Businesses that plan properly for the November 2024 election can boost organizational culture, support employees and demonstrate civic commitment.
After the 2016 election, I got a somewhat panicked call from HR at the Fortune 50 company where I worked. They asked: Did I know that someone in my organization was starting an employee petition demanding that the company refuse to work with the incoming administration? (I didn’t.)
Here’s what happened next:
- The HR advisor said they’d get back to me.
- Later I got a call telling me to speak to the employee, and telling me what I should say.
- Soon there was a third call. Had I spoken to the employee yet? (I hadn’t.) Good, because after further discussion, HR wanted me to approach the employee in a different way.
- Then came a fourth call. Had I spoken to the employee yet? (I hadn’t.) Good, because after still more discussion, HR had decided I shouldn’t do anything at all.
In the United States, we’re now entering an election season as fraught as 2016 and 2020. And it’s not just the US: More than 60 countries, representing half the world’s population, will hold elections this year. Needless to say, as a business leader you don’t want to be caught off guard by a scenario like the one I experienced. If you haven’t yet developed an employee communications plan for the election, the time to start is now.
Good news? About the 2024 Election? Yes. Really.
The good news: Planning for the election is much more than a matter of risk mitigation – it’s an opportunity. There’s a whole range of things you can do that will be good for your employees, your business and even your country.
1. Strengthen your culture
Guiding your organization and its people safely through a tense time will enhance the bonds that make your culture stronger. Here’s how to do it:
- Set norms for respectful behavior. People may be unsure of what’s OK to say at work, or nervous about what others may say. An outright ban on mentioning politics is unlikely to work and will seem heavy-handed – but guidelines can go a long way.
- Here are a few examples of messages to share with employees:
- We’re in a moment of intense partisanship. Please recognize that your co-workers may feel genuine stress about the outcome of the election.
- Remember that our culture depends on mutual respect, and on relationships that will last long after the election is over.
- Stay focused on the work we do together and our company’s mission, purpose and values, for the benefit of all of us.
- There are many ways for you to get involved as an advocate or activist; bringing those activities to work is likely to do more harm than good.
- Actively support voter participation. Your organization shouldn’t ignore the 2024 election. Instead, embrace it in a nonpartisan way: Make the conversation about “participation, not partisanship.” There are many reasons to do this, and many ways to implement it – see below – but one reason is that it gives employees a way to do something positive that they can all agree on.
2. Set an example of corporate citizenship
Whatever your politics, we urge you to consider taking active steps to promote voting. If you’re wondering whether that’s something your business should get involved in: Yes, it is. Companies being proactive about voting is about as mainstream as it gets. Consider this statement from Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO of General Motors, on behalf of the Business Roundtable:
Business Roundtable CEOs agree on the fundamental principle of supporting our employees in exercising their right to vote, by allowing flexibility and paid time off to vote that fits with their employment. In addition, companies should consider supporting employees by providing information on voter registration and alternatives such as voting by mail or early voting. We consider these best practices, which we encourage more companies to adopt.
The reality is, many companies have adopted best practices like these. For example, more than 1,850 companies – from Walmart and Domino’s Pizza to Google and J.P. Morgan Chase – have joined Time to Vote, a nonpartisan coalition of companies pledging to make it easier for their employees to vote. More than 1,300 – including Amazon, Target and McDonalds – have joined the Civic Alliance, which provides a corporate civic playbook on how to get involved. (For the record, my own firm, Integral, is a Civic Alliance signatory.)
Here are a few examples of what you can do:
Give employees paid time off on Election Day. It can be a full day, a half day or a set number of hours. For example, Walmart provided three paid hours off in 2020 to employees whose shifts conflicted with voting hours; Patagonia has closed its stores and offices completely on Election Day since 2016.
Make Election Day meeting-free. If your employees have flexible hours and spend a lot of time in meetings, simply having a “no meetings” policy for Election Day will make it easier for them to carve out time to vote in the 2024 election.
Promote voter registration. You can promote National Voter Registration Day (which falls on Tuesday, Sept. 17 this year); inform employees about voter registration procedures and deadlines; connect them with tools such as TurboVote that guide them through the registration process; or host voter registration events in the workplace.
Provide information on when and how to vote. Connect employees with information on polling locations, early voting and vote-by-mail options. The Vote Early Day website provides state-by-state information on these topics. Beyond the presidential election, Democracy Works provides information on over 3,000 US elections.
3. Boost your business
Strengthening your culture, supporting employees, being a good corporate citizen; these aren’t just good behaviors – they’re good business.
Customers – especially younger customers – want to buy from companies they see as civic minded. Employees want to work for organizations that make a positive difference in the world. Investors want to put their money into companies that are attuned to a changing world and careful of their reputations.
The Integral Index, our ongoing research with the Harris Poll, shows that employees who believe they are treated well are much more likely to say they support their organization’s values. And good treatment clearly includes supporting voter participation: Harris Poll research conducted for Just Capital before the last election showed that a strong majority of Americans of every political stripe believe large companies should allow employees time off to vote:
At the same time, as Business for America reports, corporate efforts to “do good” in recent years have prompted a partisan backlash (wrongly, in our view) – especially in the overlapping areas of DEI and ESG.
Promoting electoral participation in 2024 is a unique opportunity for companies to do good in a way that is vitally important, highly visible and uncontroversial.
Employee activism: dialog and risk mitigation for the 2024 election
What about situations like the one I faced in 2016, where your organization has to react to the actions of one or more employees? The first and most obvious answer is, plan ahead. There are many possible scenarios; work with your legal and HR teams now to develop a response framework that defines what kinds of employee actions warrant a response, and what the possible responses are. Harvard Business Review recently published A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Employee Activism, which is a great start in thinking about these issues. (One tip: Make sure you have a clear and well-publicized policy for employee use of digital spaces for campaign-related speech. This includes not only internal channels, but external channels where their words may be associated with the organization.)
Where appropriate, we would err on the side of dialogue rather than punishment or ignoring the issue. Even if you decide not to take any action that an activist wants, the fact that you listened and explained the organization’s position will be noticed and appreciated by employees. In fact, the employees who appreciate your candor may well outnumber the activists.
What if you want to take a partisan stand?
Suppose you’re not an organization for which partisanship is baked in (like an activist group) but you still want to indicate preference for a candidate, or a position on an issue. Then what? Our advice is to stay close to your organization’s identity, values and past behaviors. Have your political contributions and lobbying skewed toward one party? Have you taken clear positions on DEI issues? Provided health benefits for LGBTQ+ employees, or those traveling to obtain an abortion? Closed stores on Sundays for religious reasons? Simply restating those positions may suffice. Or maybe your political sympathies are already clear. Less is probably more.
What you can do starting now
- Define your goals for an election program: Employee empowerment, improved culture, corporate citizenship, employer branding, etc.
- Review your organizational values.
- Develop a strategy: Decide what actions will meet your goals and support your values.
- Create a roadmap. Start communicating early and develop a timeline working backward from Election Day: What will you do a week before, a month before, or three months before?
Talk to us!
If you’re looking to craft a strategy for the 2024 election in your organization, manage its delivery or even just bat a few ideas around, we’re here for it. More specifically, I’m here for it! So drop us a line.