5 Tips for Conducting Better Witness Interviews In Internal Investigations

Conducting witness interviews during an internal investigation can be a real challenge. Especially because few people asked to do this important task are actually trained in how to do it.

Here you’ll learn 5 tips to increase the effectiveness of the witness interviews you conduct during an internal investigation.

Hi! I’m Mike Corwin during my 30+ years as an investigator I conducted hundreds of internal investigations for businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. And I’ve assessed the adequacy and sufficiency of many employer conducted internal investigations as a consultant for attorneys preparing employment related litigation.

I now train organizations in how to conduct professional quality internal investigations that instills confidence in your staff while developing the information needed to make decisions.

If you conduct internal investigations, I’ve got a great gift for you. It’s my FREE internal investigation checklist to help ensure that your internal investigations are effective and thorough enough to instill confidence in the process. Click here to download it now.

Witness interviews are the backbone of conducting internal investigations, especially those relating to harassment, abusive conduct, and work related violence.

Tip #1: It’s About Listening Not Talking 

It’s not the questions you ask that make for a successful interview. It’s your ability to listen.

Here’s why.

The person being interviewed posses the information you need in order to properly conduct your investigation. And listening is how you get that information.

It’s pretty simple. The more you talk, the less the witness talks. The more you listen, the more the witness talks. And the more the witness talks the more information you learn.

Just remember the old adage that nature abhors a vacuum. Your silence is the vacuum. The witness will fill the silence with more and more information.

So little prompts like “how so?” And “can you take me through this?” Followed by your shutting up, helps get the witness to go deeper.

Further. People like to be heard. So in listening, you are doing something that they very much want. And that helps those you are interviewing feel more comfortable with the process. And the more comfortable they are, the more information you’ll get.

Listening helps you to make sure that you are hearing what is said correctly. A pretty important component of conducting an investigation that provides credibility in what you are doing.

Tip #2: Reflective Listening Is the Trick to Better Listening 

Reflective listening doesn’t just tell the witness that you are listening. It demonstrates that you are.

Reflective listening is the process of paraphrasing back to the witness what the witness just said. With this technique the witness literally hears his own words coming from you. And that reinforces that you are truly listening.

You can say something like, “Let me make sure I understand what you’re telling me. What you said was and then paraphrase what the witness said right back to the witness. And then shut up and listen!

Reflective listening also provides a way to get the witness to go deeper. When you take this approach, most witnesses will not just repeat what they initially said, but will then add even more information. Thus, providing more information than initially intended.

Tip #3: Don’t Work From a Prepared List of Questions 

When preparing for an interview, a lot of people draft up a list of questions they want to ask. After all, no one wants to risk missing something important.

Don’t do it!

Working from a prepared list of questions makes you focus on the questions you’re asking and not on the witness’s answers. And as I mentioned earlier. Listening is more important than asking questions.

When working from a prepared list of questions, it’s easy to miss follow up questions to ask the witness for any unexpected information that comes up. And the witness is likely to provide that during the interview. With a prepared list of questions you’re already thinking about the next question on your list rather than following up on this new thread to of information to pull.

Finally, a prepared list of questions is less likely to be open ended question which leads to a more stilted interview limiting your effectiveness.

So here’s what you do instead.

Focus on topics. Write down the critical topics to cover. You can also write down any names of key individuals or specific dates. Things that you might not remember without a prompt.

Then as you cover the topic with the witness, get them to provide as much information as possible about that topic before you go onto another one. I like to let them take me through what they know as a narrative uninterrupted. Then use questions about that topic to get the witness to fill in any holes in the narrative.

And, a topic based interview lends itself to a topic based interview summary, which will discuss later.

Tip #4: Don’t Bullet Point Your Notes 

When taking notes of what a witness says, many people write down that information in bullet points.

Don’t do it!

Bullet points represent your interpretation of what the witness says. Not what the witness actually says or in the manner that the witness says it.

With bullet pointing you’re writing down what you think is important. Basically, you’re interpreting the information on the fly.

There will be plenty of time AFTER the interview to interpret what the witness said as you prepare a summary of the interview by going through your notes.

The best way to take notes during an interview, even if you record it, is to document what the witness says in the manner that the witness says it. Capturing the witness’s own words and phrasing.

Doing so provides more detail, and it protects your from claims that you misrepresented what you were told.

And in addition, if you need to collect a statement, affidavit or a declaration from that witness down the road, it needs to be in the witness’s own words. You can’t do that with bullet points.

Tip #5: Summarize the Interview by Topic 

The most common way to summarize the information learned during an interview is to write a chronological summary that follows the course of the interview from beginning to end.

And while that makes it easier to report, especially because it follows the chronology of your notes, it’s not the most useful approach.

Instead, break the summary down into sections based upon what the witness told you by each topic covered. Starting with the most important topic first.

Doing your summary this way really forces you to assess the relevance of the information.

This approach will also help anyone else who needs to read the information, including those making disciplinary decisions, or potentially the organization’s counsel, to get the most important information from the interview quickly and easily rather than having to pick it out from a lengthy chronology.

And they’ll really appreciate you saving them time by focusing on what matters most.

And, if you prepared for the interview by identifying topics to cover instead of specific questions to ask, preparing the summary by topic is straightforward.

If you conduct internal investigations for your organization, I’ve got a really helpful free checklist for you. By following this checklist, you’ll be able to perform professional level investigations consistently. Investigations that will instill confidence in your work. Just click here to download it today.