Whether you are faced with an internal investigation following allegations of harassment or just looking to preserve a workstation prior to terminating a key employee, Vestige has solutions that will ensure that the technical issue you're trying to solve is handled seamlessly, and also that the legal and regulatory issues are handled properly. Vestige has experience in a wide array of Employment Relations matters.

How Vestige assists HR Professionals

Primarily, Vestige assists HR departments with internal investigations that may or may not become legal matters. The good news is that we treat every case as if it IS going to court...that way, we never have to worry about the one that does. This has some practical implications, such as ensuring that all evidence is preserved and extracted in a forensically-sound manner that ensures admissibility and can be authenticated now and in the future. Since HR issues often come down to he-said/she-said arguments and procedures are examined under a microscope, this critical activity is of utmost importance. Furthermore, Vestige insulates the organization and its employees from testimony and the range of issues that often crop up when internal IT is subpoenaed or simply asked to testify. And even if testimony isn't in the picture, eliminating the perception of bias is often an important objective.

Except in the rarest of organizations there are some other considerations for performing these types of investigations with an outside firm, such as Vestige. Some items that you should consider, include:

• Will individuals within the organization turn to IT for assistance when they are concerned about being "investigated" by the very people that are there to assist?
• Is there enough volume to keep internal investigator's skills sharpened? This is a 24x7 business with new information and artifacts being discovered and disseminated daily. In our experience, if the organization doesn't have 30 or more investigations in a year, the cost of retaining, training and keeping the software and hardware up-to-speed is more expensive than outsourcing it on an ad-hoc basis.
• Will IT make a good witness?
• Does IT want to be a witness?
• Does having internal IT as a witness bias the matter or at least create the appearance that it's biased?
• Does having IT become a witness open the organization up to discovery beyond the scope of general inquiry because the individual has "insider" information? (HINT: Yes, it does and this can be a costly mistake)
• What affect on morale does having internal IT perform these investigations have?

So, what can Vestige do for you?

• Confidential and discrete computer forensic investigations of any electronic media
• Image & Hold (preserve) electronic evidence upon the departure or resignation of key individuals of an organization.
• Identification and preservation of relevant sources of electronic evidence in a manner that is admissible, ensures authenticity and removes bias
• Insulate internal IT from perceived bias
• Give an organization control over the evidence in a matter that is cost-effective and provides a fast turnaround
• Lock-down corporate IT systems when sensitive terminations occur
• Perform incident response if the organization is believed to have been "hacked into"
• Crack passwords and encryption on corporate documents when password is forgotten or unknown
• Audit IT procedures to ensure compliance with policies, procedures and regulatory requirements