Latest Blog Posts

How To Conduct an Effective Grievance Investigation

In a recent blog, we discussed the initial steps for responding to an employee grievance.  Before making a decision about the employee’s grievance, and how it might be resolved, it is usually necessary to conduct an investigation to establish what has actually happened.  In this blog, we consider some top tips for conducting such an investigation.

Bring an Open Mind

Sometimes an employee may set out a grievance that might make you feel very sympathetic towards them.  On other occasions, you might feel more dismissive of their concerns, or may think “I know the person they are complaining about, and I can’t imagine them doing that”.  However, when conducting an investigation, you should be led by what the evidence tells you, rather than your sympathies.  Sometimes unexpected evidence can come up part-way through an investigation, and so you need to be prepared to change your mind accordingly!

Plan

Begin by using the employee’s email or letter setting out their grievance to work to plan what the investigation will look like.  Who do you need to speak to?  What other evidence do you need?  Evidence can include witness statements and interview records, but other documents may also be relevant (e.g. emails, training records, work logs, policies or handbooks, etc.), in addition to screenshots of things like text messages, plus things in other formats such as audio and video recordings.  Thorough investigations sometimes require the investigator to be persistent in finding all the pieces of the puzzle.

Listen to the Employee

Employees who have submitted a grievance are entitled to be invited to attend a formal grievance hearing to have their concerns heard and have the option to be accompanied, in accordance with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.  It is important that at that hearing the employee is able to set out their concerns in full, and also that the person undertaking the investigation has an opportunity to ask questions to understand relevant details.  For example, if a grievance letter said that the employee was being bullied, the grievance hearing provides an opportunity to ask questions about the details of specific events (who, what, where, when). The employee’s views on how their grievance could be resolved should also be sought.

The grievance hearing will often be held at the start of the process, so that the full details of the grievance can be understood, but sometimes it is appropriate to undertake some investigatory steps first.  If things arise during the process that may require clarification, you may also need to invite the employee to a second investigatory meeting.

Keep It Organised

You can quickly find you gather a lot of paperwork during an investigation!  As such, a clear numbering system, with corresponding document references and filing can be very useful to help you refer back to things with ease.  If a grievance had a number of strands, you may also want to organise documents into different categories.  When you write your final report, this will enable you to find the relevant evidence more quickly.  Within your final report, you should also make sure you are clear about which evidence you are referring to when arriving at your findings, e.g. “three witnesses to the event all said that they heard Employee A called Employee B lazy (Witness Statements 1,2, and 3)”.

On some occasions, you may identify that you are not the correct person to undertake an investigation, as you are compromised in some way, e.g. if the employee has named you as a person they wish to complain about, or if you made a key decision that directly led to the thing they are complaining about.  If another suitable and independent person is available internally to refer the case to, this may be appropriate.  Alternatively, here at View HR we regularly undertake investigations in cases where external independence is appropriate.  If you have a case you feel may benefit from this, please contact us for an initial discussion with one of our experienced HR investigators.