Move over, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Sam Spade.
A new breed of investigators has arrived in American workplaces--outside professionals who are hired by companies to sleuth out the truth of employee complaints about sexual harassment, discrimination or embezzlement.
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There are no numbers available on how big this mini-industry is becoming. But demand for outside investigators is clearly growing--spurred by several state and U.S. Supreme Court rulings that stress the importance of doing a thorough, unbiased investigation of employee complaints.
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Outside investigators are typically hired to look into employee complaints that could lead to major lawsuits or that are too politically sensitive for an internal person to handle.
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Gary Scholick, a former partner at Littler Mendelson who opened his own investigation firm last year, has looked into a variety of cases.
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Ten or 15 years ago, such complaints would probably have been handled entirely by in-house HR people or the company's lawyers.
But the rising number of employment-related lawsuits over the past decade led many companies to reassess their policies.
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Many companies figured that juries would be more likely to view their investigations as reasonable and fair if they were done by someone not on the firm's permanent payroll.
At the same time, many law firms began shying away from doing investigations for their clients: They feared a conflict of interest if cases went to trial and they had to both argue the case and testify as a witness about the investigation.
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The result? Companies started hiring outside investigators, at costs ranging from $100 to $300 per hour. The total bill for an average investigation can range from $3,000 to $30,000 depending on its complexity--and the cost often isn't covered by the company's insurance.
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To deal with all this, good investigators need excellent interpersonal skills and an understanding of human relations in the workplace.
They must also have a finely honed understanding of employment law so they don't phrase their reports in a way that could undermine a client's case in court.
Because of the legal knowledge needed, some investigators feel that no one but lawyers should really be doing this work.
"If someone is an HR person, quite frankly, there are a lot of legal nuances they just miss," said Scholick.
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The state Department of Consumer Affairs says that independent investigators…are required to have private investigator licenses unless they’re lawyers. (HR professionals who are employees of a firm don’t need a license to do investigations within their company).