Get Your Workplace Involved
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe how Salesforce provides civic engagement opportunities to its employees.
- Get your community involved in civic engagement and voting.
One final reminder that the information we’re providing is not legal advice. Before you get started with any activities in your workplace, make sure to check with your company’s legal department, as there may be laws, regulations, and company rules regarding what you can and cannot do. Your employer’s processes may also require you to consult with other key resources, like your manager, human resources, and government affairs. So be sure to educate yourself on your employer’s policies, too.
You know that your vote matters. But do you know whether your family, friends, and coworkers are registered and active voters? In this unit, we describe a few ways that you can participate in nonpartisan civic engagement activities in your community, including at work. After all, civic engagement is more powerful when we do it together.
Registration Drives
You have probably seen voter registration drives at places like shopping malls and public libraries, but have you ever done one in your workplace? At Salesforce, we have held nonpartisan voter registration drives in our office lobbies and even at Dreamforce!
Salesforce also offers employees the opportunity to use their volunteer time off (VTO) hours for nonpartisan civic engagement activities like voter registration and volunteering as a poll worker. These are generally organized by Salesforce with a nonprofit partner that does not have a political party or issue advocacy affiliation.
Candidate Forums
It’s important for every voter to be informed about who and what is on the ballot. One way to learn more about the candidates running for office in your area is to invite them to speak to your company. These opportunities can be beneficial for the candidates as well. They are interested in meeting as many individuals as possible and hearing what is important to them.
Just be sure to have your employer review your request to ensure you’re in compliance with campaign finance and any other relevant laws and your organization’s internal processes. At Salesforce, we have hosted bipartisan forums for employees in locations across the US to hear from candidates running for offices ranging from city council and mayor to governor and US Senate.
Voting Reminders
Did you know that the general election is not the only day Americans are expected to vote? Every state holds primary elections earlier in the year, and those election dates are different in every state. To make sure that nobody misses out, Salesforce uses Slack and Marketing Cloud Engagement to share nonpartisan voting reminders to employees across the US for all national elections as well as key state and local elections.
In addition to our reminders, Salesforce provides employees with an opportunity to sign up for email or text message reminders from TurboVote, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization working to increase voter turnout across the US. Salesforce has partnered with TurboVote because it makes voter registration easy and ensures that you receive important information about every election. You can sign up for reminders yourself right now!
Have Fun
Having a little fun can go a long way toward increasing employee participation in nonpartisan civic engagement activities. At Salesforce, we decorated our office lobbies and created interactive experiences like a photo booth with props and costumes to get people excited about voting. And we have swag like “I Voted” socks and custom shirts. Your company culture can help set the tone.