As an HR investigator, when I contact an HR investigation witness, they often have questions regarding their participation in the investigation. Three HR investigation witness questions are:
- Do I have to do this?
- What can I do to prepare?
- Will people know what I said in my interview?
The First HR Investigation Witness Question: Do I have to do this?
The first frequently asked HR investigation witness question is “Do I have to do this”? Most often, the employer requires current employees to participate. In order for the organization to understand what is going on, and later remedy any issues, the investigators must speak to employees to gather facts. The employer can’t usually require former employees to participate. However, they often participate because their motivation for leaving the workplace was based on occurring harassment.
The Second HR Investigation Witness Question: What can I do to prepare?
The second frequently asked workplace investigation witness question is “What can I do to prepare”? Witnesses are not notified of the specific allegations in a workplace investigation prior to, or during, their interview. They may know of them, but the investigators do not share these details. As such, there is very little preparation that can occur. To prepare for an interview, the witness must know:
- they will be asked questions relevant to the allegations, no fishing expeditions will occur
- to reduce the chance of memory loss, the interview may happen quite soon after they are notified. This may seem hasty, but it will keep the evidence fresh
- they need to keep the contents of the discussion with the investigators confidential
And: Will people know what I said in my interview?
The third frequently asked HR investigation witness question is ”Will people know what I said in my interview?” Investigators will make every effort possible to protect the anonymity of witnesses and to keep the statements that they make anonymous. However, sometimes this is nearly impossible. For example, when there was only one witness to an incident. I have been involved in HR investigations where it was difficult to keep witness anonymity. In these investigations, I recommended to the employer that only a summarized report be available to the Complainant and Respondent. A summarized report makes it extremely difficult to know what any or all witness statements were.
In addition, witnesses have some responsibility to protect their witness statements. There is an expectation that they do not share the contents of their discussion they had with the investigators with anyone.
Simply put, witness preparation is minimal for an HR investigation witness, and your anonymity will be as protected as possible. Still, feel free to ask the HR investigator any questions you may have.
Dawn Hillrud is a trained and certified HR Investigator with Kn/a HR Consulting. You can read more about Dawn here, or you can reach her by email at: dawn@knahr.ca