How to Conduct internal workplace violence investigations

Co-worker sourced workplace violence (type 3) is the easiest to prevent.

Conducting a fair and impartial investigation, when allegations first surface, and then using the information developed during such an investigation to base employment decisions upon helps keep co-worker issues from turning violent.

For California employers, doing so effectively, is also a requirement under California’s new workplace violence prevention law.

Developing a standard process for conducting workplace violence investigations is the best way to ensure the effectiveness of the investigations conducted. Doing so allows employees to have trust in the process. And that trust helps your employees feel that you have their back.

In this piece, I cover the approach that I used to conduct fact-finding investigations into workplace violence incidents. I developed, and refined my approach over 30 years of conducting litigation and third-party fact-finding workplace investigations.

California now requires employers to develop, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention program. My workplace violence prevention checklist helps California employers take the guesswork out of complying with California’s new workplace violence prevention requirements, and with keeping your employees safe from the four source types of workplace violence. 

Review the Complaint Form 

Begin each investigation by reviewing the complaint form submitted by the complaining party (yes you should have a standardized complaint form as part of the complaint process). Make sure that you understand the nature of the allegations, including who was involved, where the alleged incidents took place, who knew of any issues or was notified of the allegations, and who may have witnessed the alleged incident.

Based upon your review of the complaint, create an initial list of people to interview. You’ll build that list of out further as you conduct interviews and identify other people to interview.

Also, write down the topics that you will need to cover during your interviews with the complainant, respondent, and witnesses.

I have found it is more effective to work from a list of topics, rather than specific questions to ask, as doing so allows you to follow any new or unanticipated threads of information that surface during the interview. While making sure that you don’t overlook any important elements to cover during the interviews.

And working from a list of topics keeps you focused on what the witness has to say rather than focusing on the next question on your list.

Interview the Complainant  

After reviewing the complaint, the next step is to conduct an interview with the complaining person. 

•  At the start of the interview, provide the complainant with a copy of your policy prohibiting retaliation, and also your confidentiality policy for the investigation process.
•  Have the complainant walk you through the actions that led to bringing the complaint. Make sure to ask about any previous incidents, and about any prior efforts to address the issues that formed the basis for the complaint. 
•  Use this interview to identify potential witnesses to interview and what information they might provide when interviewed. And to identify any relevant documents, recordings, video, and photos that are relevant to the investigation. And finally, identify the complainant’s goal (outcomes sought) in reporting the alleged incident. 

Interview the Respondent 

After interviewing the complaining party, the next person to be interviewed should be the respondent, the person alleged to have engaged in the act of violence. 

•  Provide the respondent with copies of your policies prohibiting retaliation and requiring confidentiality during the investigation process. 
•  Have the respondent take you through the incident in narrative fashion including any prior incidents that have occurred. Use this process to identify any witnesses, documentation, videos, or photos that the respondent believes can provide insight into what took place. And identify outcomes the respondent seeks.
•  Determine any relevant training that respondent has previously undergone that relates to the allegations. 

Interview Witnesses Identified by Either Party 

After the initial interviews are conducted, the next step in the process is to interview anyone identified by either party, or in the written complaint, that may possess information about the alleged incident. You may also want to include anyone that either party spoke to about the incident even if they did not themselves see the incident. Just in case you need to look at consistency of statements in order to assess credibility. 

•  Make sure to provide the witnesses with copies of the policies on retaliation and confidentiality. 
•  Have the witnesses take you through, in narrative form, the incidents in question, as well as any other incidents of similar behavior observed. Ask the witnesses to identify any other possible witnesses too. And interview any of those individuals too. 

Prepare Interview Summaries 

After completing the interviews, prepare a summary of each interview conducted. Use these summaries to detail the specific information provided by each person interviewed. 

There are two approaches to preparing a summary. One approach is to summarize the information in chronological order as the information is told to you. This is an easier approach to prepare the summary, but makes it harder to locate specific information when preparing the investigation report.

A second, approach, which I believe makes it easier to convey information to others, and to help you quickly identify information when preparing an investigation report, is to organize the interview summary by topic.

With a topic based summary, begin with the most important information and work your way through the topics in descending order based upon relevance.

Personnel Files and Other Documents 

Review personnel files to look for prior instances of allegations, and of progressive discipline, as well as the nature and types of training provided to each party. This is especially important relative to the respondent to ascertain the types and nature of training he’s received since that factors into any disciplinary action.

Obtain and review any documents, videos, notes, and photos identified during the interviews that may be relevant to the investigation, or that can help assist you in making a credibility determination should that become necessary. 

Assess Information and Credibility 

After the interview summaries are prepared, and any additional relevant information has been obtained, the next step is to assess the information developed during the investigation.

•  Evaluate the information obtained from interviews and additional documentation, for its relevance to the complaint. Does the information corroborate, or disprove, the allegations. And if so how solidly does it do so. There will be investigations that are inconclusive, but you’ll still need to evaluate the information developed to determine whether the information supports the likelihood of an incident happening or not happening.
•  Assessing credibility is a part of conducting an investigation. Credibility determinations are based upon the information developed, its relevancy, and materiality, and the honesty and veracity of the complainant and respondent. 

Report Preparation and Findings

Once the information developed during the investigation has been assessed, you’ll will prepare a report of investigation summarizing your findings.

•  Using the complaint, interview summaries, personnel files, other documents collected, prepare a summary report, identifying the allegations raised in the complaint and whether that information has been corroborated, disproved, or is inconclusive (neither proven nor disproven) as to whether it occurred. 
•  Based upon your summary report, prepare a list of findings and a separate set of recommendations based upon the information developed during the investigation. 
•  In order to protect those who participated in the investigation against retaliation, as required under California’s workplace violence prevention law, it is best not to identify them by name in the report summarizing the investigation. Instead use statements such as two witnesses observed the incident and reported seeing or hearing________. The report of findings, because it is used to determine any disciplinary action or other steps to be taken, is typically disseminated to a wider group of people than are witness interview summaries. Thus, not identifying witnesses by name helps to protect them against retaliation.
•  Provide the report of findings and recommendations to those who are involved in making determinations about any disciplinary actions. 

There are multiple elements required to develop, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention program as required by California’s new workplace violence prevention law. Take the guesswork out of complying with California’s new law, and keeping your employees safe from violence. Schedule a call and we’ll discuss where you are in the workplace violence prevention process, whether it’s conducting an a safety hazard assessment, surveying employees to determine their biggest workplace violence concerns, setting up an effective complaint and investigation process, or conducting violence prevention training including in strategies to avoid physical harm from violence.