Something has happened. Someone has made a complaint, or two people can't work together, or a manager wants to fire somebody and you're not sure whether you can.
These are the situations where doing it yourself is most tempting and most expensive.
We conduct the investigation. We don't coach you through it.
That distinction is the whole service.
Most HR consultants will advise your team on how to investigate. That leaves the investigation being run by someone who works with both parties, reports to one of them, and has to keep working there afterward. Their objectivity is questionable through no fault of their own, and the first thing opposing counsel will do is point that out.
An external investigator is a different thing. No relationship with either party, no stake in the outcome, and a report written by someone whose neutrality is defensible.
What an investigation looks like
Intake and triage. Not every complaint needs a formal investigation. Deciding which do is the first judgment call, and getting it wrong in either direction is costly.
A written scope statement. One clear question the investigation will answer. Without it, investigations sprawl into unrelated grievances and never conclude.
Interviews in a defensible order. Complainant first, then witnesses, then the respondent. Open questions, contemporaneous notes, no leading and no premature conclusions.
Documentary evidence. Policies, personnel files, messages, schedules, whatever's relevant.
A written report covering allegations, evidence reviewed, interviews conducted, findings, and recommended action. Neutral language, factual, and written to be read by someone hostile.
One thing worth knowing going in: an investigation delivers findings, not resolution. It tells you what happened. Deciding what to do about it is yours, and managing the workplace afterward still has to be done.
The rest of employee relations
Documentation review and manager coaching. Most employee relations problems are created months earlier by a manager writing something vague, or nothing at all
Progressive discipline. Designing it, and applying it consistently, which is the part that actually matters
Terminations. Decision review, documentation, logistics, and the conversation itself
Unemployment claims and hearings. Preparation, documentation, and representation
Manager training on the situations that generate most of this
What we don't do
Legal advice or representation. Anything in active litigation, which belongs to counsel. We work alongside them.
Where an investigation needs privilege, it should be commissioned by your attorney rather than by you. We'll tell you when that's the situation.