Essential Guide to Workplace Investigations, The Spiral-Bound | 2022-07-26

Lisa Guerin

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Mishandling workplace complaints can lead to bad publicity, employee turnover, and legal trouble. By following the ten steps laid out in the book, managers and HR professionals can learn how to take complaints, conduct interviews, document findings, and ultimately make decisions to keep employees safe and the company out of the courtroom.

Learn how to conduct a full and fair workplace investigation

Workplace complaints carry serious legal and financial risks to a company, so it's essential to act fast when you receive an employee complaint. But an ineffective or poorly handled investigation can land your company in even more trouble than not performing one at all. It's more important than ever to ensure your investigation is complete, impartial, and timely.

The Essential Guide to Workplace Investigations shows you how to legally and successfully investigate and resolve any type of complaint or problem. It covers common issues such as harassment, discrimination, violence, drug and alcohol use, and employee theft. This edition has updated sections on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination and handling problems in the remote workplace.

The book guides you through each step of an effective investigation, including:

  • deciding whether to investigate
  • planning an investigation
  • interviewing witnesses
  • gathering and evaluating evidence
  • documenting the investigation
  • and more.

With Downloadable FormsYou can download all the forms you need, including sample policies, checklists, templates, and resources at Nolo.

Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 464 pages
ISBN-10: 1413329616
Item Weight: 1.5 lbs
Dimensions: 7.0 x 1.3 x 9.0 inches
"Packed with tips and strategies that will help sort out workplace problems quickly and legally." HR Magazine

"Everything an employer needs to know about investigating and resolving workplace complaints and issues is packed into this book, making it a top recommendation for any business library strong in human resources guides. It's the first on the market to teach businesses how to investigate and resolve all types of complains, from harassment and discrimination to workplace violence and employee theft, and walks the manager through ten basic steps from the initial decision to investigate to interviewing, gathering and evaluating evidence, and taking action. All business libraries need this." California Bookwatch

"Guerin, an employment law specialist and author, offers a guide to investigating and resolving workplace complaints or problems, focusing on harassment, discrimination, violence, drug and alcohol use, and employee theft. She describes the steps for the investigation of any kind of problem, common investigation mistakes, discovering problems, deciding whether to investigate, choosing an investigator, planning the investigation, gathering information, making and documenting the decision about whether misconduct occurred, and ten steps for investigating each type of problem." Eithne O'Leyne, Editor, Ringgold, Inc., ProtoView

Author comment: In the past year, the #MeToo movement has rocked workplaces from Hollywood and Congress to news networks, restaurants, manufacturing plants, and more. It has also spurred many important public and private conversations about the cost of sexual harassment on (mostly) women's careers, earning potential, safety, and self-esteem. Again and again, we've heard stories about complaints being downplayed, harassers being allowed to continue abusing employees with impunity, and victims facing retaliation for coming forward.

Allowing harassment to continue unchecked is never the right ethical decision, nor is it wise from a business perspective. Planning and carrying out an investigation can be daunting, but it's vitally important to your company's employees, culture, and reputation. This book provides step-by-step guidance that will help you come up with a game plan, gather evidence, question witnesses, and take action if necessary. If you hire an outside investigator, it will help you understand the investigator's work and findings. With a separate chapter devoted solely to investigating harassment claims, this book will help you with what might be today's most pressing workplace issue.

Lisa Guerin, an editor and author specializing in employment law, is author or co-author of several Nolo books, including The Manager's Legal Handbook, and The Essential Guide to Federal Employment Laws. Guerin has practiced employment law in government, public interest, and private practice where she represented clients at all levels of state and federal courts and in agency proceedings. She is a graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley.