An incomplete investigation can cause havoc to a corporation not to mention the primary parties involved in the dispute.

Let’s consider a few facts that can colour your investigation work:

• You don’t have enough time in your day to do all the work in front of you now – to do what’s expected of you.

• Your boss doesn’t understand the time demands of a thorough investigation and so expects on-going job responsibilities be met, while you’re attempting to investigate.

• You wish someone else could handle this investigation work, for it makes you uncomfortable.

• You don’t know if the complaint of harassment fits under your corporate policy definition.

• There’s a complaint – that represents a problem that has to be dealt with right now before things get worse so let’s get in there and get the job done now.

Do any of these statements resonate with you? So often a corporation will rush through an investigation for a variety of reasons, reasons they believe are valid, reasons that compete with conducting a thorough investigation.

Time after time we see investigation work that is incomplete, rushed or simply incomplete because the investigator has not followed through on a line of questioning; has not interviewed all the pertinent witnesses or has not traced all the evidentiary material.

An incomplete investigation can cause havoc to a corporation not to mention the primary parties involved in the dispute. Let’s take a look at what can happen as a result:

• one or both of the primary parties resigns from the corporation – thereby losing a trained, valuable resource, one that requires replacing and retraining

• the conclusions of the investigation are erroneous – and one of the parties moves the complaint outward into another jurisdiction and the organization loses control of the process.

• the investigation is non-conclusive – leaving both primary parties unhappy, stressed and angry – usually directed at the investigator and the organization.

• the wrong party is found to be at fault – opening the door for legal action or again, action taken outside the organization’s jurisdiction

There are many negative outcomes to pursuing an investigation and then not thoroughly completing it, dotting all those i’s – crossing all those t’s. People’s lives can be impacted in a major way. In conducting training across the country we have learned that preparation for interviews and gathering evidence is an area where most harassment investigations need work. If the evidence is presented in an incomplete way in the final report that can lead to being unable to reach analyzed, considered conclusions based on evidence.