Who should carry out an investigatory meeting with an employee suspected of misconduct?
It is for the employer to decide who should carry out an investigatory meeting, bearing in mind the need for the procedure to be conducted fairly. The person chosen to carry out the meeting should also be responsible for the rest of the investigatory procedure, for example interviewing witnesses and checking the employee’s disciplinary record. This will generally be a manager or someone from the HR team and, ideally, will be someone trained in how to carry out an effective investigation. A manager outside the employee’s line management chain is less likely to be involved in the case, and is likely to be, and also to appear, more impartial. The Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (PDF format, 1.58MB) (on the Acas website) states that “in misconduct cases, where practicable, different people should carry out the investigation and disciplinary hearing”. This may not be possible in very small organisations.
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