{"id":2754,"date":"2021-02-06T14:55:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T04:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplacetraining.com.au\/2021\/09\/06\/managing-risks-in-workplace-investigations\/"},"modified":"2021-10-05T16:18:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:18:01","slug":"managing-risks-in-workplace-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/2021\/02\/managing-risks-in-workplace-investigations\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing Risks in Workplace Investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"
When a workplace investigation is required, whether this is outsourced to an external investigator or conducted in-house, it is necessary to be aware of the risks which could eventuate.<\/p>\n
These include:<\/p>\n
Each party involved has the right to confidentiality. A breach of confidentiality occurs when other people\/ parties are made aware of the investigation, which could cause “injury” to the complainant or the accused. Types of injury include reprisal, injury to reputation, defamation, ostracising the employee, physical altercations, or the exacerbation of mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of consequences that could arise if confidentiality is breached.<\/p>\n
In a situation where disciplinary action such as dismissal is ultimately required, delaying action could potentially prejudice the company’s position in any subsequent legal proceedings. This is because a tribunal is likely to find that, if the behaviour was sufficiently serious to warrant dismissal, it would\/should have been dealt with as soon as possible. Further, if matters remain open and are not dealt with in an appropriate timeframe, there are greater chances of the issue causing conflict, uncertainly and humiliation within the workplace.<\/p>\n
\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Certainly, in situations where a company tries to save on costs by minimising the expenses of investigations, and subsequently needs to “fix” the investigation by engaging external investigators or solicitors, expenses are likely to increase. In many cases, it is better to incur appropriate fees and expenses at the outset, rather than having to pay reparatory costs.<\/p>\n
In addition, it is essential to ensure the investigative process is comprehensive and compliant with the requirements of procedural fairness, as well as sticking to the principles of confidentiality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Managing Risks in Workplace Investigations Vince Scopelliti – Wednesday, December 11, 2019 By its very nature, a workplace investigation involves sensitive and contentious information. When a workplace investigation is required, whether this is outsourced to an external investigator or conducted in-house, it is necessary to be aware of the risks which could eventuate. What are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[141,73,136,277,97,113,372,164],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}