Comply with CA's Workplace Violence Prevention Effective Complaint and Investigation Processes

Employers. California’s new workplace violence prevention requirements will be here soon.

Are you ready? There’s a lot to get done in a short amount of time.

As part of these requirements, employers must explain in detail how “workplace violence incidents involving any employee are reported, investigated, and recorded.”

Oh. And one more thing. The law requires that these processes be EFFECTIVE too.

We’ll discuss what you need to know about creating an effective complaint, and investigation process, that complies with this new law, and lessens your risk of a significant workplace violence incident.

Hi I’m Mike Corwin. I help businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies lessen their risk from workplace violence.

I spent over 30 years conducting workplace investigations including those involving harassment, bullying, and violence.

I want to help you get started right now in developing an effective workplace violence prevention program. I’ve got a FREE workplace violence prevention checklist for you to use. It identifies the critical steps you need to implement, from an effective complaint and investigation process, to assessing the physical environment, to situational awareness and de-escalation, and even self-defense, that will help you comply with the new law while keeping your staff safe.

To download it now, simply click on the link.

These processes matter. California is right to mandate them.

We’ve all heard about incidents of workplace harassment, and bullying that went unchecked by employers until they exploded in acts of horrific violence.

Violence that could have been prevented had employers used an effective complaint and investigation process.

New California Requirements Regarding Complaint and Investigation Processes

So here’s what you need to know about California’s requirements. And what makes for effective complaint reporting and investigation processes.

California requires “effective procedures for the employer to accept and respond to reports of workplace violence, and to prohibit retaliation against an employee who makes such a report.”

And requires employers to describe “how employee concerns will be investigated as part of the employer’s responsibility.”

This is clear cut. So how do you create an effective complaint and investigation process?

It starts with consistency. In process and in practice.

Standardized Complaint Process

Every complaint should be processed in writing. Each person reporting an incident should be provided with a form that allows for a full description of the events that occurred including:

• Who committed the act of violence or threat of violence.
• That person’s connection to the entity and to the victim of the act.
• Location of the incident, including on premises or off premises, and the working conditions.
• Nature of the incident/attack.
• Consequences of the incident.
• Witnesses or others familiar with the incident.
• Who, including law enforcement, was the incident reported to.

The employer must also create a written policy prohibiting retaliation for reporting an incident. And that policy must be given to the complaining person at the time the complaint is brought.

Once the complaint is received it should be assigned for investigation to someone with training in conducting investigations. There should be a process in place to check for possible conflict of interests, and what procedures should be followed if there is a possible conflict of interest.

Investigation Process 

Each investigation conducted should follow a specific process. Standardizing the approach takes away guess work, and helps to ensure that each investigation is conducted effectively. It’s critical that a good note taking process be utilized during the investigation.

Documenting the actual words used during interviews and the manner that they’re said is much more effective than bullet pointing (which is your interpretation of what matters rather than what is actually said). And if you need to obtain a statement or declaration from anyone it will have to be done using their words anyway.

Here’s the process to follow:

Interview the complainant. Have the complainant take you through the incident in as much detail as possible. The interview should be conducted in narrative form rather than a stilted Q & A approach. Also ask about the connection between the complainant and the alleged wrongdoer. Ask for the names of anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have knowledge of the incident including after the fact. And what those people might say. Also ask for any documentation, photos, etc. that are relevant to incident.

Interview the respondent. Next you will interview the respondent. The person alleged to have engaged in violence, bullying, harassment, or threats. Provide the respondent with a copy of the policy prohibiting retaliation and ensure that the respondent understands the policy. Have the respondent take you through incident in narrative form, and to provide any additional information regarding the relationship and interactions with the complainant. Ask for the names of any witnesses or anyone else with information about the incident and what they might say. And finally ask for any documents, photos etc. that the respondent may have that relates to the alleged incident.

Interview the witnesses/other people with information. Next conduct interviews with each person identified by either the complainant or the respondent. And also ask them for the names of anyone else who may have information about the alleged incident. Also ask for any documents and photographs that may help shed light on what took place. And provide them with a copy of the policy prohibiting retaliation.

Prepare summaries of the interviews conducted. Each interview you complete should be summarized into an interview summary. Basically, here is where you’ll report what each person said during their interview. I recommend that you organize the interview summary by topics covered. It makes it easier to identify important information.

Prepare a report, findings, and recommendations. Using the information contained in the interview summaries, documents, photographs etc, and the employment policies, prepare a report of the investigation, identifying whether the information was corroborated, and how it was corroborated. And also include credibility assessments of who appears to be truthful. Then make a determination if there is enough information to find the incident did or did not happen, or whether it is inconclusive. Also identify what employment policies may have been violated. Finally, in a separate document prepare recommendations for those who will make employment decisions.

I always preferred to leave witness names out of the report in order to prevent retaliation should the report get disseminated. My preferred approach was to say, “one person stated she saw the incident, and she described_________”.

This way you still convey the information that corroborates or disputes the complaint while allowing for confidentiality during the process. It will be easy enough to identify who provided what information using the interview summaries should that be necessary later on.

Remember that when it comes to designing and implementing a complaint and investigation approach. The goal is consistency, and using a process designed to get as close as possible to the truth about what occurred so that decision makers have the information they need to make proper decisions.

If you’re ready to get started developing an effective workplace violence prevention program. Download my FREE checklist.

In it I’ve provided you with the critical steps that will help you comply with the new law and to keep your employees safer from violence.

In my next piece to help you comply with California new’s workplace violence prevention law, I’ll cover conducting a premises evaluation and provide some recommendations regarding internal communication approaches.