The importance of interviewing witnesses in a sexual harassment complaint cannot be overstated. Witnesses will provide third party information that will help you objectively decide what happened.
When conducting a Sexual Harassment investigation the most important thing you will do is interview witnesses. In addition to the accuser and accused you will need to interview other employees who may have witnessed the alleged harassment. These interviews need to be done in a specific manner to insure privacy and accuracy in your investigation.
When you conduct interviews for an investigation make sure you include a silent witness to take notes. This witness will insure the accuracy of your notes and provide a third party viewpoint. This will make your information even more accurate.
The best way to gather witnesses is during the interviews of the accused and accuser. Many times their witnesses will be the same. Interview these people first. Always start by telling them how important and serious the investigation is and how you expect full cooperation and honesty. Tell the person you are interviewing that you will make sure that the information they give you will be as confidential as possible. In reality Human Resources, the company CEO and legal counsel will need to know the information, so it cannot be completely confidential.
Sexual Harassment interviews need to be conducted in a private location. This can be on site or off site, but it needs to be in a place that won't be witnessed by other employees. You don't want a witness to be harassed or intimidated and you want them to feel as comfortable as possible to give a informative interview. Make sure you also have the witness write a summary of the events in their own words so that you can ensure that stories don't change over time.
Continue your interviews until you are satisfied that you have an accurate representation of what happened. These witness interviews are a huge part of the final report you will write to Human Resources or your Legal Department. Accurate, thorough information is imperative to a fair investigation of the complaint.
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