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Employee Relations

Investigation Protocol Builder

Build a mandatory, standardized workplace investigation protocol — intake-to-close steps, severity triage tiers, documentation standards, consistency safeguards — paired with a recurring investigator training and calibration cadence.

Inspired by Deb Muller·CEO & Founder·HR Acuity

What this skill does

Maps current investigation practice against the real case-type mix, defines severity tiers and mandatory triggers, writes an intake-to-close sequence with named roles and timelines, sets evidence and documentation standards, builds consistency safeguards, and designs a certification and calibration cadence so investigators execute it the same way.

What's included

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Customization intake
A short set of questions about your process and data access.
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Step-by-step implementation process
The exact steps to build this from your own data.
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Definition of done
How to know the output is producing a usable, defensible signal.
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Common pitfalls
Where teams usually get this wrong, and how to avoid it.

The process

Step 1 — Map current-state practice against the real case-type mix and name the biggest variance points.
Step 2 — Define severity tiers and the mandatory-trigger list as testable criteria.
Step 3 — Write the intake-to-close step sequence with named roles, timelines, and recorded decisions.
Step 4 — Set evidence and documentation standards, including what never gets written.
Step 5 — Build the consistency safeguards: report template, standard question sets, second-reviewer check.
Step 6 — Design the recurring investigator training and calibration cadence, with certification before solo cases.
Step 7 — Route the draft through employment counsel and any works council or union step, then mandate and communicate it.
Step 8 — Offer to persist this context for next time.
The download also includes the full definition of done and common pitfalls.

Where this came from

Inspired by Deb Muller, CEO & Founder at HR Acuity
Heard on Human Capital Innovations
Listen to episode ↗Guest's LinkedIn ↗
This skill was built by the Skills for People team based on Deb Muller's public remarks — not written or reviewed by them.