Investigation Meeting vs Disciplinary Hearing What’s the Difference?

Investigation meeting: purpose

An investigation meeting is fact-finding. You haven’t decided what happened. You’re establishing whether there is a case to answer.

Disciplinary hearing: purpose

A disciplinary hearing is where you consider the evidence, hear the employee’s response, and decide outcome.

• Can I issue a warning at an investigation meeting?

  No an investigation meeting is for fact-finding. Outcomes like warnings should only follow a disciplinary hearing (or a clearly defined formal process).

• Do employees have the right to be accompanied to an investigation meeting?

  Often the right to be accompanied applies to disciplinary hearings. Some employers allow accompaniment at investigations as a reasonable adjustment or good practice, but it’s not always required.

• Should the same manager run both meetings?

  Ideally, separate roles where possible. In SMEs, that’s not always practical, but you should still aim for fairness and avoid bias and have different managers running each meeting.

• What notes should I keep?

  Keep dated notes of questions asked, answers given, documents reviewed, and decisions made. Notes are often the difference between a defensible process and a weak one.

Useful UK references

ACAS: Discipline and grievances https://www.acas.org.uk/discipline-and-grievance