Which first step should the HR director take to handle the allegations in the email?

The HR director and the CEO of an e-commerce company with 330 employees each receive a similar email from an unrecognizable address. The letter is from an anonymous discontented employee. In the letter, the employees accuses the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company of financial fraudulent practices including using accounting loopholes to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars of bad debt, while simultaneously inflating the company’s earnings.

The anonymous email also accuses the CFO of intimidation, retaliation, and virulently attacking senior managers in front of junior colleagues. The email further states that the employee has taken great effort to remain anonymous because of a fear of retaliation, which may lead to termination for spurious reasons. The email states that HR is improperly chummy with the CFO and has never been able to conduct an independent workplace investigation free of prejudice.

Which first step should the HR director take to handle the allegations in the email?
A . Suggest to the CEO that the CFO be informed of the allegations, offered the option of a paid administrative leave so as to conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations without bias or prejudice.
B . Choose an external investigator of repute in financial matters to determine the validity of the allegations and conduct an impartial investigation of the anonymous employee’s claims.
C . Examine the Chief Financial Officer’s personnel file in search for information that may indicate that a routine of the alleged behavior is existent.
D . Research the company’s financial documents and conduct interviews with the senior managers and employees in the finance department to determine the validity of the allegations.

View Answer

Answer: C

Explanation:

The first step the HR Director should take is to review the CFO’s personnel file to determine if there is any information within the file that may substantiate the allegations. This first step will determine the next actions to be taken C such as a determination by the CEO and HR Director to carry out a thorough investigation of the allegations in the email. The other options are wrong because these are premature solutions to an issue for which (at this time) there is no concrete evidence to warrant an investigation.