Recently, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist called on tech firms to give their employees time off to vote this Election Day and some big brands like Spotify, Square and SurveyMonkey took notice. While making Election Day a holiday is a good way to show that a company values civic engagement, our CEO Matthew Mahan told Inc. Magazine that employers can do more.
Some ideas he shared to develop a culture of corporate civic responsibility include:
- Making it easy to register to vote by keeping voter registration forms at the office or enclosing them in onboarding materials for new employees
- Inviting government officials to meet your employees — a local district representative, or someone who works in an area of government related to what your company does
- Hosting events such as viewing parties for debates and election results
Matt also pointed out that fostering civic engagement among workers could even benefit a business’s bottom line.
At Brigade, we’ve made hosting a voter guide dinner a company tradition. The concept is simple: our employees, friends and family research candidates and ballot propositions and present the key reasons for/against each during a dinner-table conversation at our office. Everyone walks away with a much more robust knowledge of what’s on the ballot before Election Day.
We’ve also offered all-staff “lunch & learn” discussions with sitting politicians, candidates and other notables in the government and civic space. In the past few weeks alone, we’ve been joined by San Francisco Supervisors Scott Wiener and Jane Kim who are battling for a California Senate seat in November.
Additionally, Brigade encourages employees to volunteer before and during Election Day and our executives lead by example. One served as a polling place supervisor during the California primary and others have participated in phone-banking, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote efforts for local, state and national campaigns.
Does your company offer civic engagement opportunities for employees? Let us know what they are!
