Using Internal Investigations

No company is perfect. Each and every company that exists has one or the other problem that the management has to face each and every day. These may be employee to employee harassment, copy right infringements, work place accidents and theft of both intellectual and actual property. These are only some of many things that you as a business owner are bound to face as your company continues to grow.

There is a relatively new concept of internal investigations that some companies have turned to instead of letting a government controlled agency handle any discrepancies. This article takes a look at whether or not your company should use internal investigations.

Benefits of Internal Investigations

For most business owners, privacy of their company is their most important priority. Governments hold the power to protect the rights of individuals and workers in a company. The best way for a business to tackle government oversight is by creating their own internal investigation procedures that ensure the effective enforcement of an employee’s code of conduct.

Use of internal investigation is typically considered one of the most basic steps that a company takes towards the provision of law. As any best California business law firm will tell you, not having an internal investigation can lead to dire consequences. For example an employee to employee harassment case can be dealt with by the company’s internal investigation effectively. If that is not done, and the employee files a complaint to the government agencies, they will renegade the business’s privacy to uphold the rights of the individual.

Here are some of the advantages of having an internal investigation department:

• Internal investigations can satisfy and restrict federal agencies that would be waiting in the wings to conducts their own investigation.
• Internal investigations are kept within the confines of the company, which means they aren’t an unmanageable PR mess to deal with.
• It is less time consuming and disruptive to have investigations carried out internally, instead of an external investigation lead by the government taking place.
• You can hire some of the best California business law firms to assist in such investigations.

It seems that it is desirable for a business to have an internal investigation department because it can maintain the status quo of the company while searching for answers and enforcing the code of conduct.

Tips for Internal Investigation

Here are few tips to carry out effective internal investigations from the view point of the best California business law firm:

• Before beginning with the investigation. Make the employee who made the complaint comfortable. Reassure them that their complaint will in no way affect the way the company sees him/her.
• Make the employee feel that he is being heard. The more concerned the investigation department seems the more open the employee may be about the issue.
• An internal investigation should neither be vindictive nor be apprehensive. If the culprits are unclear, all employees should be not be made to feel like suspects.
• Be firm in the punishment. There is no point in conducting an internal investigation if the person guilty is let off easy.