Conducting Grievance and Disciplinary Investigations
Conducting grievance and disciplinary investigations are a key part of any manager or leaders role. Anyone with experience in this area will tell you that the most important thing to do in these cases is to remain fair and impartial whilst conducting your research.
This is for good reason, as it allows you to build up an accurate case that will hold up if your ultimate judgement is appealed against by either side. That’s why we have compiled this article on how to conduct a fair grievance and disciplinary investigation.
Ask the right questions
When conducting a fair grievance and disciplinary investigation you need to bring in a professional who’s capable of asking both parties the right questions surrounding the case. This is because a third party will ask non-leading and non-suggestive questions, they want to quietly build up as much information as they can to build up the case whilst also remaining impartial.
If your third-party investigator doesn’t ask relevant questions this could lead to further conduct investigations as either side could accuse you of hiring a biased professional.
Make clear, written records
When conducting a fair grievance and disciplinary investigation, your third party professional should prioritise making clear, written records of everything related to that specific investigation. This is because:
- Clear, written records simplify the process. They mean that you have all the necessary information in one place so that a decision can be made fairly.
- They make the investigation much more accurate. With an established timeline, your third party professional will be able to look back and get a better sense of how all of the information fits together. Are there any gaps in the evidence?
- If the professional is accused of bias, clear records can show the investigator’s thought process and speed up further conduct investigations if they’re necessary.
Verify information
It’s important when conducting a fair grievance and disciplinary investigation that your outsourced third-party investigator verifies all the information that was presented to them. This is because:
- It can lead to further investigations into the disciplinary and for grievances if not all information has been verified and confirmed.
- By verifying the information your third party investigator gains credibility which becomes harder to appeal against.
- A company’s reputation can be tarnished if all the facts about a case aren’t gathered properly before a decision is made. It can make you look unreliable and your business incapable if it publishes a judgement that turns out to be based on fiction.
- You could be liable for legal action if it’s found out that you’ve acted against an employee with information that turned out to be false. There could be defamation claims, a costly employment tribunal case, accusations of wrongful termination, etc.
Respond in a timely manner
As soon as a grievance and disciplinary investigation falls onto your lap, you’re going to want to arrange for investigation meetings to take place.
This is because you want to be seen to be doing something about the case. If too much time passes by and nothing has been done, the claimant may lodge their complaint somewhere else.
Depending on the nature of the case this could be either to the police or to a solicitor. Neither outcomes are great for the company’s reputation – yours included in this for not acting sooner – and could lead to costly employment tribunal claims or even your own termination. It makes sense to deal contact a third party concerning the investigation as soon as possible so that they have time to send over a competent investigator.
Know when to outsource an investigation
It’s important that when there’s a need to conduct a fair grievance and disciplinary investigation that you consider outsourcing it to an independent third party such as BluSkyHR.
You should do this as soon as the case falls into your responsibility so that you can get responses to allegations in a timely manner. There are several reasons for this:
- The first is that it can help to get another set of eyes that are positioned outside of the situation to check over the ins and outs of the investigation to ensure impartiality.
- You may not have the staff, the funding, or the resources in house with which it’s necessary to conduct a conduct and/or grievance investigation.
- You could be risking a court case or employee tribunals, etc if it doesn’t seem to both sides of the accusation that they’re being treated fairly.
- A further mishandling of the investigation can lead to bad press for your company, which can drag your reputation through the mud.
- Accusations may include management figures, and so you can’t have one manager looking into another, this could be an opportunity for collusion and a cover-up or could be an opportunity for an employee to exploit the situation for their own career advancement. A third party investigator won’t have these motivations.
For more information on how to conduct an effective Grievance or Disciplinary Investigation, contact us.