When you were starting your business, did you stop to think about what you would do if either you or an employee was accused of something unethical or illegal?
Not a lot of business owners do, because quite simply, why would you? You wouldn’t ever knowingly act in these ways, and you’re sure you’d never hire someone who would either.
But there’s a chance these complaints will come up, either internally or raised by a customer, and you’ll have to respond in the appropriate manner. And if you're not ready to do so, you’re going to have a bit of an HR crisis on your hands.
So let’s stop the snowball from getting any bigger right here and right now. When there’s a conduct issue on the horizon, what should you do to make sure the matter is resolved properly?
Think About Whether You Can Be Objective
If you’re the person being complained about, or you and the employee who’s received the complaint are ‘close’, you’re unlikely to be able to be objective.
As such, you should remove yourself from the equation.
Outsource to an HR company who can investigate for you, recommend a course of action, and help guide the process in a fair and equitable way.
Conduct an Investigation
You can’t just resolve the matter in a few seconds by either rejecting it or accepting it at face value.
You need to investigate to find out what really went on. Only then can you come up with a fair outcome for everyone involved.
When conducting an investigation:
Talk to everyone involved
Both the person who made the accusation and the accused need to be interviewed.
Do so in private, with a witness if necessary, and give each side the time and space to clarify their version of events.
Find as much evidence as you can
You’ll likely have multiple digital sources to comb through here, with most evidence being either in the form of videos, or online messages such as emails.
You can use an Internal Investigation Platform to make this easier on you, as all you have to do is tap in your search term and ask the program to pull up everything that could be related.
Think About How This Happened in the First Place
So, what causes, factors, or gaps in your service lead to this issue occurring?
Is it a lack of customer service training, meaning your employees have no idea how to talk to customers or deescalate tense interactions?
Or maybe you have no clear company culture policy for everyone to refer to and keep in mind?
Either way, think about how you could prevent this problem from cropping up again.
When you have a sudden and unexpected HR crisis on your hands, don’t panic.
Think methodically, ask yourself if you can be objective, and get the investigation underway ASAP. Once it’s been seen through, think about what you could do to prevent this issue from coming up again.
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