Dealing with HR investigations is a painful process.  It’s expensive, especially if you employ an outside agency to help with the investigation.  Without a well-established process, nobody is clear on exactly what step should be taken next. There’s no single process that works for all companies.  Finally, if blame is placed wrongly, it can lead to major legal risk.

Because of all of this, your company will be in far better shape if it does have a process in place to handle workplace investigations than if it doesn’t.  Here are a few reasons why.

Employers Are Required to Protect Employees

Employers face a legal mandate to protect employees from many types of harassment and discrimination.  When employees report discrimination to an employer, it’s imperative that they have a way to investigate it, and to do so promptly.  Not only is it the right thing to do, but if a discrimination case is lodged against the employer at a future time, the employer’s attempts to determine what happened and to take corrective action will be considered by the courts when determining wrongdoing and punishment.

Employee Morale Is Critical to Company Success

Most companies are more reliant on their employees than any other factor for their success.  Happy employees work harder, focus more on company goals and have a more positive impact on co-worker morale than unhappy employees.  And nothing makes an employee less happy than believing that their employer doesn’t care if other employees exhibit improper or illegal behavior, especially if that behavior is targeted at them.  Employees need to have confidence that their complaints will be handled with discretion, competence and reasonable speed.

Theft Is Prevalent Where It Is Successful

Bad employees are much more likely to think that they can get away with stealing data, money or products from their employers if they don’t see any processes in place to stop it.  While workplace investigations aren’t the only process that stops theft, they are a key component of a secure workplace.  If employees know that HR investigations are a regular part of the workplace culture, they are less likely to attempt bad actions.

To learn how CMTS:HR can help streamline your HR investigations, call us at 919.600.5102 or email us at Team_CMTS@WingSwept.com.