{"id":66,"date":"2013-01-16T07:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T07:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjbealehrconsult-co-uk.php5.hostingweb.co.uk\/blog\/?p=66"},"modified":"2013-12-06T21:08:23","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T20:08:23","slug":"how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The recent case of Stuart v London City Airport has highlighted the importance of undertaking a reasonable investigation before an employer takes action.\u00a0 In this case the employer failed to investigate the conduct of an employee who the employer considered had stolen goods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The employee was a grounds services agent who entered the duty free store within the airport to buy some presents.\u00a0 Whilst he had the goods in his hand he got involved in a conversation with a colleague which took him outside of the store without paying for the goods.\u00a0 He was then apprehended for removing the goods without payment.\u00a0 A store assistant had told the store manager the employee concealed the goods under his jacket before he left the store, however, they were never interviewed as part of the internal investigation or called to give evidence at the employment tribunal.\u00a0 The employer did not consult the CCTV footage nor interviewed the staff member who had beckoned the employee outside of the shop in order to have a conversation.<b> <\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The employment tribunal found that dishonesty had occurred but the claimant appealed and the EAT found that the employer should have carried out a fuller investigation given the gravity of the situation before making a decision.\u00a0 The investigation was not considered reasonable.\u00a0 The outcome from the EAT was that a new employment tribunal hearing should take place to determine how far the claimant contributed to this dismissal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The purpose of an investigation is to establish the facts of a case.\u00a0 This can be in the case in instances related to a disciplinary, bullying harassment, grievance and even sickness absence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>It is always best to make an initial plan by deciding how best to gain the evidence. This should include who should undertake the investigation, who should be interviewed together with what documents and evidence need to be obtained.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In determining who should undertake an investigation, ideally the investigators should be totally independent from the situation and the individuals involved.\u00a0 Ideally there should be two investigators, one person to ask the questions and the other to take notes as it so difficult to take and take notes at the same time.\u00a0 In a large organisation this can often be an independent manager supported by an HR representative.\u00a0 In a small organisation this can often be difficult due to manpower resources, but it is preferable that senior members of staff undertake the investigation.\u00a0 It is best to provide investigation training so that inexperienced investigators understand what to look out for and how to question witnesses.\u00a0 As an alternative it is possible to draft the assistance of specialist investigators or an experienced independent HR consultant.\u00a0 \u00a0Speed is of the essence to ensure that evidence isn\u2019t destroyed or key facts forgotten.\u00a0 It is always important to have an open mind.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The first step would be to interview the employee at the centre of the investigation.\u00a0 With a disciplinary situation it would be the employee whose conduct is in question or with a grievance it would be the employee who has submitted the grievance.\u00a0 The interview should be held in private with confidentiality at the forefront of proceedings.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a good idea to allow the employee to be accompanied even at this stage particularly if detailed in company procedure.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Questions that tease out the main issues should be asked, ideally using open questions (who, what, when, where, how, why) to elicit information).\u00a0 If there is a note taker they need to remain alert to capture the answers; it can sometimes be difficult to concentrate.\u00a0 Unless they have fast shorthand skills, it is impossible to capture dialogue verbatim therefore it should be done as accurately as possible. \u00a0It might be necessary to ask for the dialogue to slow down so that important points are \u00a0logged. \u00a0Nevertheless, questions that require a yes or no answer should be captured. \u00a0It is important to remember never to put words into the mouth of the person being interviewed. \u00a0\u00a0A set of questions can be prepared before the interview that can be supplemented as the interview proceeds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is a good idea to take regular breaks which help take stock of information gathered and to refresh the mind. \u00a0Some interviews can go on for hours so breaks are vital. \u00a0Tea and coffee should be available.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>All witnesses should be interviewed the in same manner.\u00a0 If fresh witnesses or new names are mentioned as the interviews take place it is important to interview these as well. It might also be necessary to interview witnesses more than once if new facts or discrepancies arise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The whole point of the exercise is to leave no stone unturned to ensure that there is ultimately no miscarriage of justice.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>All interview notes should be neatly typed up and ideally statements signed and dated by individual witnesses.\u00a0 With some large organisations an overall report is produced to decide a case to answer and\/or to inform a hearing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>An investigation should be reasonable, but where an employee\u2019s job is at risk and an employment tribunal claim possible, it is important to ensure that a thorough job is done.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent case of Stuart v London City Airport has highlighted the importance of undertaking a reasonable investigation before an employer takes action.\u00a0 In this case the employer failed to investigate the conduct of an employee who the employer considered had stolen goods. The employee was a grounds services agent who entered the duty free [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,145,144,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disciplinary-investigation","category-grievance-investigation","category-investigation","category-stuart-v-london-city-airport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The recent case of Stuart v London City Airport has highlighted the importance of undertaking a reasonable investigation before an employer takes action.\u00a0 In this case the employer failed to investigate the conduct of an employee who the employer considered had stolen goods. The employee was a grounds services agent who entered the duty free [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-16T07:52:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-06T20:08:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/\",\"name\":\"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-16T07:52:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-06T20:08:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ce9566af1066e09f0036f8bffc5b0613\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ce9566af1066e09f0036f8bffc5b0613\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/227097a841bf5933b6c34739813307a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/227097a841bf5933b6c34739813307a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation","og_description":"The recent case of Stuart v London City Airport has highlighted the importance of undertaking a reasonable investigation before an employer takes action.\u00a0 In this case the employer failed to investigate the conduct of an employee who the employer considered had stolen goods. The employee was a grounds services agent who entered the duty free [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/","article_published_time":"2013-01-16T07:52:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-06T20:08:23+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/","url":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/","name":"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-16T07:52:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-06T20:08:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ce9566af1066e09f0036f8bffc5b0613"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-undertake-a-reasonable-investigation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Undertake a Reasonable Investigation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ce9566af1066e09f0036f8bffc5b0613","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/227097a841bf5933b6c34739813307a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/227097a841bf5933b6c34739813307a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1217,"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/1217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjbealehrconsult.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}