decision is an informed one. A company must maximize its business success while eliminating or reducing unacceptable legal and financial risks. Identifying and addressing those risks through investigations places the process squarely within the business' fundamental purpose. So why doesn't every company adopt this approach? It may be that they think the company does not have the time, personnel and resources to conduct investigations in an organized manner. Executive management may think that the value of the investigation is limited to substantiating the misconduc