Range of grievance and disciplinary investigation training

Our training for investigators into bullying and harassment complaints, and other grievance and disciplinary matters, is ILM endorsed and comes in a range of levels.

People regularly taking on the investigating officer role will need our ILM endorsed Qualified Workplace Investigator qualification.

If you have access to HR colleagues for advice and guidance but need training in carrying out an investigation, then the essential skills for investigators course will meet your needs.

It is essential that the person making a decision from the output of the investigation knows their role and responsibilities, and understands the criteria and policies for reaching a decision. Our deciding officer training has been delivered to many senior managers including London Underground and the Scottish Government.

If your have people who already undertake investigations and want to refresh their skills and quality assure their work, then invest in our our e-learning report writing module.

Essential skills for investigators

Managers are often asked to investigate grievance or disciplinary complaints and it’s important that they have the skills and a route-map to help them with this responsibility.  A poor investigation, no matter how well intentioned, simply leads to more problems down the track. Someone else needs to fill in the gaps with more interviews or a review of the evidence; deciding officers are unable to reach a clear fair decision if they don’t have the full picture in front of them. Appeals overturn the outcome. Tribunals find against you because of a process flaw.

This two-day course gives managers the skills to carry out a fair, resilient fact-finding investigation.

The course covers how to:

  • Plan a structured investigation and carry it out effectively and sensitively
  • Fact-find in a neutral way which will assist objective adjudication
  • Manage interviews fairly, impartially and in a way that invites full participation
  • Build rapport and manage strong feelings and difficult behaviour which can occur during investigations
  • Produce a robust and fair report of their investigation.

Contact CMP to discuss investigation skills training for your managers

Back to top>

Deciding Officer training

Deciding Officers or adjudicating officers need to be able to reach a fair and reasonable decision from the investigator’s report.  To minimise your risk at ET, it is important that they work to consistent standards and  in line with your policies and procedures. Conclusions need to stand scrutiny by Appeals boards and bullying and harassment Employment Tribunal panels.

This two-day course for Deciding Officers develops the skills to interpret evidence against your organisational policies to reach a robust and fair determination.

They will learn to:

  • Understand bullying and harassment employment legislation and its implications
  • Be familiar with the requirements of your organisation’s policies and procedures including the margin for judgement
  • Understand what constitutes an effective and rigorous investigation
  • Be aware of sources of evidence
  • Understand evidence – its risks and the need for corroboration
  • Understand how to analyse information including the relative values of evidence
  • Exercise good judgement in a fair, proportionate and impartial manner
  • Maintain impartiality and not let their prejudices affect their judgement
  • Work to objective criteria for arriving at findings and deciding on outcomes

Back to top>

Quality Assure Investigating Officers

Your investigators take on a responsible role and it is essential that they are fit for the task. The end product – the report – needs to reflect all the evidence succinctly and with clarity to enable a robust decision to be made.

This e-learning exercise lets your investigators learn and demonstrate their competence in their own time, reducing the need for costly ‘away days’. You are provided with a cost- and time-effective way of quality assuring your investigators, building their confidence, and streamlining your reporting structure. Each of your investigators receive a personal assessment which identifies their strengths, and any areas for improvement.

The module

The module takes around four hours of your investigators’ time.  They receive four documents electronically: the original letter of complaint; the records of interview for complainant and respondent; and the terms of reference for the investigation. From this, they write a final Report which is reviewed and assessed by our Head of Investigation.

Your investigators learn:

  • To draw together their analysis using raw evidence
  • To test the evidence against relevant policies and the organisational threshold for upholding complaints
  • To write in a way which is plain, clear and concise

Back to top>