Topic Background : 
 

Every company will inevitably encounter times when they must conduct internal investigations. Misappropriation, ethics and sabotage investigations (MES) can be particularly complex. They cut to our very core of what it means to be human and our relationships with coworkers with whom we often spend more time than our families.

Misappropriation of resources is defined as a form of theft where an individual misuses or takes something for unauthorized purposes. Since one has to have authority/trust to access resources, a misappropriations investigation is problematic in that it often involves trusted individual(s).

Sabotage is defined as to deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct something. A common challenge of a sabotage investigation often involves trying to uncover the truth amongst individuals for whom reconstruction of reality is not a concern.

If ethics are defined as moral principles that govern a person's behavior, it’s easy to see how investigating one party’s actions as compared to an ethics code or in regards to how someone else defines ethical behavior, can get confusing.  

It is important not to be blindsided when doing MES investigations. Many times, there are not just resource issues but also threats to company reputation and workplace corporate memory.

​

Why should you attend :

​

Knowing how to conduct an internal investigation is one of the most critical skills every manager and certainly, every HR professional needs in today’s workplace.

A professional investigation helps an employer defend against legal liability and sends a message to employees that they work for an ethical company. It is also a deterrent to those others who may be considering acting unethically.

However, whether the investigation, from fact-finding to writing reports, defends the company and limits your legal liability or blows up into an incredible, embarrassing predicament (that incurs even greater liability) may depend largely upon HOW the investigation is conducted.
 

When a complaint is received, regardless of from whom, from where or how, the employer is on notice that there may be a problem. However, MES investigations often do not start with a direct complaint. In these matters, the parties likely went to a lot of trouble to make sure no coworkers knew enough about the totality of their actions to be able to know with certainty what was occurring. They tell one person one thing and another person something else. Because unethical people count on ethical persons not making serious workplace accusations without solid proof. So they make sure no one party ever knows all the parts of the puzzle. Unethical people depend on us finding it hard to believe that someone we trusted duped us and/or our egos can have a hard time accepting that we made a bad decision to provide such a person opportunity. We also do not like to think that people we work with would purposefully deceive us or purposefully do harm.

Even routine investigations can uncover unexpectedly ugly aspects of the people and/or even of the company. MES investigations can involve highly placed individuals, trusted persons, and/or individuals that if the conduct is uncovered they can face the likelihood of losing their job.
 

Untrained investigators may not do nearly enough to uncover the problem, be easily dissuaded from doing anything at all or not protect complainants and witnesses from retaliation. Because those who are act unethically, have no problem throwing anyone, including the investigator, under the bus.

​

Learning on the job can be costly in a number of way to the employer, not just in attorney fees or judgments, but also in loss of employees, damage to morale, vicious gossip and damage of reputations and loss of productivity than can take years to repair. 

​

Areas Covered in the Webinar :

​

In theory, investigating sounds relatively easy but in reality more often is not, especially regarding MES investigations. MES investigations often carry a lot of baggage; trust issues, sneakiness, deception, bullying and secrecy.

This webinar will cover professional investigations, emphasizing the particular challenges of MES investigations.

• How to handle anonymous complaints.

• How to take a direct complaint. 

• Investigatory best practice policies, procedures and protocols.

• Witness interviews

• Interviewing uncooperative or angry witnesses.

• How to handle physical, testimonial and documentary evidence.

• Best practices in writing investigative reports.

• Making decisions.

• Closure and monitoring of investigations.

• Preventing and managing retaliation.

​

Who will benefit:

​

HR Generalists, Employee Relations, Business Owners, Plant Managers, Branch Managers. Anyone new to HR.

​

Presenter : Teri Morning

​

Note : Recorded access is available for this topic. If you are interested, write to us at contactus@compliancefeed.com