You did it. You conducted an employee investigation. The problem is, you didn’t realise how complex it can get and you aren’t even sure some of the information’s relevant. Yet somehow you need to organise this mass of documents and draw conclusions on what it’s telling you. You need help making sense of the data in your employee investigation.
A great employee investigation has a well-structured report. Conclusions, and potentially recommendations, are based on themes, evidence and counter-evidence, so you need to sift through everything. Once you’re done, you’ll have a focused document that pulls all the threads together, ready for the next person to review and decide next steps. You must consider:
- If you’ve addressed all the issues or concerns and what gaps you have.
- Identifying themes sitting within the evidence.
- Addressing individual bias using objective evidence, facts and mitigation to explain both the ‘why’ and the ‘what’.
- What conclusions and/or recommendations you’ll draw and present
Checking the question and highlighting gaps
Employee investigations are complex. They involve people’s opinions, their interpretations of events, emotions about working relationships, or views on business change. It’s hardly surprising you end up with lots of information at the end. That’s why it’s essential, once you think you’ve completed the investigation, that you double-check.
- Re-visit the original issues or concerns: Be sure you can properly address these. It’s common to find you’re missing something. Alternatively, your notes may go down a rabbit hole or you get distracted by more than one red herring. Once you finish your interviews, then check you have the information you need and make a note of anything requiring follow up.
- Look for gaps in the data: Often you need to fill or clarify these before you can make your employee investigation make sense. You may find inconsistent views which require you to conduct additional interviews or request supporting evidence, for example. Your report must stand up to scrutiny, so avoid the risks of presenting anything incomplete.
Identifying key themes – analysing the data in your employee investigation
You’re now sure you have sufficient data to objectively respond to all issues and concerns, so it’s time to collate your findings into themes. Flip charts, post-its, a whiteboard, or some sort of project software may help as you cross-reference and reflect on all the evidence. Whatever method you use, there are three key things to remember:
- Maintain confidentiality always: If you need to display the information in order to work through it, make sure the space is confidential and secure. Employee investigations always require privacy and sensitivity as you have access to personal comments and opinions. It’s therefore essential to be respectful of the process and treat all the information you’re given with care.
- Recognise you have different types of information: Some data will support the allegation or concern and other data won’t. Some statements will be based on fact, others on perception. Capture it all. It’s essential you have a balanced view of the situation and can outline both sides in your report.
- Capture additional topics: Not everything you hear will be directly relevant to the issues under investigation, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. When a new concern arises, be sure to note it. Failure to do so could cause you to miss a significant factor and result in a real risk to the business.
It takes time to review the themes for your report, but it’s important to carefully identify the facts and opinions contained with your discussions and additional evidence. Sometimes the most useful insights come from what appear to be the most insignificant comments.
Minimise personal bias using data in your employee investigation
No employee investigation is straightforward. It can be easy to get swept up with the emotion of the event and let your personal (unconscious) bias influence your findings. It’s why you must consider the evidence in support of an allegation/issue and any counter-evidence against it, together with any mitigation presented.
As you review the data in your employee investigation, challenge yourself. It can be relatively easy to find the evidence to support an argument. The CCTV footage that seems to show a specific behaviour, the performance reports and emails from a manager you like. You must also look for the mitigation though.
What were the events that led up to the CCTV incident? Have you seen the entire conversation thread within the email? Is there anything that might suggest an ulterior motive?
Conducting a thorough and robust employee investigation insists you look at the data from all angles and present a balance of information before drawing conclusions. It’s why you must consider and include mitigation and counter-evidence, to ensure you assess the full facts of the situation and demonstrate fairness and objectivity for all concerned.
Presenting conclusions (and recommendations) using data from your findings
In theory, once you reach this point, it’s easy; or is it? You have all the information you need yet, be wary of just presenting your opinion. Don’t get caught out at the last minute by ignoring what’s in front of you.
Use the data in your employee investigation to support your conclusions. Make sure you back up possible next steps or recommendations with evidence you find. It’s also important to identify additional topics which need further consideration but may not link to the original issue. Once complete, you’ll have a robust and thorough investigation report.
It’s true, writing reports is time-consuming, but the alternative is to risk missing something. As a result, the business makes an unfair or ill-informed decision, and ends up in an Employment Tribunal for ignoring an important point. Instead, take the time to do it properly or, if it seems too hard, get in touch and find out how The HR Detective can help you.
