Templates
Templates by allegation type
Investigation templates tailored to the allegation: harassment, discrimination, retaliation, bullying, and policy or code-of-conduct breaches — with the elements each one has to establish.
The structure of an investigation report is broadly stable, but what it has to establish is not. A harassment finding needs elements a time-theft finding does not, and a retaliation finding turns almost entirely on sequence and knowledge — which means the timeline carries the analysis.
These pages take the core report structure and adapt it to the allegation, with the specific elements, the evidence that tends to matter, and the analysis each allegation type requires.
5 templates in this section
Harassment Investigation Report Template & Example
A harassment investigation report template covering unwelcomeness, severity or pervasiveness, the protected characteristic, and employer notice — with a worked findings example.
Template + worked example + .docx
Discrimination Investigation Report Template & Example
A discrimination investigation report template covering the adverse action, the protected characteristic, comparators and the employer's stated reason.
Template + worked example + .docx
Retaliation Investigation Report Template & Example
A retaliation investigation report template built around the three elements — protected activity, adverse action, and causal connection — with timeline analysis at its center.
Template + worked example + .docx
Workplace Bullying Investigation Report Template & Example
A bullying investigation report template distinguishing bullying from legitimate management action, with a note on why US bullying complaints are policy matters rather than statutory ones.
Template + worked example + .docx
Policy & Code of Conduct Investigation Report Template
A policy or code-of-conduct breach investigation template — for expenses, timekeeping, misuse of systems, conflicts of interest and similar rule-based allegations.
Template + worked example + .docx
Same structure, different thing to establish
Every report on this site uses the same skeleton, and that is deliberate: a reader who knows the form can find the analysis without hunting for it. What changes by allegation is the set of facts the analysis has to reach, and getting that set wrong is how a thorough investigation still produces an unusable report.
A harassment report has to establish the conduct, that it was unwelcome, and enough about its frequency, severity and effect on working conditions for a decision-maker to act. A discrimination report turns on comparison and on whether the protected characteristic explains the treatment, which usually means evidence about how others were handled — evidence you have to go and get, because it will not surface in the interviews on its own.
Retaliation is a sequence problem
A retaliation report is the one where the timeline is not background material — it is the analysis. What was the protected activity, when did it occur, when did the decision-maker learn of it, and when did the detriment follow? Those four dates carry the finding.
Which makes one question load-bearing and easy to skip: who actually knew, and when. A manager cannot act because of something they did not know about, and "the organization knew" is not the same claim as "this decision-maker knew". Establish knowledge at the level of the person who made the decision, and date it, or the sequence proves nothing.
Bullying and policy breaches: know which rulebook you are in
A bullying report needs care about its own frame. In the United States there is no general federal cause of action for workplace bullying as such; conduct becomes legally actionable when it connects to a protected characteristic or to some other legal theory. Other jurisdictions treat it directly, and several impose specific obligations. What that means in practice is that the finding is usually measured against the employer's own policy, and the report should say plainly which standard it is applying rather than implying a legal one it is not.
The same discipline applies to a policy or code of conduct report, where the standard is entirely internal. Quote the provision you are applying, in the version that was in force at the time of the conduct, and measure the facts against those words. A report that finds a breach of a policy it never quotes has skipped the only step that made the finding reviewable.