Your Employee Made a Serious Workplace Complaint. What Should a Virginia Employer Do Next?

A serious employee complaint can create immediate pressure for a business. A Virginia employer may need to protect employees, preserve evidence, make operational decisions, and determine whether the complaint raises legal concerns – often before management has all the facts.

The right response is not to panic or assume that every complaint requires a full formal investigation. You should assess the situation promptly and make deliberate decisions about what the company needs to do next. Those early decisions can affect employee trust, the quality of the investigation, and your position if the complaint later becomes an agency charge, or if it proceeds to arbitration, or a lawsuit.

1. Take the Complaint Seriously – But Do Not Jump to Conclusions

Workplace complaints arrive in many forms. An employee may submit a detailed written report, raise an issue during a meeting, mention a concern in an exit interview, or send an informal message to a manager. The employee does not need to use legal terms like “harassment” or “retaliation” for the employer to recognize that the concern may require attention.

The person receiving the complaint should listen, avoid debating the allegations, and document what was reported. Management should not promise a particular outcome or guarantee complete confidentiality. Instead, the employee can be told that the company will share information only as reasonably necessary to assess and respond to the concern.

2. Determine What the Employee Is Actually Alleging

Not every workplace disagreement constitutes unlawful conduct, and not every complaint calls for the same response. The employer should identify the people, conduct, time period, and workplace policies involved. It should also determine whether the employee is reporting an ongoing concern or a past event and whether anyone may face an immediate safety risk.

Complaints that may warrant closer review include allegations of:

• Discrimination, harassment, or retaliation;
• Bullying, threats, violence, or other serious misconduct;
• Fraud, theft, conflicts of interest, or dishonesty;
• Wage-and-hour, leave, accommodation, or workplace safety concerns;
• Violations of company policies, ethics rules, or reporting procedures; and
• Misconduct involving managers, executives, HR personnel, or multiple employees.

Virginia and federal laws protect employees in different circumstances. For example, the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA) prohibits covered employers from discriminating or retaliating on specified grounds, and other laws may protect reports about wages, safety, leave, accommodations, or suspected legal violations. The applicable rules depend on the employer’s size, the subject of the complaint, and other facts.

3. Decide Whether a Workplace Investigation Is Necessary

A formal investigation is not automatically required every time an employee expresses dissatisfaction. Some matters can be addressed through a conversation, clarification of expectations, coaching, or ordinary performance management. Other allegations require a more structured factual review.

Relevant considerations include the seriousness and specificity of the allegations, whether the conduct may violate law or policy, whether the conduct is ongoing, whether important facts are disputed, the positions of the people involved, and whether the complaint suggests broader workplace problems.

Employment counsel can help the employer make this threshold decision and define a response proportionate to the issue. That early assessment may prevent both underreaction or an unnecessarily broad process.

4. Preserve Evidence and Consider Appropriate Interim Measures

Once the employer understands the nature of the complaint, it should identify and preserve potentially relevant information. Depending on the allegations, that may include emails, text or chat messages, personnel records, schedules, time and payroll records, security footage, policy acknowledgments, or information stored on company systems.

The employer should also consider whether temporary measures are necessary while the matter is reviewed. Options may include adjusting reporting relationships, changing schedules, limiting contact, or placing an employee on paid administrative leave. Interim measures should be tailored to the circumstances and should not unnecessarily burden or appear to punish the complaining employee.

5. Guard Against Retaliation

An employee complaint can create retaliation risk even when the employer ultimately concludes that the underlying allegation is not substantiated. Managers should be reminded that the employee must not be punished for raising a protected concern or participating in an investigation.

That does not mean a complaining employee becomes immune from legitimate performance management. It does mean the employer should examine later decisions carefully, apply expectations consistently, and document legitimate reasons for action. Sudden schedule changes, heightened scrutiny, exclusion from meetings, hostile comments, or poorly supported discipline may create additional issues.

6. Decide Who Should Conduct the Investigation

The appropriate investigator may be an HR professional, another trained internal employee, an independent investigator, or outside employment counsel. The investigator should be sufficiently neutral, experienced, and able to devote the time necessary to conduct a fair factual review.

An internal investigation can be efficient when the allegations are relatively contained and HR is not implicated. An outside investigator may be a better choice when independence, specialized experience, or additional capacity is important.

When Should a Virginia Employer Use an Outside Workplace Investigator?

Outside assistance may be particularly valuable when:

• The complaint involves an owner, executive, senior leader, or HR personnel;
• The employer’s internal decision-makers have a conflict or may be important witnesses;
• The allegations involve serious discrimination, harassment, retaliation, fraud, violence, or other significant potential exposure;
• There are multiple complainants, accused employees, locations, or complicated factual disputes;
• The employer lacks a trained, neutral internal investigator or does not have capacity to handle the matter promptly;
• The credibility of witnesses is likely to be central; or
• The complaint has already drawn the attention of an attorney, union, government agency, board, or other outside stakeholder.

Using an attorney does not make every aspect of an investigation automatically privileged. Privilege depends on the purpose and structure of the engagement, how communications are handled, and other circumstances. Employers should discuss those issues with counsel at the outset rather than assume that an investigation report will remain confidential.

7. What Does an Effective Workplace Investigation Involve?

The details should fit the complaint, but a well-planned investigation commonly includes the following steps:

1. Define the scope. Identify the allegations and factual questions the investigator is being asked to address.
2. Collect and review evidence. Preserve relevant information and use the developing facts to identify additional sources.
3. Interview appropriate witnesses. The sequence may vary. Interviews generally should allow the complainant, accused employee, and relevant witnesses a meaningful opportunity to provide information and identify evidence.
4. Assess credibility and consistency. Consider corroboration, contemporaneous documents, plausibility, motive, demeanor where useful, and whether accounts remain consistent when tested against other evidence.
5. Document the process and findings appropriately. The form of the final work product -oral findings, a memorandum, or a more detailed report – should be decided with the employer at the beginning and revisited as the matter develops.

The investigator should be thorough without allowing the inquiry to drift beyond its purpose. New allegations sometimes emerge and may require an expanded scope, but that decision should be made deliberately.

8. What Happens After the Investigation?

The investigation gathers and evaluates facts; the employer generally decides what action to take. Depending on the findings, the response may include no action, coaching, mediation, discipline, a performance improvement plan, termination, policy changes, training, workplace monitoring, or other corrective measures.

The employer should consider its policies, past practices, the seriousness of the conduct, the employee’s role and history, and how comparable situations have been handled. The employer should also decide what it can appropriately communicate to the complainant and other participants. While specific personnel action often remains confidential, a complainant can generally be told that the review is complete and that the company took appropriate action based on its findings.

If termination is under consideration, the employer should separately review the legal and practical risks of that decision.

See Lipp Law’s related guide here: “How to Legally Fire an Employee in Virginia.”

9. Why Use an Employment Litigation Firm for a Workplace Investigation?

A workplace investigation may later be examined by an employee’s attorney, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, another agency, an arbitrator, or a court. Lawyers who both advise employers and defend employment disputes understand how the record may look months or years later.

That perspective can help the employer ask the right questions early:

Was potentially relevant evidence preserved?

Were key witnesses given a fair opportunity to respond?

Do the findings match the evidence?

Is the proposed corrective action consistent and supportable?

What information should the employer document now if a claim follows?

The value is not simply producing an investigation report. It is helping the company manage the entire situation, from assessing the initial complaint and conducting the factual review, through making defensible employment decisions and responding if the matter later develops into a demand letter, agency charge, arbitration, or lawsuit.

Frequently Asked Questions About Workplace Investigations

Does every employee complaint require a formal investigation?

No. The appropriate response depends on the allegations, applicable law and policies, and the surrounding circumstances. Employers should assess each complaint promptly and use a process proportionate to the issue.

Should the complaining employee and accused employee be kept apart?

Sometimes, but not automatically. Interim measures should address safety, potential interference, and workplace operations without unnecessarily penalizing either person before facts are established.

Can an employer promise confidentiality?

Usually not complete confidentiality. Information may need to be shared with the accused employee, witnesses, decision-makers, or counsel. The employer can explain that it will limit disclosure to those who reasonably need the information.

Is an investigation conducted by outside counsel automatically privileged?

No. Privilege and work-product protection depend on the purpose, structure, and circumstances of the engagement. The employer and counsel should address those questions when defining the assignment.

What if the complaint is not substantiated?

An unsubstantiated finding does not necessarily mean the employee acted improperly. The employer should avoid retaliation, consider whether any broader workplace concerns still need attention, and document the conclusion and follow-up appropriately.

Need Help With a Workplace Complaint or Investigation?

Lipp Law helps Virginia employers handle difficult workplace complaints from beginning to end. We can assess whether an investigation is necessary, conduct an independent workplace investigation, advise management on the findings, and assist with resulting discipline, termination, severance, policy changes, training, or other corrective action.

Because our attorneys also defend employers in employment disputes, agency proceedings, arbitration, and litigation, our investigation work is informed by what may happen if a workplace complaint later becomes a legal claim. Additionally, Lipp Law also represents employees in disputes, which gives our legal team insight into how employees pursue claims as well.

If your company has received a serious employee complaint and you are unsure what to do next, contact Lipp Law.

Disclaimer: This article provides general educational information and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employers should consult counsel about their specific circumstances.