Communicate with Employees about Ballot
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| Donna F. Tuttle |
(October 23, 2006) Employers have an important role to play every election season by communicating with your employees about the ballot measures that affect your business.
If you’re feeling inundated by television commercials and political mailers, you might be tempted to ask why you should add to what could be information overload for the voters among your employees. In fact, your voice could be the one that breaks through the din to have an impact.
Role for Employers
The employer has a role in simply getting employees to participate in the political process.
Research shows that employees trust their employer’s assessment on how a public policy proposal affects the well-being of the company, and you have the ability to communicate your concerns, as long as you keep in mind some basic dos and don’ts.
As the California Chamber’s brochure states, you can communicate with your employees, stockholders and their families about your company’s support for or opposition to ballot measures. Moreover, you can encourage these groups to support or oppose the measures.
To convey your message, you can use e-mail, regular mail, bulletin boards, phone banks or employee meetings.
As a reminder, you cannot put any political messages in or on employees’ payroll envelopes, so avoid paycheck stuffers. Also remember that you cannot control or direct the political activities of your employees by threatening discharge or loss of employment. You cannot coerce employees to take a position nor reward or punish them for their political activities or beliefs (or threaten to do so).
The Chamber’s “Guidelines for Political Communications to Employees” brochure summarizes these and other key points. It is available on the Chamber’s website at www.calchamber.com/guidelines.
Big Issues on Ballot
I hope that after brushing up on the dos and don’ts of political communications with your employees, you will feel comfortable taking the next step and passing along information about the impact of this November’s ballot measures. Once again, the ballot is loaded with propositions that will have a tremendous impact on the future of the California economy and our jobs climate.
We have an opportunity to approve bond measures that will help the state make long overdue investments in our transportation, education, housing and flood control infrastructure. In addition, we can close a loophole in state law to assure that the gasoline tax consumers pay at the pump is used for transportation purposes, as voters intended when they approved Proposition 42 in 2002.
We also need to stop a slew of anti-business proposals that will increase costs for business and consumers by boosting taxes on targeted industries, create a new statewide real property parcel tax and curtail the ability of business to educate voters about issues, including ballot measures, that affect businesses of all sizes.
Brief overviews of the November propositions, the Chamber’s positions and the reasons for those positions appeared as a special report in the September 29 Alert. Our positions also are clearly outlined on the Chamber’s website at www.calchamber.com/ballotpositions. Please feel free to share this information with your employees and fellow voters.
Communication Is Key
The Chamber is emphasizing the importance of communicating about the ballot measures because we firmly believe that the choices will be clear for an informed voter. I urge you to help educate your employees about the issues you consider crucial for your business and communicate your positions.
Simply by communicating your perspective, you can make a difference and help raise awareness about the importance of the election. And by becoming informed and exercising their right to vote — whatever their decision — your employees can make a difference too.
Donna F. Tuttle, 2006 chair of the California Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, is co-owner and chairman of Elmore Tuttle Sports Group, Manhattan Beach.