Remote but Not Invisible: Investigating Misconduct in Hybrid and Remote Work Environments

Episode Highlights: As remote and hybrid work have become the norm, employee misconduct hasn’t disappeared—it’s just gone digital. In this episode, host Natalie Ivey unpacks the complexities of conducting internal investigations when your workforce is no longer down the hall but scattered across Zoom, Slack, and email threads.

Tune in to learn how to handle complaints in a virtual environment without compromising the integrity of your investigations. From digital evidence to virtual interviews, this episode is packed with actionable strategies for HR and employee relations professionals navigating misconduct in today’s dispersed workplace.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The key differences between remote and in-person investigations
• Common complaints arising in hybrid and remote settings (harassment, time theft, digital communication conflicts, and more)
• How to gather and preserve digital evidence with help from IT
• Interviewing best practices for virtual environments
• How to maintain confidentiality when employees are working from home
• Mistakes to avoid when investigating remotely

Upcoming 2-day Virtual Investigations Workshop: Ready to sharpen your investigation skills? Join Natalie Ivey for a live, 2-day virtual workshop: How to Conduct Internal Investigations – A Practical Workshop for HR Professionals July 23–24 | 🕚 11 AM – 4 PM ET | 📍 Via Zoom Walk through a mock investigation, learn credibility assessment techniques, and gain practical tools to handle even the toughest cases. Register by July 16 – Spots are limited! Visit www.rpchr.com or click the link in today’s show notes.

Resources Mentioned:

• Register for the Workshop https://www.rpchr.com/webinar/internal-investigations-virtual-event
• Connect with Natalie Ivey on LinkedIn
• Explore more episodes of The HR Investigations Podcast

Natalie’s upcoming 2-day Virtual Investigations Workshop:

July 23-24, 2025 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

Details and registration link:

https://www.rpchr.com/webinar/internal-investigations-virtual-event

In this episode, podcast host Natalie Ivey discusses Key topics:

• Announcement of the release of the 2nd edition of Natalie Ivey’s book, How to Conduct Internal Investigations: A Practical Guide for Human Resource Professionals
• Announcement of the upcoming 2-day virtual workshop: How to Conduct Internal Investigations: A Practical Workshop for HR Professionals on July 23-24 from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. The workshop will provide education on how to navigate tricky employee relations’ issues, how to assess when to open an investigation and when not to, how to prepare for and conduct effective witness interviews, how to gather and preserve evidence, and how to prepare a final investigation report.
• Examine the issue of managers just not documenting employee behavior and performance issues.
• Discuss the danger in firing an employee “At-will” without any sort of documentation and how an EEOC investigator sees it
• Examine why it is critical to have documentation that supports an employee engaged in misconduct that violated organizational policy or that the employee wasn’t meeting performance expectations
• Discuss the issue of managers failing to document employee issues, run to HR announcing they wish to fire an employee and then view HR as “the enemy” when HR pushes back on a termination of employment due to lack of documentation.
• Identify root causes to managers failing to document
• Explain the benefits of phone apps and tech shortcuts to help managers stay organized and minimize the burdensome task of memorializing notes of employee conversations.

Review several key solutions to improving managers’ documentation capabilities

Check out Natalie’s new book here:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Conduct-Internal-Investigations-Professionals-ebook/dp/B0F6W3CM8M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=85BSXHJNIJZD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fMSMv7BRFHw6ljJoBjP4uGljsUr8ocRRqCxTa6rWlSliyLb1ONDXw2uFskHFDMgJrFZYU6wBbZtWWt1f40QjEPHBqcKQLxThHAdG8qr7WYRjihInvDtQv5WKLxiNchk0ISvRSh3mVRHdpRjh0Xk1xOwGBrJJFKFS3nu6ZBJ2tPaRD5WxK2_S9j2qMo1FO37E_pjkwBF46P-zFuwxgvY-dQJmex4m-cgpkXKAbsvXSu4.Ycb0vQbtuKH2IaUhA4lKpd3uAreWsrft58a2JMMsVSw&dib_tag=se&keywords=natalie+ivey&qid=1748551923&sprefix=natalie+iv%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1

Visit RPC HR for more information.

Check out Natalie's REVISED book How to Conduct Internal Investigations: A Practical Guide for Human Resource Professionals here: https://tinyurl.com/y39s7n77