Agency Investigator – A Lonely Job The goal of investigators is to make life easier for the vast majority of honest staff in any agency, but people are nervous around them nonetheless. Because your office is charged with investigating the agency you are a part of, you are at best looked at warily by the…
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Keeping Morale High When Everyone Hates Your Team
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Turning Recommendations Into Results
Why are great suggestions ignored? Among the biggest benefits an investigative office provides to both agencies and taxpayers are the list of recommendations they include in their findings. Some of these recommendations are monetary recommendations, while others are focused on improving the results of agency programs. These recommendations are quantifiable, specific, and many of them…
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High-Performing Teams
Investigators face a difficult task. For each case they investigate, there’s always more evidence that could be pursued, more facts that could be gathered, or more people who could provide information about a suspect or a situation. At the same time, investigators want to discover all malfeasance, and to gather sufficient evidence for each case…
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How Investigative Teams Demonstrate Value
Demonstrating the Value of Your Investigative Team Government agencies across the country, and certainly in the federal government, are finding themselves in extremely tumultuous times. The competition for funding and resources can be brutal and uncertainty seems to be everywhere. Regardless of whether you find yourself in a positive situation or at risk of underfunding,…
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Keeping Your Data Safe from Foreign Threats
Some of the most significant recommendations made by government investigators and auditors in recent years have been focused on technology. Recently, the US Treasury’s Inspector General found that nearly two-thirds of its technology hardware was beyond its “useful lifespan.” Several months ago, the OIG of the Veterans Affairs office found that VA data is not…
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How Institutional Betrayal Affects Agency Investigations
Investigators often encounter descriptions of events that are totally at odds with each other in the course of their interviews. In many cases, it can be chalked up to different perspectives; in some cases, it’s an attempted cover-up. But in cases of staff abuse, it may be something else entirely. Dr. Jennifer Freyd has researched…
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The Value of Meeting with Agency Executives
If you’ve worked in an office for more than about two weeks, you understand what a purposeless business meeting can do to an office. If you’ve got one per week, you know how it can interrupt the flow of your work. If you have a collection of them, you know how effectively they can drain…
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Communicating the Value of Your Investigative Team Webinar
If investigative offices are among the few offices that generate money and protect citizens from waste, why would they be underfunded? Sometimes the important work they do is lost in the translation. Watch our webinar recording, and you’ll hear valuable insights on how to: * Get more action taken on your recommendations * Measure your…
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How to Make Performance Reviews Useful – Not Cringeworthy
There are many things that make managing investigators different than other management roles. For instance, investigators are more likely to be attentive to detail, and interested in adherence to rules, so they’re less likely to cause problems by acting cavalierly at work. They’re also likely to believe in the mission of their organization strongly, which…
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Killing Distractions Before They Prevent Your Success Webinar
Without a plan that can demonstrate success to oversight agencies, investigators face a heightened risk of budget or staffing cuts. Yet with all of the uncertainty surrounding federal budgets and what initiatives are prioritized by the current administration, it’s more difficult than ever for federal agencies to plan for mid-term and long-term success. And while…
