There’s been an incident in your organisation, so what do you do? You could ignore it, but this probably won’t stop it from happening again, maybe with more serious consequences next time. Instead, you decide to conduct an investigation, but how would you do that? Our new NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation course shows you what to do and how to use the ‘PEACE’ model to get reliable information from your witnesses.
‘PEACE’ stands for:
Planning and Preparation – choose the right location, plan your interview and interview one person at a time.
Engage and Explain – set out the reasons for the interview and establish a rapport with the interviewee.
Account, clarification and challenge – clarify any inconsistencies or misunderstandings; challenge any contradictions.
Closure – summarise, record the findings and explain the next steps.
Evaluation – look back at the information received during the interview; reflect on your performance as an interviewer – look to see where you can improve next time.
Following this model will help you to get the best out of an interviewee, which should translate to better investigation findings.
Of course, interviewing is just one aspect of incident investigation. Once all the information has been gathered you may feel like you have 1200 pieces for a 1000 piece puzzle, so you’ll need to have a means of analysing the information and sorting out what is important from what is not. After that, you’ll need to come up with suggestions for corrective action and then put together an action plan that ensures that these suggestions get implemented.
Want to know more? We’ve just launched the brand new ‘NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation’ course and would be delighted to accept your booking. Dates are currently available at our venue in Liverpool, so contact us today to book your place.