Webinar on Workplace Investigations - Witnesses Interviews

Overview: Many employers struggle to gather information during witness interviews in investigations. Many employees for a variety of reasons are reluctant to be involved and can be less than forthcoming. Friends of employees and those accused of an offense are often downright angry and vengeful. In investigations, to meet its employer obligations, it's crucial that interviews are structured to capture and gather all available accurate information, notwithstanding employee emotions that are often running high.

This webinar will help investigators move through what often seems an investigatory maze. Some investigators, unable to gather information, turn to body language to make determinations of credibility. Not only can that approach be fraught with indefensible and challengeable findings, TV shows while entertaining, are not good training for interpreting body language. This webinar will cover ways to assess body language while combining with the facts as presented.

Investigations by their very nature tend to leave at the least some employee relations damage amongst employees. It's important that an employer learn how to take steps to avoid retaliatory behavior towards individuals involved in investigations or making complaints. Additionally there are steps an employer can take to minimize the inevitable gossip and side taking that disrupts business.

Why should you Attend: The assigned investigator in many workplaces is often an already overburdened employee to whom another time consuming project is now assigned, often to their dismay. This investigator may have had little to no training in how to perform investigations. Or they may have had training in the process of investigatory mechanics but never actually performed an investigation. In theory, investigatory interviewing sounds easy but in reality, it's often not.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• When are employees entitled to representation during an investigation?
• How to prepare and what to do before an interview
• Organizing your interview so you can ask good questions
• Strategies for the reluctant witness
• The angry "hothead". Dangerous or something else?
• What about tape-recording: Is it a good idea?
• Body language: Can you tell if a witness is giving false or skewed testimony? Developing behavioral baselines
• Considering cultural diversity
• The note taker and their role
• Taking notes and pacing the interview
• Starting and ending your interview
• Educating all parties about retaliation
• What about witnesses that are not your employee? Tips for customer complaints and joint employment interviews