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Podcast Episode 137: How To Run An Investigation – with Vicky Roberts

8th November 2021

3,438 views

3 min read

This Episode: `How To Run An Investigation – with Vicky Roberts`

This week, Lucinda is joined by employment lawyer, Vicky Roberts, to discuss the best practices when it comes to conducting an investigation – a practical guide to where to begin, how to proceed, and how to remain compliant at all times.

Key Takeaways

Certainly, if someone is accused of committing misconduct, the next step would be for a disciplinary hearing. Indeed, the chairperson on this needs to have a genuine belief, based on reasonable grounds, that misconduct has occurred.
We must encourage manager to break down the case into three parts in order to provide structure:
- What evidence is there to support?
- What are the relevant rules?
- Also, what are the relevant surrounding circumstances?
Problems can arise in investigations when delays occur. If a hearing or disciplinary takes time to mount, then tensions can be heightened as a result, leading to emotional involvement.
Lastly, if we create an atmosphere where the investigated employee is being heard, they are far more likely to to open and honest about what took place.

Valuable Resources

Join the HR Uprising LinkedIn Group
The HR Uprising ranked 9th in Feedspot’s ‘Top 30 UK HR Podcasts You Must Follow in 2021’.
Host of The HR Uprising Podcast, Lucinda Carney, is also the founder and CEO of Actus Software, where you can find additional free HR Resources:
- All free resources: https://actus.co.uk/free-performance-management-resources/
Introducing the new Actus Academy: your on-demand e-learning platform!
Virtual Training Programmes:
- How to be a Change Superhero
- Hybrid People Management
Change Superhero Resources:
- Book: How To Be A Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney
- Free Change Toolkit: www.changesuperhero.com
HR’s Role In episodes:
The HR Uprising Podcast | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher

Best Moments

‘The ethos behind a disciplinary hearing is that everyone sees everything’

‘What this helps to do is focus the mind’

‘It helps to ask exactly what I’m looking into. What is my remit here?’

‘I need to ask good quality questions about what happened’

About The Guest, Vicky Roberts

Vicky Roberts is an employment lawyer and also currently heads up the Learning team at Vista Employer Services Limited. Having worked in both an international law firm and in-house for a large retailer, she draws on plenty of experience of navigating the legal framework when implementing various types of organisation change.

About The Host

Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles. Lucinda also has a further 10 as CEO of Actus Software where she worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. Certainly, it was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.

“If you look up, you rise up”