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24 J.L. & Pol'y 411 (2015-2016)
The Hidden World of Unconscious Bias and Its Impact on the Neutral Workplace Investigator

handle is hein.journals/jlawp24 and id is 427 raw text is: THE HIDDEN WORLD OF UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE NEUTRAL WORKPLACE INVESTIGATOR Ashley Lattal* Workplace investigations into complaints of harassment, discrimination, and other allegations of workplace misconduct have become a critical method for employers to establish that they have complied with certain obligations to provide a discrimination-free workplace. As a result, the fairness and effectiveness of the workplace investigation process utilized by employers has increasingly come underjudicial scrutiny. The nature of workplace investigations rests upon the assumption and expectation that workplace investigators are capable of being impartial in making findings of fact. For this reason, courts have identified the impartiality of the investigator as a key tenet of a fair and effective workplace investigation. Yet, mounting scientific evidence indicates that our automatic cognitive biases unconsciously steer us towards biased behavior. Such unconscious biases present a significant hurdle to attaining true impartiality and are likely to impact the workplace investigator's role. Workplace investigators, who are not specifically regulated, must educate themselves as to the potentially detrimental impact such biases can have at each stage of the process and make * Ms. Lattal is a founding partner of Shearer Lattal LLP, a Toronto firm specializing in workplace investigations, workplace mediations, and training. Ms. Lattal is a graduate of Cornell Law School (2000) and is called to the bars of New York, Washington, D.C., and Ontario. She began her career practicing in commercial litigation at a national law firm in Washington, D.C. and subsequently moved to a litigation boutique where she developed an employment law practice. She recently obtained an LL.M. in Alternative Dispute Resolution from York University's Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.

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