Workplace investigations may include grievance, disciplinary, whistleblowing, governance or culture investigations. They might involve investigating individual complaints, collective grievances, third party allegations, concerns about toxic workplace cultures and more.
In individual cases, the workplace investigation process is a key part of formal disciplinary or grievance procedures and getting it right will help protect your business from legal action by employees.
From a business, reputational risk and employee relations perspective, it can also have much wider implications if there is a risk or a requirement that the findings are disclosed to employees or made public.
If a sensitive allegation such as a complaint of sexual harassment has been made against an employee or officer, it will be even more important that the investigation is conducted sensitively and discreetly by the employer.
An investigation process typically involves taking meeting witnesses, taking witness statements, reviewing evidence gathered (which often includes text messages, emails, CCTV, photos and other documents), assessing what other evidence can be tracked down or other potential witnesses spoken to, looking carefully at all of the evidence and drawing up an investigation report.
The process you need to follow during a workplace investigation depends on what type of issues require investigation. In disciplinary and grievance matters, you will need to have regard to the ACAS Code of Practice which applies to such instances. You will also need to follow any internal disciplinary or grievance procedure or policy which your organisation has in place – these procedures don’t just apply to the grievance or disciplinary hearing.
In other cases, you may also have other internal policies which you need to follow, or sector-specific rules or guidance depending on what type of investigation is necessary.
Following a reasonable investigation process is a key part of the procedure that needs to be followed if an employee is subjected to a disciplinary process, or has raised a grievance or blown the whistle.
That means that if an employer gets the investigation process wrong and then tries to hold a subsequent disciplinary hearing or other type of hearing, it could be at risk of facing an unfair dismissal or constructive dismissal claim in an Employment Tribunal.
Compensation in such cases can also be increased if the investigation is not compliant with the ACAS Code of Practice.
Common problems faced by employers during workplace investigations include:
The investigator should always take a balanced and neutral approach, so they must not be someone who could also be a witness or already has a lot of pre-existing knowledge of the matter involved so they can’t be accused of having a pre-determined view.
Tasks like interviewing reluctant witnesses and reviewing large volumes of evidence often requires skill and patience, and can be time-consuming.
A key benefit of using an independent external investigator is that it will help reassure any employee accused of misconduct, or who has raised a complaint, that the workplace investigation will be carried out impartially and minimise mistrust.
It’s also important that internal investigations are carried out in a timely manner, while still being a fair and full investigation. The benefit of using an external investigator instead of a senior employee to conduct a formal investigation is that it avoids adding to the workload of your senior management and avoids unnecessary delay. This is important for carrying out a legally compliant workplace investigation and will help prevent employee claims that the investigation has been too slow or not taken seriously.
You can then hold back your senior managers to hold any grievance or disciplinary hearing, which may need a senior decision maker to make the final decision.
We can provide an external investigator or investigators to carry out your workplace investigation with expertise and independence. We conduct both single-issue and wide-ranging investigations and reviews, from the first stage of helping you to work out what the investigation terms of reference should be, right through to producing a thorough and high quality investigation report.
Our investigators are employment solicitors and HR consultants, and have extensive experience in carrying out complex workplace investigations involving different types of allegations including:
Because of our legal and HR expertise, we are able to conduct our investigations in accordance with employment law, ACAS guidance and good practice.
We will provide you with an investigation plan and will start gathering evidence straight away by holding an investigation meeting with complainants or employees accused of misconduct, holding other witness interviews or taking a more formal witness statement from each witness, reviewing any written or physical evidence. This will allow us to establish the facts of a complaint, allegation or dispute without delay.
We will then set out our investigation findings and facts in an investigation report. If requested, we can also provide recommendations in our investigation report about ways your business can improve its practices, steps that could be taken to improve working relationships or culture, or whether disciplinary action is merited in the case of disciplinary investigations.
Our clients have praised our investigation reports as being “thorough, balanced and impartial, which is just what we needed“.
If you would rather conduct your investigation internally, we can still give you legal and practical advice and support you during the process. We can review and advise you on your investigation report and help make sure it’s compliant with employment law and other legal obligations. We can also advise you on what further action may be needed on completion of an investigation, and how to carry out a fair process if a formal procedure is needed afterwards.
If you are considering appointing an external investigator and would like to explore how we can help, please contact us today for a no-obligation chat with one of our expert investigators.
To speak to one of our experts today, please contact us on 02920 829 100 or by using our Contact Us form for a free initial chat to see how we can help.
02920 829 100 
