Senior Workforce Investigator

Role Responsibilities

Do you want to be part of ensuring safe, respectful workplaces across the Alberta Public Service? Do you thrive on uncovering facts, solving complex problems and ensuring fairness in some of the most challenge and complex situations? Join the Government of Alberta as a Senior Workforce Investigator and play a critical role in upholding the organization’s policies and values. 

What You’ll Do

As a Senior Workforce Investigator, you will conduct thorough employment investigations across the Alberta Public Service with a focus on highly sensitive and complex files. You will investigate matters in relation to the Respectful Workplace Policy (RWP), misconduct, Code of Conduct, information security breaches, and more. You will be responsible for gathering facts, making conclusions and coming to findings through analysis against relevant policies. Your work will directly inform key and often high-profile employment decisions and provide valuable information to leaders to effectively manage the workforce. The work done by this position is instrumental in upholding healthy and respectful work environments across the Government of Alberta.

Key responsibilities include:
•    Planning and conducting thorough investigations into highly complex and sensitive workplace complaints. 
•    Independently leading highly contentious or complex investigations where there are barriers to information gathering and where impacts to the organization are significant. 
•    Interviewing complainants, respondents and witnesses with professionalism and neutrality often under highly contentious circumstances.
•    Collecting, analyzing and assessing evidence to determine findings based on the balance of probabilities.
•    Preparing high-quality, defensible investigative reports that may be relied upon by senior officials in making critical decisions. These decisions can result in disciplinary action, grievance, arbitration, or legal proceedings and the reports most be both accurate and reliable as a result. 
•    Overseeing triage of formal complaints and requests for investigation, ensuring timely and appropriate routing.
•    Collaborating with internal stakeholders such as Labour Relations specialists, legal advisors, HR personnel and management, to ensure the completion of accurate and reliable investigations. 
•    Supporting organizational learning by mentoring HR staff, sharing investigative best practices, and delivering education sessions. Staying updated on relevant legislation, regulations, policies and best practices with the aim of supporting the development of organizational knowledge as it relates to workplace investigations. 

Role Responsibilities (cont'd)

What You Bring
We’re looking for a Senior Workforce investigator with curiosity, persistence, and a commitment to fairness. Someone who can excel in an environment where they are leading complex and highly sensitives files. You thrive in the “grey zone,” balancing thorough fact-finding with professional judgment.

You bring:
•    Proven experience conducting workplace investigations.
•    Strong analytical skills and critical thinking to assess evidence and determine defensible findings often in situations where there are significant barriers to information gathering.
•    Exceptional writing skills with the ability to produce clear, detailed and credible reports.
•    The ability to remain neutral, objective and resilient in high-stakes and emotionally charged situations.
•    Knowledge of workplace legislation, policy and investigative best practices.
•    A collaborative approach to working with HR, leadership, unions and other stakeholders.
•    A high degree of professionalism, judgement and political acumen in supporting and producing reliable investigations for senior leaders. 
•    An ability to coach and share best practices with colleagues within your own work unit but, also HR professionals across the APS. 

Please click on this link to view the job description for this position.

APS Competencies

Competencies are behaviours that are essential to reach our goals in serving Albertans. We encourage you to have an in depth understanding of the competencies that are required for this opportunity and to be prepared to demonstrate them during the recruitment process.

This link will assist you with understanding competencies:  https://www.alberta.ca/system/files/custom_downloaded_images/psc-alberta-public-service-competency-model.pdf.

•    Agility: Workforce investigations often involves emerging information, shifting priorities, and urgent timelines. You demonstrate agility by managing multiple investigations concurrently, adjusting to new evidence, and responding quickly to organizational needs. Your resilience and adaptability allow you to remain objective and professional in high-pressure or emotionally charged environments. The role of Senior Workforce Investigator is often tasked with the most complex files and, as a result, requires the ability to respond quickly to new file assignment and pivot one’s workload to accommodate urgent, high profile files. 

•    Creative Problem Solving: You approach complex and sensitive cases with an investigative mindset that balances evidence-gathering with practical resolution. You adapt investigative techniques to the specific circumstances of each file and identify alternative approaches when barriers arise. Your are able to develop strategies and solve problems that you have previously not encountered. Your ability to think critically and innovate ensures that investigations are thorough, fair, and able to withstand scrutiny, even in ambiguous or challenging situations.

•    Systems Thinking: As a Senior Workforce Investigator, you recognize how individual cases connect to the broader public service environment. You consider organizational structures, policies, and cultural dynamics when assessing allegations and formulating findings. You are able to combine your knowledge of investigations with human resource and labour relations knowledge and support effective decision making regarding the workforce as a result,  

•    Drive for Results: You are committed to completing complex investigations in a timely, evidence-based manner while maintaining high standards of fairness and procedural integrity. Your focus on outcomes ensures that findings are clearly communicated, defensible, and aligned with legislation and policy. By delivering thorough and actionable reports, you contribute to effective decision-making and accountability within the Alberta Public Service.

Qualifications

Minimum recruitment standard: A university degree in a related field such as Human Resources Management, Labour Relations, Business Administration, Psychology, Law or Legal Studies, Criminology or Sociology, Industrial Relations, or Public Administration, along with five years of relevant experience.

Equivalency: A related two-year diploma from a recognized post-secondary institution and seven years of related experience or a related one-year certificate from a recognized post-secondary institution and eight years of related experience.

Role Requirement:
•    Experience working in HR or Labour Relations environments.
•    Experience conducting workplace investigations.
•    Interpreting and applying employment legislation, organizational policies, in order to come to findings. 

Assets:
•    Experience working within a large, unionized environment.
•    Experience providing coaching to peers and colleagues.

Minimum recruitment standards outline the minimum education and experience required for appointment to a job classification. 

Refer to https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-public-service-minimum-recruitment-standards.

Notes

Location: Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Lethbridge.
 
Hours of Work: 36.25 Hours per week, 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.
 
This competition may be used to fill current and future vacancies at equal or lesser classification across the Government of Alberta

Any costs associated with obtaining the required documents/checks as noted or interview travel expenses, will be the responsibility of the candidate. Out-of-province applicants can obtain the required documents/checks from the province they currently reside in. 

Links and information on what the GoA have to offer to prospective employees.

•    Working for the Alberta Public Service - https://www.alberta.ca/advantages-working-for-alberta-public-service.aspx.
•    Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP) - https://www.pspp.ca.
•    Alberta Public Service Benefit Information - https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-public-service-benefits.
•    Professional learning and development - https://www.alberta.ca/professional-development-support-directive.
•    Research Alberta Public Service Careers tool – https://researchapscareers.alberta.ca.
•    Positive workplace culture and work-life balance.
•    Leadership and mentorship programs.