Meric Craig Bloch (mbloch@shrinenet.org) is Corporate Director, Investigations for Shriners Hospitals for Children. He has conducted over 400 workplace investigations of fraud and serious workplace misconduct, and is an author and a frequent public speaker on the workplace investigations process.
If you work for a large company, it is unlikely that you will encounter the same people — witnesses or implicated employees — in later investigations. You will mostly see new faces with each case. However, it is possible that an implicated person in an earlier investigation may pop up in a later case.
It would be one thing if the earlier investigation substantiated the allegation against the employee (assuming he/she was disciplined without being fired). Then the finding could be discussed among a key group of people, because maybe the new allegation shows a pattern of conduct about which the company should be concerned. It might now also justify the implicated person’s termination. Of course, the prior investigation does not free you from meeting your burden of proof in the current one. But what do you do if the earlier investigation cleared the implicated person? Should you mention it?
