Checklist-What to include when documenting a workplace investigation

What should you include in documentation to make it meaningful, helpful or useful? At a minimum, documentation should include:

• The purpose of the documentation, i.e., written warning, manager's log, logging a complaint, etc.

• The critical elements-who, what, where, when why and how.

• How the event impacted your business-cited by decision makers as the key to effective documentation as it shows what your legitimate business reason was for taking the action.

• Relevant policies and procedures.

• Past documentation relevant to the event-attach past warnings, incident reports and performance appraisals, as applicable.

• Corrective action taken.

• Action plan for follow up.

• Statement of consequences.

• Signature and dates-if the employee refuses to sign, make a note on the document and have a witness sign the note.

Final review. Before documentation is filed in an employee's personnel file, ask another manager or human resources representative to read and sign off on it. This final review ensures that no improper comments are contained in the file. It also ensures consistency with organization policy and procedure and that there is an accurate record that can be relied upon to explain the action that results from the investigation.

The reviewer should be someone who is trained and familiar with both the laws under which an individual could bring a legal action as a result of disciplinary documentation and with your organization's policy. It should also be someone who has been authorized by your organization's lawyer to have access to this kind of documentation.

Checklist: what to look for when reviewing documentation

These are some of the things you should look for when reviewing documentation of a disciplinary incident.

• Is it complete?

• Is it specific?

• Is it clear?

• Is it relevant?

• Does it avoid labels and conclusions (is it objective)?

• Is it factual and accurate?

• Is it consistent?

• Is it fresh-how much time elapsed between the incident and the write up?