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The Essential Guide to Workplace Investigations: How to Handle Employee Complaints & Problems

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One of the responsibilities of employers is to insure a safe and secure workplace. This necessitates dealing with employee accusations of harassment, discrimination, workplace violence, employee theft, and other challenges to the workplace security of employees -- whether the problem is perceived from emanating from management or other employees. Lisa Guerin, an attorney specializing is resolving workplace issues, has written "The Essential Guide To Workplace Investigations: How To Handle Employee Complains & Problems", a 350-page, 'user friendly' instruction manual for managers, human resources professionals, and business owners, on investigating and resolving common workplace issues in a manner that is fair, effective, and in adherence to federal laws and state regulations. Enhanced with an accompanying CD-ROM with forms, sample polices, checklists, and other resources, "The Essential Guide To Workplace Investigations" is an informed and informative, offering step-by-step instructions on deciding whether or not to investigate a complain; taking immediate action if deemed necessary; selecting an investigator; planning the investigation; interviewing; gathering evidence; evaluating the evidence; taking appropriate action; documenting the investigation; and doing follow-up to insure future compliance. Simply stated, "The Essential Guide To Workplace Investigations" is an essential and basic reference for anyone charged with the responsibility of providing employees with a conflict-free work environment.

Even includes all forms, sample policies and documentation, checklists and other resources on a cd for editing and print out, plus audio scenarios and interviews.

Employee complaints and reports of harassment, discrimination, workplace violence, drug and alcohol abuse and employee theft are of grave concern to human resource managers and the liability of corporations. This field has evolved greatly since the 70's in every way, including legislation. This book gives the latest state of the field, with resources needed to address the issues which arise.

Nolo is an excellent service for getting the law into the reach of the nonlawyer. This book is compiled by a Doctor of Law, Lisa Guerin, JD, who is an expert in employment law and serves at Nolo as legal editor. She has also co-written such books as Dealing With Problem Employees: A Legal Guide and Create Your Own Employee Handbook: A Legal and Practical Guide, as well as writing Smart Policies for Workplace Technology: Email, Blogs, Cell Phones & More, and Everyday Employment Law: The Basics, along with several other texts in this field.

This book guides the Human Resource manager through ten steps for running an effective employee complaint investigation. In the first place, to establish the necessity for investigating, and then the need for immediate action. HR must then choose an investigator, and plan the investigation. Interviews are then conducted to determine the facts in the case. Evidence is gathered and evaluated. Action is taken. The investigation is fully documented, with follow-up.

This book guides HR through each of these ten stages, and provides generic forms needed at each stage on the cd which can easily be adapted to the particular situation. The audio samples on the cd also model investigation techniques.

Newsweek says that 'Nolo is always there in a jam as the nation's premiere publisher of do-it-yourself legal books' and this book continues that fine tradition of practical service. It just about serves as a corporation's legal department. This book can also serve to assist the legal professional in these situations, and could well be found on many a workplace lawyer's bookshelf, or, more likely, work desk.

The Society for Human Resource Management is an international professional association which provides current and comprehensive resources promoting HR's strategic role, and approves this book among its resources, which serves the corporation as well as the victim of discrimination and harassment.

"The Essential Guide to Worplace Investigations: How to Handle Employee Complaints and Problems" should have a place in your HR library. The book is easy to read and offers common sense approaches to tackling most employee issues. It would benefit novice HR persons, as well as operational managers. Overall, a great guide to handling tough issues.

I obtained this book and looked at it in reference to the dozens of investigations that I have conducted over the last twenty years. I was hoping to review my techniques and learn anything that I might have overlooked.

The books is well written and well organized. I found nothing to distract me from my study of it. It is long and somewhat wordy, with lots of examples. For that reason, anyone who is purchasing it in order to begin an investigation will need to find some extended quiet time. It contains checklist, but the full value of the book will be obtained through extended study.

The book is written by a lawyer, as part of a series called NOLO books, and the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management). I include this because according to the cover, this should lend credibility to its contents. I am not aware of either of these groups, so it didn't mean anything to me.

It has the feel, but not the obtuse wordiness, of a book written by a lawyer. It is very cautious in its approach and gives specific language examples of what to say and what not to say. I think these examples are helpful and enlightening and would be even more so to someone with little experience in conducting investigations.

Concerning applicability, I suppose the most important point for use of this book is that you must be ready to accept its advice. For example, it has an excellent section of "when to investigate." I agree with everything in that section. That said, the most significant failures in management I have seen were when the situation wasn't investigated, but allowed to ride.

I think that you would do well to follow what it lays out. I will personally incorporate some of its forms and wording into the investigations that are (unfortunately) sure to come my way in the future.

The sad fact is, there is very little positive about being a manager when you have a bad situation at work. What makes it worse, is that seeking help from others in your organization often decreases your perceived worth to the organization and labels you a "greenhorn." This book can help you deal with the negative by providing specific guidance and can give you a non-judgmental adviser on what you can do.

With the busy workplace, it's hard enough, at times, to keep day to day operations smoothly. The proper method of assessing problems amongst your staff is extremely important and will keep you and your organization out of trouble. This is a no-nonsense guide to address policies and investigate allegations that may arise. The keys to making a proper investigation and how to choose your investigator is discussed. Don't fall into the pitfalls that so many managers and leaders who fail to educate themselves about the perils of addressing employee issues in an unacceptable method. If you have employees, you need this book. Highly recommended.

As a fan of NOLO guides, which tend to be well-written and fairly no-nonsense, and of SHRM, which likewise provides no-nonsense information to HR professionals, I was predisposed to like this book. And I do. At first glance, I was very impressed. The book appears to be comprehensive, at nearly 500 pages, covers the gamut of typical employee complaints and misconduct issues, and includes a number of sample policies, forms, and checklists. The text is full of interesting, illustrative examples. But on a deeper reading, I found the book to be an ambitious effort that just skims the surface of the topic and could give the reader false confidence in proceeding in risky territory. Many of the discussions are very superficial -- for example, ten steps to an effective harassment investigation, ten steps to an effective discrimination investigation, ten steps to an effective theft discrimination, and fail to take into account all of the particular nuances or challenges one may face. The author will make relevant comments, such as "Don't forget about state laws" or warn that an investigation my implicate the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but doesn't provide a whole lot more information.
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The book is written in cautious lawyer style, with plenty of warnings about the pitfalls of doing things wrong. As the author explains, this area is a minefield; unfortunately, it is impossible to provide thorough mine-clearing guidance in a single volume. I would highly recommend this for HR managers and others who may be involved in the investigation process. But for anything other than the most routine investigation, I would be very cautious of the do-it-yourself approach and bring in an attorney or other individual with specific expertise dealing with the specific issue at hand.

First, I need to state that I'm totally "in the bag" for these Nolo books. I've purchased many, have had great experiences with them, and have acutally developed brand loyalty.

This is an important, well-designed, thoughtful book which should prove helpful to anyone in HR or related positions. The author realizes that -- even for people with a high level of professionalism -- that the sort of issues that prompt the possibility of work-related investigations are emotionally charged. Theft, harrassment, fraud, threats of violence, lapses in ethics...these are the sorts of things which can drive everyone in a workplace up a wall! Consequently she provides the reader with fair, effective, and thoughtful ways to approach various situations (including the crucial question -- does this situation even merit a formal investigation?) Step-by-step instructions are provided here, expertly placing everything within the legal context.

It amazes me in this day and age how many people still complain about sexual harrassment. You'd think it would be a thing of the past since most companies give lectures and have meetings over this constantly and I'm sure it's included in every training session going on. This book will help you get the point across better and is great for those people doing the training as well as the employee themselves. Some things can be handled quietly whereas others are going to take some work to fix. Nolo always has some good ideas and it is written by experts in the field so I learned a lot by just reading their ideas. It covers discrimination, theft in the workplace and has forms you can use when questioning and writing up the incidents. It also tells you the legal way to do things so you don't get sued later. Great book!

As a small business owner, I found this guide extremely valuable, as I do most NOLO products. Obviously, they cannot cover every rule in every state's laws, but it can give you a good overall philosophy and list of do's and don'ts. If you can't afford an HR person, which a lot of small businesses cannot do, this is one of several substitutes. I'd recommend it.

This NOLO guide will be helpful for anyone who is encountering conflicting reports of employee abuse or misconduct, and how to proceed with an investigation. It is a quasi-legal guide that has as much to do with the procedures to implement in respect to the law, while seeking to avoid protracted or damaging legal action.

Much of this is admittedly subjective, knowing where to draw the line and how to garner information. This book cannot help you with that and I found some of the author's examples a bit ridiculous -- such as on page 38 where she discusses one employee threatening another with a gun (!) vs. one employee parking in another's parking spot repeatedly. The troubling thing is that the first example is so outrageous it almost is not worth discussing while the second sounds like it could be an example of bullying and passive-aggressive behavior. However, making the decision on whether to investigate an issue or not is always going to be up to the manager, so these shortcomings of the book do not really damage its worth.

There are a lot of potential issues that can arise when a troublesome employee is approached about their behavior. For instance, what if they refuse to cooperate unless a lawyer is present? Are you a lawyer yourself? Many of these scenarios are presented and can help prepare you for what can be some jarring developments in the resolution of the issue.

Also included is a CD-ROM with helpful supporting documentation and a multiple appendices containing checklists and forms. For many people, this book will provide much needed insight into an area that most of us usually do not want to think about.