HR investigations are a systematic way to determine the facts underlying a workplace complaint. For small businesses, HR investigations help create a fair, safe workplace. Because you don’t want a specific situation or complaint influencing how you conduct your investigation, it’s important to set up your investigative process before anything happens.

To learn more about how HR investigations work and the advantages of setting them up, read on.

Why HR Investigations Matter for Small Businesses 

HR investigations can be used to investigate reports of harassment, absenteeism, theft, conflicts of interest, abuse of sick leave, discrimination, substance abuse, or violence. They help your company in various ways.

• Ensure a safe, healthy workplace.
• Demonstrate your commitment to your employees’ well-being. 
• Maintain legal compliance. 
• Be fair in handling problems. 
• Avoid bias. 
• Resolve conflicts effectively.

To ensure fairness, it’s a good idea to consider outsourced HR teams. This is especially true for serious problems where you want to ensure total fairness. It also helps prevent employees from gossiping about witness interviews and the status of the investigation. 

Do You Have a Documented Process for Handling HR Investigations and Inquiries? 

Recently, we completed our 2024 HR Benchmark Report, which involved more than 1,000 small businesses. We include eight different HR topics and 40 questions. After getting everyone’s answers, we asked companies what their growth was like for the previous year. Then, we looked at how the answers from fast-growth and zero-growth companies compared to each other.

• 62% of zero-growth firms said they had a documented process for HR inquiries. 
• 84% of fast-growth firms said they had a documented process for HR inquiries. 

A 22-point spread is already a significant difference. However, the spread widened to 35 points when we looked at businesses that had less than 24 workers. 

• 41% of zero-growth firms had a documented process for HR investigations.
• 76% of fast-growth firms had a documented process for HR investigations.

How to Incorporate HR Investigations in Your Workplace 

If you don’t have a process for performing HR investigations in your workplace, right now is the best time to begin. You want to make sure that procedures are in place before a problem occurs so that everyone knows that the issue is being managed fairly. HR investigations can also be outsourced to a professional HR team.

1. Offer Multiple Reporting Mechanisms 

One of the most important things you can do is provide your workers with multiple reporting mechanisms. Instead of requiring workers to report to a single manager, you should designate multiple managers.

Recently, Mary Simmons, Asure’s vice president of HR compliance, learning, and development, talked about HR investigations in Mission to Grow’s “HR Compliance” episode. According to Simmons, “It should be 2 or 3 people: your manager, your manager’s manager, the outsourced HR, or the internal HR, right? Because if you only give one person [the reporting role], that person could be the abuser. You might be embarrassed to go to a male or a female to talk about these things.

“If you don’t have a policy like that, and they don’t know who to go to, they’re going to an attorney, or they’re going to the Department of Labor, or they’re going to the EEOC.”

Having multiple points of contact ensures your workers have someone they can report problems to. If you decide to set up an outsourced HR team, it can also help your investigation feel impartial.

2. Quickly Take Action Following the Complaint

If a complaint is made, it’s important to take action quickly. Other than ensuring a faster resolution, a quick response demonstrates that your company is committed to solving HR problems. In addition to showing your commitment, a quick response can also prevent additional issues from occurring.

3. Choose Who Will Investigate

As you develop your investigative procedures, you should determine who will play the role of investigator. Ideally, this person should be trained on how to investigate fairly and efficiently. You should train multiple people for this role in case one of the investigators is a witness or involved in the HR issue. 

Then, when an investigation is necessary, designate one of your trained employees to be in charge. It will become their duty to investigate the complaint and follow your company’s procedures.

4. Plan Out Your Investigation

When a problem occurs, take a moment to plan your investigation before doing anything else. First, determine what you are investigating and the scope of the investigation. Figure out the parties involved and how you will find out more information about what happened. 

5. Talk to the Person Making the Complaint

At some point in your investigation, you will need to talk to the person who made the complaint. While you may want to vary the order of who you interview, it’s generally effective to interview the complainant, the witness, the accuser, and then the complainant again. Prepare your questions beforehand so that you know exactly what you’ll be discussing.

6. Meet Witnesses 

Next, you should meet with the witnesses involved in the case. Prepare the questions you will ask beforehand. You can start each interview by thanking them for their participation, explaining the purpose of the interview, and any consequences for not answering honestly.

While you can modify your approach, it’s generally a good idea to start with a relaxed interview style and broad questions so that the witness can feel comfortable and open up. Then, you can ask harder, more specific questions later on.

7. Interview the Accused 

Once you’ve interviewed the witnesses, you can interview the accused. Your goal is to remain calm and avoid making any kind of accusation. If the individual feels threatened or under attack, they may shut down and stop answering questions. 

After interviewing the accused, it’s a good idea to circle back to the complainant. Now that you have more information and perspectives, you may want to ask different questions or get clarification.

8. Gather Information 

Sometimes, there is concrete evidence you can use to make your final determination. This may come in the form of emails, security videos, personal files, performance reviews, or written warnings. If HR has previously had reports about the accused, you may also have written documentation from those reports.

9. Make a Decision

Once you have interviewed everyone and gathered evidence, it is time to make a decision. If there is evidence of misconduct, you may decide to take one of the following steps.

• Terminate the individual’s employment.
• Coach the individual on how to change their behaviors.
• Give them different job duties.
• Adjust your workplace policies.
• Take disciplinary action.

10. Build Your Final Report

Finally, you need to build a report from your investigation. This report should include some of the following documentation. 

• Interview notes. 
• Copies of the evidence gathered.
• The kind of action your company will take. 
• A completed final report of the investigation and its conclusions. 

Afterward, it’s important to communicate your conclusions to everyone involved. However, you should follow privacy laws and avoid revealing any confidential information.

11. Perform Aftercare

Aftercare is a good practice for HR departments. You should start by checking in with everyone a month after the investigation and at regular intervals. This helps build trust and prevent retaliatory actions. 

You may also need to incorporate additional training measures. If you provide workers additional training, you should make sure to document it. 

12. Avoid Retaliatory Actions

Finally, you should avoid retaliatory actions against witnesses, the accused, or the complainant. Retaliatory actions may include some of the following activities. 

• Giving someone less desirable shifts. 
• Overlooking a qualified application for a promotion.
• Sending the individual home early or giving them fewer hours.
• Creating a hostile work environment.