Meric Craig Bloch (mbloch@shrinenet.org) is Corporate Director, Investigations for Shriners Hospitals for Children. He has conducted over 400 workplace investigations of fraud and serious workplace misconduct, and is an author and a frequent public speaker on the workplace investigations process.

• twitter.com/fraudinvestig8r

When serious allegations of misconduct are directed toward a specific employee, your company may need to take preliminary action pending the investigation’s completion. To protect the health and safety of employees or the integrity of the company’s policies and procedures — or to simply “stop the action” until the investigation is done — management may consider taking any of these steps: