From litigation lawyer to workplace investigator: Why this investigator says it’s worth making the leap 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• workplace investigators are in high demand
• lawyers with strong people skills make good workplace investigators
• the role of the workplace investigator is to get to the heart of a complaint or dispute – to gather evidence, establish the facts, and make legally defensible findings
• the work is diverse, interesting, intellectually-challenging, sometimes confronting, but also rewarding
• The role requires:

1. technical expertise to navigate complex legal, regulatory and policy frameworks
2. highly-developed trauma-informed and culturally responsive interpersonal, communication and interviewing skills
3. emotional intelligence and resilience
4. excellent organisational and planning skills
5. flexibility and problem-solving
6. awareness of, and the ability to manage, self-bias
7. strict impartiality and adherence to the principles of procedural fairness
8. gathering, assessing and synthesising vast amounts of evidence into clear, factual findings
9. excellent report writing skills.

In a growing national and global investigations industry, the workplace investigator is a rare and in-demand specialist. For legal, HR and compliance professionals at a career crossroads, this article might serve as a provocation to consider a road less travelled.

Q Workplace Solutions Investigator Courtney David did just that. Three years ago, Courtney weighed up her skills, ambitions, passions and options, took a deep breath, and made the leap into workplace investigations. This is Courtney’s story.

The career road less travelled 

In 2018, Courtney was following Australia’s well-established and trodden legal career pathway. Immediately after graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology she joined a national commercial law firm advising companies on litigation and dispute resolution, including workplace disputes and misconduct matters. She worked her way up to the role of solicitor and was on track to scale the legal ranks.

That was until 2021, when she chose to take the road less travelled and become a workplace investigator. Courtney was seeking a more people-centric career which allowed her to leverage her legal training to resolve diverse and complex disputes in a field necessitating highly developed interpersonal skills and one that contributes to meaningful change.

Since joining Q Workplace Solutions, Courtney has led complex public sector and anti-corruption investigations involving executive-level officers and multiple complainants and respondents. She has also investigated complaints involving conflicts of interest, misuse of resources, bullying, discrimination, sexual harassment and physical violence, for private and public entities, including ASX-listed global companies, across sectors such as health, housing, education, insurance, waste management, energy, and resources.

According to Courtney: “One of the most noticeable differences between being a lawyer and an investigator, is that as an investigator, you are the master of the process and can exercise your creativity and problem-solving skills on a whole new level.”

“Workplace investigations take place within an intricate framework of national, state and territory-based laws, awards, industrial agreements and workplace policies that investigators need to know and understand. However, these only provide the guardrails within which an investigation is conducted. Every matter — the issues, the participants, and the workplace contexts — is different, which is why investigators need to trust their intrinsic sense of reasonableness, fairness and good judgement when approaching an investigation.” 

Not for the faint-hearted

Courtney said the role of the workplace investigator — whether they work internally or externally — does not come without its fair share of challenges. Therefore, it’s important that professionals understand some of the more challenging and demanding aspects of the job.

Emotional and moral burden |Investigators are often exposed to serious workplace issues and confronting evidence when conducting interviews, including explicit or graphic content and moral or ethical dilemmas. This can take an emotional toll on investigators. The task of making impartial factual findings is also a significant legal, moral, and emotional undertaking. An investigator’s findings are the basis on which decision-makers determine what disciplinary action should be taken in respect of an employee who is the subject of an investigation. Further, investigators must grapple with the inevitable emotional impact of investigations on the wellbeing of participants, while steadfastly remaining an impartial factual adjudicator.

Managing self-bias | While investigators are trained to identify and challenge their own personal biases, when they do occasionally rear their ugly head, the process of reflecting on and managing ones’ self-biases is never-ending. Sometimes, investigators are required to make decisions which go against their own personal beliefs.

Witness management | As an investigator, you must be willing and able to manage people from all walks of life, including people from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds or those with cognitive issues, mental health conditions or neurodiverse characteristics, often in highly emotional and stressful situations.

Schedule | Investigators do have autonomy and control over when they conduct interviews to an extent, but there are times when investigators need to fit their work schedule around their witnesses’ schedules. For example, witnesses may request interviews in the early hours of the morning or later in the evening outside of their own work hours.

Detail, detail, detail | Investigators are required to not only retain large amounts of information at any given time, but to also identify and retain the smallest of details when considering evidence. An investigator’s “attention to detail switch” must always be “on,” as minor details can have a significant impact on the course of an investigation.

The challenges faced by investigators are of course manageable. A variety of industry supports and training opportunities are available to workplace investigators, including through the Australasian Association of Workplace Investigators. One key support mechanism that Courtney recommends to new or experienced investigators, is to prioritise self-care and mental wellbeing, including by conducting regular confidential debriefs with colleagues or mentors.

Change your mindset

Importantly, Courtney noted that while many HR, legal and compliance professionals may come to the role of workplace investigator with a wealth of prior knowledge and transferable skills, those in internal roles “will need to consciously shed their client advocate armour and patiently adapt to the role of an impartial decision-maker”.

For those contemplating joining this “wonderful profession,” Courtney’s advice is “to do it sooner rather than later”.

“I’d always thought that wanting to become a real life ‘Nancy Drew’ was idealistic and unrealistic. As a workplace investigator, while you won’t be driving around surveilling criminal activity like you’d see in a CSI episode, you will be doing something incredibly meaningful, ethical, and impactful (and also far less dangerous). It’s a profession unlike any other.”

Five reasons to consider a career in workplace investigations

Courtney has five compelling reasons to consider a career as a workplace investigator:

1. Job opportunities: high national and global demand for specialist workplace investigators, particularly those with legal, HR and compliance experience.
2. Variety: no two workplace investigations are the same — the issues, the participants and the workplace contexts are unique.
3. Intellectually rigorous: investigations require detailed and meticulous planning, sequencing, problem solving and analysis and synthesis of vast amounts of information.
4. People-centric: investigators engage with participants from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and levels of seniority within an organisation, necessitating, from a best practice point of view, undertaking investigations that incorporate trauma-informed and culturally responsive principles.
5. Values-driven: the fundamental principle of a workplace investigation is procedural fairness — to give all parties a “fair go”.

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In 2023, Courtney established the inaugural Early Career Workplace Investigators Networking Event to bring together newly minted workplace investigators and those considering joining the profession in a forum where they could connect and share experiences. Q Workplace Solutions has partnered with HopgoodGanim Lawyers and the Australasian Association of Workplace Investigators to stage the second annual event on 12 September 2024 in Brisbane.

Limited places remain. Register here for this free event.