A new perspective on workplace investigations …

I had an email recently, from someone subject to a workplace investigation. They told me that they felt helpless and hopeless. They were scared. And they’re not alone. I haven’t ever seen an individual, whatever the final outcome, who hasn’t felt stressed by the circumstances of a workplace investigation.

It’s hardly surprising, is it? From the get-go, the language that we use is loaded. “Investigation” implies that there’s wrongdoing. It feels hefty, legalistic. There are procedures, representatives, statements, witnesses. At best it sounds formal, at worst it calls to mind the police.   

Safety in procedures

I have long observed, and been drawn into myself, the feeling of safety that managers and investigators gain from those procedures. It can be a moment of small triumph to tick the box of a disciplinary hearing, knowing that the outcome has been ‘successfully delivered’. But to what end and with what impact? What are we really trying to achieve?

As a career-long practitioner in employment relations and dispute resolution I have been pleased to absorb the insight and wisdom of a new volume on the topic. Cooper and Neal have skilfully drawn together a book to challenge our thinking. Cleverly titled ‘Under Investigation’, they are kick-starting a vital conversation which challenges all of us in the employment relations and HR community.

I’ve been in this field for over 30 years and this feels like a conversation which previously I didn’t realise we should be having and yet now I can see that it should have started years ago.

It’s clear that there’s comfort in a process: stages, timeframes, documentation, escalation. It feels safer to the managers, to the HR team. Predictable. Legally compliant. Just in case there’s a tribunal claim down the line. To a great extent it’s human nature. I get that. And investigations are often appropriate and necessary. I get that too.

Miserable impact

What ‘Under Investigation’ does here is lift the curtain on the miserable impact that is the collateral of tight adherence to process, often combined with the dead hand of bureaucracy.

And it is evidence-based, studded with case studies, for example the senior manager, Alex, against whom there was ultimately no case to answer, but whose mental wellbeing and trust in their employer was destroyed by delays and obfuscations along the way. On one level it is an unsurprising read – of course these things are tough and pretty miserable. On another the surprise is in the extent of the evidence and also in the great note of optimism.

And that’s the delight in this book for me. It opens up an important conversation about a better way of doing things. Not throwing the baby out with the investigative bathwater, but showing that different approaches, with greater compassion and a more open mind for informality, can deliver the right outcome for organisations and cause less harm for those involved. The evidence for that is strong and clear.

There’s a huge cultural tanker to turn, of course, and this book will simply help us to start a conversation, which I hope will run on. It’s certainly made me reflect about my own investigative style, and how I can turn up the dial on compassion. Whatever someone may or may not have done, being compassionate feels like a low-risk, high value approach. And it feels like the right thing to do.

Kate Nowicki is the former Director of Dispute Resolution at Acas.

You can order your copy of ‘Under Investigation: Transforming Disciplinary Practice in the Workplace’ at Bristol University Press, Amazon and all good bookshops.