Workplace Investigations and Assessments
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.
We are impartial, experienced, and certified partners who will conduct thorough investigations and illuminating assessments to help you protect your organization while improving employee morale.
Investigation Or Assessment?
One of the most common inquiries we get is whether an investigation or an assessment is more appropriate. While the specifics of every situation matter, generally speaking investigations are used in instances of policy breaches or alleged breaches, while assessments are used to gain a deeper understanding of workplace morale and what actions leadership should take.
Who It’s For
Workplace Investigations and Assessments help senior leaders or a Board of Directors understand what has happened, or is happening every day, within an organization. As certified Human Resources professionals, we know where to look, which questions to ask, and how to document findings so that leaders can understand critical events or elements within their organization more clearly.
What You Get
Workplace Investigations and Assessments are sensitive engagements that must be performed by trained, experienced professionals. When you partner with us, you can sleep well at night knowing that in the midst of complex and delicate situations, you have an experienced partner in your corner. Our team applies their decades of combined experience to guide your organization through a structured process that will ultimately benefit both your organization and your employees.
Workplace investigations and assessments may be beneficial when an organization encounters situations like:
- Workplace conflicts
- Workplace complaints
- Low employee engagement
- High turnover
- Low-morale scores
- Harassment or assault allegations
- Grievance filings
- Return-to-work disputes
…and much more.
How It Works
When it comes to both Workplace Assessments and Workplace Investigations, we follow a multi-step process that ensures fairness, transparency, and accuracy. Critically, our team is able to collect information and, when necessary, determine an appropriate outcome for all parties involved without needing to hire an employment lawyer.
Our multi-step Workplace Assessment approach includes:
- Kick Off: We meet with your leadership team to determine the objective of the workplace assessment and walk through the process
- Scheduling: Next, we reach out to the participants by email to request voluntary participation and explain the processes and outcomes.
- Interviews: Once participants have joined the assessment we set up either virtual or in-person interviews that are anonymous and confidential.
- Report: Following the interview process our team will summarize our findings and present them to both participants and leadership to review and add their input. Once completed we will provide a final report.
- Recommendations: Based on findings from the workplace assessment we will provide actionable recommendations to leadership and follow-up with periodic check-ins to ensure that the changes implemented are sustainable and long-lasting.
Our Workplace Investigation process includes the following:
- Information Gathering: Our team reviews relevant documentation related to the complaint and all existing relevant policies that are in place.
- Scheduling: We reach out to participants by email and explain the upcoming process and their rights. Participation may be necessary depending on the case.
- Interviews: Two of our team members will perform virtual or in-person interviews with the complainant, respondent and witnesses.
- Report: Based on the evidence we will conduct a thorough analysis and form recommendations and reports based on the balance of probability.
- Debrief: Following the report our team will debrief leadership on the findings and next steps.
The iHR Difference
HR issues aren’t always predictable. That’s why we’re available for phone calls and check-ins whenever you need support. Get the advice you need quickly, giving you peace of mind and reducing your stress as a leader.
Our Testimonials
Arguably THE most valuable professional colleague that I have for my dental practice, Karen Brownrigg and her team at iHR Advisory Services have done the following for me: drafted employment agreements for my team, helped me to deal with difficult HR-related issues (e.g. reprimands, terminations, resginations), and provided valuable and practical team leadership support. Recently I enrolled in iHR's ProgressiveHR program and Karen connected me with her Dental HR expert Sheryl Ferguson. In the first few months of my team working with Sheryl I have witnessed an immediate change in my team and in how my dental practice functions: we have become much more collaborative, my dental team is starting to work together to achieve the practice goals linked to our clinic vision, and the workplace has become a much more positive vibe because of Sheryl's coaching work with my team. For dental clinics in the Ottawa and Gatineau areas that are currently suffering from HR problems and internal strife, I HIGHLY recommend working with Sheryl and Karen and the entire team at iHR - it will TRANSFORM your dental practice team!
Meeting and working with Karen from iHR was, truly, a most pleasant experience. Karen helped me to develop a workplace assessment program for my department and then provided some coaching and development opportunities for members of my leadership team. I am proud to say that following all of this great work, we have a more collaborative, committed, and engaged workforce and a new workplace culture in our department. Ask Karen about FourSight - it has been a game-changer for me!
We are a small boutique firm and Karen has provided us with excellent guidance and support when it comes to dealing with HR issues. She is very professional and we are very fortunate to have been referred to her and her team. Sometimes HR issues arise unexpected and a quick response is needed, which Karen has readily provided to us. We highly recommend iHR Advisory Services.
Karen and the team completed a Human Resources project for our organization from the beginning helping us to scope out the work, helping us with communications to our staff team, continuously updating on their progress and presenting the results to our board and staff. The work that was done was professional and a result of their impressive knowledge in the area of Human Resources. Our organization will definitely use iHR for future Human Resources projects.