Internal investigation software solutions, such as i-Sight, allow investigators to view cases in real time using dashboard controls.  At a glance, investigative managers can monitor the workloads of team members, detect emerging trends and identify issues. Dashboards communicate complex information quickly. They translate corporate data into rich, graphical presentations using gauges, maps, charts, and other graphics to show multiple results simultaneously. Dynamic dashboards also let investigators drill-through to other data sources and reports for more detail about what the dashboard represents.

Dashboards are extremely useful in identifying the roots of problems. In many companies, certain issues may become prevalent in a specific department or office location. The ability to identify these trends is extremely important as it provides insight into areas of potential misconduct risk. Understanding these risks ahead of time allows managers to provide additional training or prepare/update policies addressing these issues.

Dashboard reporting makes it easy to:

Select appropriate investigators for each case. Selecting an investigator becomes a difficult task when employees know each other on a personal level. Even if there is not a direct reporting relationship between an employee and the investigator, ensure there are also no personal biases that will interfere with an investigator’s judgment. Depending on the size of an organization, companies may use third party investigators, while others use internal staff. There are pros and cons to both, as internal employees are fully versed in company policy and procedures, whereas third party investigators are able to maintain neutrality, as it’s unlikely they have any personal interests vested in the outcome of the investigation.

Choose investigators who will remain neutral and enter the investigation without prior judgment regarding the situation. In order to conduct a proper investigation, companies must be able to prove the investigation was conducted in a fair, unbiased manner. If an investigation is proven to be biased, companies  face various consequences, as they have not fulfilled their obligations to the investigation.

Cut off access to evidence. When an investigation is required, deploy measures to ensure computer files, e-mails, physical evidence, surveillance videos, phone recordings and any other evidence related to the case remains intact. Once the subject (the accused) is informed of the investigation, chances are, they will attempt to destroy evidence, making it difficult to prove they violated company policies and/or the law. To avoid potential lawsuits or accusations, Tim Mohr and Nidhi Rao  recommend sticking to company policies when collecting evidence. Tim Mohr and Nidhi Rao further recommend the following evidence collection procedures:

“A crucial component of evidence gathering is ensuring that the chain of custody is documented. This documentation should include a description of how the information was obtained, when it was collected, who has handled it, where and how it was transported, and where it’s stored and maintained. Improper documentation of the chain of custody during the collection process may result in information becoming inadmissible in court.”

i-Sight Investigation Software makes it easier to keep track of evidence by enabling team members to attach any kind of electronic file to an investigation case record.  Each “Exhibit” that’s attached to the file will be automatically assigned an exhibit number and can be categorized (i.e. witness statement, documents) and investigators can provide a description of the file.  Recording exhibits this way makes it easier for investigators to create final reports. The i-Sight Report Template function ensures each exhibit description is extracted from the case file and automatically placed in the final report.

Each time misconduct allegations are reported, a formal investigation may not be the answer. As investigations are costly undertakings, requiring significant investments of time and money, it’s best to pre-screen allegations to determine if they warrant further investigation. Develop a system for evaluating incoming cases, as well as the guidelines that must be met in order for a case to make it to the next step. Provide training to HR and investigative staff regarding the steps and policies established for pre-screening investigations to ensure consistency amongst the team.

Proceeding this way allows for greater concentration and time devoted to larger cases, in order to conduct thorough, timely investigations. In order to be successful, investigations require high levels of quality and attention to detail to avoid leaving out important case information.

Surveys are a great investigation tool when conducting witness interviews and gathering additional information from larger groups of employees. Although creating surveys can initially be time consuming and difficult to formulate, surveys can be used in a variety of situations within your workplace investigations to efficiently generate valuable information. Surveys allow you to collect large amounts of data in shorter periods of time when compared with the time it takes to individually interview employee witnesses. Chances are it’s going to still be beneficial to conduct face to face interviews with any employee witnesses that watched the misconduct or noticed the fraud firsthand, as these individuals have a greater amount of knowledge and are likely to be able to provide more detailed responses than other witnesses could. Surveys are a great tool for saving time and collecting information when there are a large number of witnesses that may only be able to provide smaller pieces of evidence or information relating to an investigation case.  Surveys are also useful when collecting information from a large group to learn more about any changes they observed within the workplace that may have signaled that something unusual was taking place within the company.

Allow complaints/misconduct to be reported through a variety of channels. This investigation technique makes it easier for employees to select and access a method for reporting a case and allows cases to be reported anonymously. For many, having to report misconduct in person to a senior level manager can be intimidating, and if it’s the only option for entering an incident, many incidents may never get reported. Face-to face reporting could potentially create a hostile work environment for the employee that’s fallen victim in the incident or lead to excessive money stolen from a company if an employee is to afraid to report that they have witnessed workplace theft.

Investigative software solutions, such as i-Sight Investigation Software , allows for multi-channel case entry, with all of the cases then being filtered through the centralized case management system. i-Sight Investigation Software is a web-based solution, which means that cases can be added at all times, and is accessible with a computer and an Internet connection. This type of accessibility also allows employees to report misconduct as soon as they have observed it- keeping the details fresh in their mind at the time of reporting.

Entry Channels:

When using i-Sight, cases can be created from these channels:

It’s much easier being the expert about one thing, rather than knowing a bit about many things- the same applies to your investigators. A useful investigation technique would be to assign cases that deal with particular issues to a particular investigator or investigative team. These assignments should be made when establishing your reporting lines within the HR department and your investigative team in order to avoid confusion when starting out.

By dividing the types of complaints and cases that investigators work on, it makes it easier to become an expert in a particular field. It’ll be easier to become familiar with regulations, policy updates and other legal matters in a specific field, as opposed to trying to keep track of amendments and policy changes for a variety of HR and ethics related topics. It also makes it easier to determine case assignment, because if “Investigator #1″ always handles cases involving sexual harassment, “Investigator #1″ will only be assigned to cases that involve sexual harassment.

Another benefit to this practice is the fact that as investigators continually work with the same types of cases, they will be able to complete the case in a shorter time frame, as they are already familiar with the workplace policy and legal regulations pertaining to the incident, they already have a good idea of the questions that need to be addressed during the interview process for all parties involved and they have better ideas of the types of evidence to look for and seek out.

Reaction time is important when it comes to responding to reports of observed misconduct. Should a case go to court, your company can be held liable if it’s decided that you didn’t act quickly enough once a complaint was made. An investigation tool that you can implement into your workplace is as investigation case management system that sends alerts to the appropriate members of the investigation and management team in order to ensure that action is taken as quickly as possible.

Investigation software solutions, like i-Sight Investigation Software, allow you to create customized workflow rules ensure that the right people are kept in the loop– and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

In order to make sure that the internal investigation is conducted in a timely manner, i-Sight functions, such as automatic notifications, case/task assignment, reminders, follow-up tasks, approval requests, inactivity alerts and escalation notifications allow you to set time limits on particular tasks and track case progress. These alerts allow your investigations team to spend less time on cases, streamline processes to remove confusion of tasks and responsibilities of team members, reduce time spent creating case reports and ultimately make the investigation process easier to handle.

One of the toughest investigation techniques to master is the investigation interview. The experts at Diversified Risk Management Inc. published an article, “Specialized Investigation Interviews“, in which they write, ”in most circumstances, you will want to obtain written, verbal, and tape-recorded statements from those interviewed. All information is to be cross-referenced with the information developed from other employee interviews, verifying and confirming results where possible.”

The investigation interview is the most critical element of the internal investigation process and must be carefully planned out before the interviews begin, in order to make sure all of the necessary questions are included and addressed at this time. By recording the responses from those interviewed in a variety of formats, it makes it easier to go back and review information and ensure that all of the facts pertaining to the case are in order before making a final decision. The level of consistency found in interview responses also helps organize the facts of the misconduct.

An investigation technique that will save your company both time and money is an investment in investigation software. Investigation software, such as i-Sight, allows you to effectively manage your case workflow, track the progress of case investigations and it also includes a feature that prioritizes and ranks the escalated risk associated with specific cases.

Other processes, such as spreadsheets and Excel templates make it difficult for collaboration during investigations and are difficult to modify as policies and regulations change- all of which are key features of internal affairs investigation software. In the article “Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance: GRC Technology vs. Spreadsheets“, expert Michael Rasmussen states

“Spreadsheets are a thorn in the flesh of risk and compliance. I have seen organizations with upwards of 40,000 spreadsheets collected for Sarbanes-Oxley, as control questionnaires are sent to nearly everyone in the organization. The questionnaires come back and the compliance team scratches their heads and says Now what? How do we manage and report on this data?”

When using an investigation software system, reporting is made simple- and faster, as all of the information in the case is populated and inserted into a custom investigation report template. i-Sight reports can quickly be exported in a variety of formats including MS Excel, MS Word, PDF, or CSV. These exported versions of your reports can be downloaded or emailed as an attachment. “The number one benefit of automating compliance activities is that you also streamline and standardize business activities. Technology reduces ambiguity, makes processes cleaner and makes you more efficient,” says John Hagerty in the article “Compliance Software Essentials: Build a Technology Toolbox“