Election Day and the periods directly before and after are causing all kinds of problems for HR leaders and managers. As distractions, disagreements and polarization pit people against each other, and trust in government, the press and other institutions declines, election dysfunction is a true managerial concern given the potential for co-workers to lose faith in each other or even lose interest in working at an organization.
BetterUp, an employee well-being platform, has been tracking worker sentiment around politics and how it affects them in the workplace. According to the company's survey data, in June, 24 percent of employees reported experiencing politics-related stress at work; 30 percent are reporting it in October. The platform also identified a pattern of declining productivity.
"We studied the last two election cycles in America, in 2022 and 2020. In both cases, we saw a significant dip in well-being and productivity, declining leading into the election and then rebounding [after] the election over the course of about a six-month period," Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, MD, chief innovation officer at BetterUp, told Newsweek.
Higher stress comes with a high business cost if productivity and well-being both dip and interpersonal relationships begin to erode.
BetterUp's research found that negative feelings toward co-workers have increased, especially if employees find out their colleagues belong to opposing political parties, and the percentage of people reporting that they are avoiding people at work because of political tension rose from 20 percent in June to over 60 percent in August.
A separate survey conducted by Indeed, the job-posting and hiring platform, in conjunction with the Harris Poll, found that 28 percent of workers would leave a job due to political differences with a colleague and 32 percent of workers said they would leave their jobs if their CEO expressed political views they disagreed with.
Both of those sentiments were stronger in younger employees, and a survey from LifeStance Health, a mental health services provider, found that younger generations are more likely to feel election-related stress.
To address the challenges of the election and campaign season, HR and diversity leaders and communications and political science experts shared the following recommendations with Newsweek: active communication, guidance for managers, designated spaces for employees to opt-in to political discourse and a year-round emphasis on inclusion and maintaining a respectful environment at work.
"[If] workers would leave a job because of political differences, then it's super-important to make sure that we're able to show job seekers what the culture at our organization is going to be," Jessica Hardeman, Indeed's senior director of talent attraction and engagement, a role that includes recruiting, inclusion and employee programs, told Newsweek. "That means clear communication and guidance, whether that's through a code of conduct or an employee handbook, as it relates to these types of conversations and scenarios."
Hardeman emphasized the role of employee resource groups (ERGs), employee town halls and other company-organized groups or conversations in serving as a safe space.
"They're not necessarily the place for talking about specific candidates or affiliation, but I do think that there is a place where we make space for employees to engage in those topics," she said. "As long as it's not impacting the workplace."
For business leaders, the potential cost of getting this wrong is immense.
"Leaders play an incredibly important role in helping differentiate, manage or mitigate between conversation that might be unproductive in the work environment...and redirecting those employees to seek that kind of deeper political dialogue or debate they might be looking for in other more appropriate networks," Megan Smith, head of HR for SAP North America, told Newsweek.
Set Expectations on Political Expression
You can't make every employee happy, but you can make sure that they know what to expect. If you are in a company with a politically active culture, people should know that from the public messaging, especially in the recruiting phase, so that new hires do not immediately find themselves misaligned with their new organization.
Just like specifics regarding salary or commute, a company's stance on political expression at work is a factor that many people would like to know before they join. And aside from being able to express oneself, there's also a question of values. Indeed's survey found that 60 percent of workers prefer to work at a company where they're politically aligned with the CEO.
"There are some employees who want to openly engage in political discussion because they want to see that their social interests, and by extension, their political interests are represented within their workplace, which is understandable," SAP North America's Smith said. "But there's also other people who prefer to keep politics out of the workplace entirely."
Smith recommends allowing political expression while setting clear guardrails.
"Our position and what we recommend as well is, just from an inclusion point of view, if we share our opinions, we're clear as a company that we respect their right to have their opinion, and also that people may disagree," she shared. "The key for situations where it might get more sensitive is that there's a point at which we would discourage dialogue if it becomes divisive or disrespectful in any way, and those are the times when we would stress the importance of respect and inclusion in the workplace."
Managing this invisible line is the responsibility of business leaders and the HR professionals who support them.
"I think at the end of the day, if we're being very clear and communicating what our expectations are and what our policies are as they relate to those conversations, it's also up to us to hold people accountable to those expectations," Indeed's Hardeman said.
Some companies or business leaders have held the opinion that political discourse does not belong at work, or can even be barred, as Coinbase famously attempted in 2020, leading to the voluntary turnover of about a third of the company. Every expert disputed this approach on the claims that suppression of people's feelings does not work, ignoring triggers to mental health is not a sound idea and that younger professionals in particular are even more likely to be turned off by that approach.
Help Managers Resolve Conflicts
Business leaders can use HR as a resource, but they should also think about how to themselves be a resource for middle managers or frontline managers, who are often grappling with difficult decisions that seem like a choice between bending to the will of upper management or keeping their team members happy.
"You want to create in your teams a chance to allow positive interactions," Kurt Gray, a social psychologist and professor at the University of North Carolina, told Newsweek. "One of the oldest theories in social psychology is contact theory. It basically shows that the way to overcome divides is by having people who disagree have meaningful positive and repeated contact."
The best way to teach managers to keep the peace around election time is to have a year-round emphasis on civility and the idea that leading with inclusion can play a strong role in supporting the company. It helps make the culture less susceptible to risks like election season if people already have ways to manage disputes, whether they're disagreeing about politics, client projects or their favorite musicians.
"Well-being is a leading indicator of individual and organizational performance, and that's why it's so important to preserve it for ourselves and, for managers, it's important to preserve that for your teams," Kellerman explained. "At the organizational level, it's all about: How can you build a culture that is more resilient around these moments."
BetterUp's research found that effective managers are better at navigating the productivity and mental health risks of political disagreement, and that they do so by coaching, recognition and a problem-solving approach to conflict resolution. The company's report also stated that the behavior managers should avoid is actively ignoring or dismissing workers' concerns.
Encourage Voting
One form of corporate political messaging that seems to strike the right chord is around voting. Promoting participation in the democratic process has favorable bipartisan support and is generally accepted as a good thing to do. Election Day messaging or promotion can even be tied to a company's branding or services. For example, Lyft is offering discounted rides to polling centers. Others, such as Gap, Patagonia and Bank of America, are offering paid time off to employees on Election Day.
"To pivot away from political tension, our recommendation is to encourage the democratic process. Send a note to all of your employees and their managers, encouraging employees to take time to vote," Smith said. "You can include links and resources around how employees can volunteer, for example, at a local polling station... ask [managers] if they can hold off on critical meetings on voting day and just be cognizant of the fact that we want to support time for employees to vote."
