HR departments and private investigators
There are a number of reasons a HR department may contact the services of a Private Investigator to carry out services on their behalf. The HR (Human resources) department is the hub of any large company, responsible for such things as recruitment, payroll, employment policies and benefits. They often act as a go-between for employees and managers, and can clarify basic company information such as maternity leave and sick pay.
Also they keep the company fully au fait with changes in employment laws and employee disputes between the employee and the employer, which they try to resolve and keep the business turning with as few glitches as possible.
Sometimes disputes cannot be solved without some outside help. An employee may claim workplace injury and is looking to claim against the employer. Nobody minds paying out for a legitimate claim but sometimes it is suspected that a claim isn’t as genuine as what the claimant is making out.
We are often called to investigate the validity of such a claim. The only way to do this is to get hard evidence to prove if the claim is genuine or not. M.R. Investigations will in such cases place the claimant under a period of surveillance and covertly record the claimant by means of video.
Surveillance services
Our surveillance operatives will collate the evidence over a period of days and will furnish the client with a written report that is admissible in any subsequent employee tribunals. Just recently we received excellent news from one of our HR clients about a case we covered for them which was featured on the ABI website https://www.theabi.org.uk/news/the-employer-client-was-right-to-suspect. (Certain details such as locations etc. were changed to protect individuals).
Another time a HR department will use our services is if an employee is on long term or regular sick leave. It is one of the responsibilities of the HR team to keep note of such things and quite often gossip from the shop floor filters through line managers and back to the HR department.
They are then left with a choice, dismiss it as idle gossip or investigate the whispers. If they decide to investigate the rumours there is only so far they can go before they will need to find out what is really going on and will need to call upon the services of a private detective agency.
In our experience when an employer suspects an employee isn’t being truthful it’s usually for a good reason and employing a private investigator is money well spent and quite often saves the company thousands of pounds in the long run.
Again as we would investigate an employee making a claim against the company we would place the person under a period of surveillance and gather video evidence. Stills cameras have no place in these situations as sometimes a medical expert will be required to study the evidence and focus on the fluidity of the person.
Suspicions of theft are another cause for concern and cost businesses £190 million pounds each year according to one website. This could be from something as small as stealing toilet paper to something far more expensive. Theft is something that needs nipping in the bud as soon as possible before it gets out of hand and again private detectives can assist HR departments in such situations.
Keeping it legal
With HR departments always keeping abreast of legal developments, so too must any professional investigation agency. With being members of the Association of British investigators we have to adhere to the laws just like anyone else. There would be no point us conducting an investigation illegally as any such tactics would result in a case being thrown out of court.
All such investigations will be carried out to the letter of the law. With surveillance for instance, that would be knowing when and where you can lawfully obtain video evidence without encroaching in to intrusive methods.
The preconceived image of a shady PI lurking in the shadows with a trilby hat and burberry mac, using any dirty trick available to obtain a result has long gone. (we would still strongly recommend you carry out due diligence prior to instructing a detective agency as there is always one rotten apple in the basket).
Keeping it secure
Any self respecting private investigation agency will be up to date and fully compliant with GDPR. At M.R. Investigations we take data protection very seriously. Before the new 2018 DPA was rolled out to replace the old 1998 DPA (incidentally the same year we started out as private investigators) We implemented the requirements of the new data protection act.
One HR department we met with as GDPR was being introduced, that required an employee investigating were very impressed with our knowledge of current data protection laws and went on to say that it was a concern of theirs, hiring a private investigator for the first time and was a question they were going to ask us. We went on to inform them of how we intended to share documents, video evidence etc. securely and they admitted that we had an answer to some questions that they had not got an answer for and would be using some of our methods in the future.
We assist HR departments across Coventry, Warwickshire, Birmingham and the West Midlands area. Further reading on GDPR for private investigators and other organisations. https://www.investigateit.co.uk/gdpr-18-months-in/
© September 2019