Templates
Planning and scoping templates
Investigation plan, scope memo, allegation matrix and evidence log templates. Plan the investigation before the first interview, so the scope is defensible and nothing gets missed.
Most investigations that fall apart fall apart before anyone is interviewed. The scope was never written down, so it drifted. The allegations were never itemized, so one went unaddressed. Nobody recorded why a witness was not interviewed, so it looks like an omission rather than a decision.
The EEOC's position is that an adequate investigation follows an investigative plan. These templates make that plan a concrete artifact rather than an intention — and the allegation matrix in particular is the single highest-leverage document here, because it forces every allegation to be tracked to a finding.
4 templates in this section
Workplace Investigation Plan Template & Example
An investigation plan template covering scope, allegations, witnesses, evidence, sequencing and interim measures — written before the first interview.
Template + worked example + .docx
Allegation Matrix Template & Example
An allegation matrix template that tracks every allegation to its evidence and its finding, so nothing is left unaddressed in the final report.
Template + worked example + .docx
Investigation Evidence Log & Chain of Custody Template
An evidence log template recording what was collected, from whom, when, and how it was preserved — including evidence sought but not obtained.
Template + worked example + .docx
Workplace Investigation Checklist: Phases, Clock and Disruptions
A phase-by-phase workplace investigation checklist with the promptness clock, the five-day gap rule, and protocols for when the process is interrupted.
Template + worked example + .docx
The order these are actually used in
Start with the investigation checklist if you are orienting: it is the phase map, and it is where to look when the question is "what happens next" rather than "what do I write". Then write the investigation plan, which fixes the scope, the allegations as understood at the outset, who will be interviewed and in what order, and what evidence will be sought.
The allegation matrix then runs alongside the whole investigation, and the evidence log alongside every piece of material you touch. Neither is a document you fill in once. Their value is that they are updated as you go, so the report is assembled from a record rather than reconstructed from memory at the end.
Why the matrix is the highest-leverage document here
The most common structural failure in a workplace investigation is not a wrong finding. It is an allegation that never received one. It usually enters sideways — raised for the first time in an interview, noted, and then quietly absent from the report, because nothing in the process was tracking the full set.
A matrix makes that failure visible while it is still cheap to fix. One row per allegation, from first complaint through to finding, with the evidence that bears on it. If a row reaches the report stage with no finding against it, you either have a gap or you have a scope decision you have not written down yet. Both are worth knowing before you file.
Record the decisions not to do something
A plan is also a record of what was deliberately excluded. An allegation held outside scope, a witness judged to add nothing, a document not requested — write down each one and the reason, at the time. Scope decisions are legitimate; unexplained scope decisions are indistinguishable from oversights, and you will not remember the reasoning six months later.
The same applies to evidence you sought and could not get. "Requested on 16 June; Facilities confirmed on 18 June that the camera has been out of service since January" is a complete answer. Silence in the same place invites the reader to supply their own explanation.