Employee misconduct and fraud investigations are conducted for several reasons, including: sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment for other employees, employee sabotage and intellectual property (IP) theft.  This recent article from Forensic Discovery discusses some best practices for investigating potential employee misconduct and fraud!

The article, appropriately titled Best Practices for Investigating Potential Employee Misconduct and Fraud (see what I did there? 😉 ), discusses how data is the DNA of an employee investigation, so you need to take steps to ensure preservation of that data.  Here’s one of the best practices for investigating potential employee misconduct and fraud:

• Employee Departures: Preserve data on every employee departure, especially if they are in certain positions of authority or have access to critical data within the organization.  Examples include:
  • They have access to data such as customer lists, project bidding information, HIPAA personal health information or other sensitive personal information, sensitive company information.
  • They are in a position of authority where they are managing others.
  • They are a “C-level” executive in the company.

Treat your sources of data as a potential crime scene and leave it to the professionals to process that crime scene effectively!

So, what are the rest of the best practices for investigating potential employee misconduct and fraud?  Check out their article here to find out before you miss an opportunity to investigate potential misconduct and fraud for your employees!

So, what do you think?  Has your organization seen a rise in the need to conduct internal investigations?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclosure: Forensic Discovery is an Educational Partner and sponsor of eDiscovery Today

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.