How to build policies around political discourse in the workplace

6 steps to create an official policy around political conversations at work

April 19, 2024 10:00 AM

While employers can't prevent employees from engaging in political conversations at work, they can have a policy to keep them in check.

Eighty-three percent of Americans admit they talk about politics at work, according to data from workplace insights platform Zety. And yet, just 8% of organizations have official workplace guidelines around navigating political debates and issues. With another election season looming, it's important for organizations to start building policies now to keep the discourse productive and respectful.

"Before, religion and politics were the two things you were told to avoid, but much of that has changed," says David Rice, HR expert and podcast host of People Managing People. "Now, employees have very outward views and everything has become more polarized. Political discourse is like gasoline just waiting for somebody to put a match on it."

More than one-in-three employees said they felt uncomfortable at work as a result of political discussions, according to Zety's survey. One-in-five people admitted they had difficulty working with their co-workers due to their vocalized political beliefs, and nearly 13% reported being bullied because of them. Employers may think that banning the topic of politics altogether is the solution, but that could actually create more tension in the process, according to Rice.

"It's like a dress code — you can put something in place but somebody's always going to bend the rules or find a gap or an exception," Rice says. "What people really want from the organizations that they work for is an understanding of them as human beings and the life that they're living. You can't extricate politics from that."

Building the right policy will look different for every organization, seeing as there will always be variations in size and demographic. However, there are strategies that employers across all industries could use as a foundation. Rice shared his tips for building effective policies around political discourse at work so controversial conversations won't ruin an organization's culture.

Set clear expectations in your Code of Conduct Policy

"You need to have a policy that reflects the culture that you want to create," Rice says. "You can't necessarily tell [employees] what they can or can't talk about, but if you want a culture that's centered around belonging and acceptance and you want people to really focus on the bigger picture, you're going to need a little bit of a restrictive policy around certain things."

That includes rules around appropriate workwear without slogans or offensive language, for example, to how the organization promotes communication both between employees and externally.

Put an official policy against political discrimination in place

Employers should remember that discrimination policies, which typically protect equal opportunities and increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace, should extend to what employees do outside of the office, too. That's especially the case if their actions could reflect badly on the organization, and potentially make their colleagues feel unsafe.

"As an employer, you can't necessarily look down on your employees' actions or make judgments that you're not qualified to make," Rice says. "But at the end of the day, employees are still members of an organization."

Set a precedent of respect above all

Although employers can't ban the discussion of sensitive topics, they can encourage employees to respect each other's beliefs and avoid inflammatory topics. Employees themselves can set this example, Rice says.

Read more:

This is how the 2024 election results could impact DEI efforts

"Engage employee resource groups to lead or mediate some sensitive topics," Rice says. "For example, if there's an issue about better family leave policies going before Congress and you have an ERG for working parents, they're probably a good group to start the conversation with."

Help your people recognize discrimination and harassment

"It's good that people have learned to relax around each other and deconstructed some of the hierarchical fears that they had," Rice says. "But at the same time, it's also bad in the sense that things can be too casual at times."

Making sure that regular training sessions — whether they're about politics specifically, or more broadly about DEI and microaggressions — are a part of whatever policies employers end up putting in place can be critical to ensuring that employees' have the context they need before engaging in polarizing conversations.

Be clear on what’s not appropriate for the company Slack

Everything at work should have a time and a place, including personal conversations, according to Rice. There's also the right medium for every topic, and the company's open forum Slack channel isn't always it.

"If employees want to have really serious conversations, you want to make sure they're not doing it over Slack because people behave differently behind a screen," he says. "Employers will have to be stricter about that and say if employees want to talk about politics, they're going to have to do it face-to-face because it makes people think differently about what they say."

Set clear expectations from day one

As we get closer to November, the likeliness of employees engaging in political discourse will only grow. That's why organizations should be planning and rolling out their policies as soon as they can.

"If you get them out now, there's no excuse for when things intensify," Rice says. "Employees won't be able to say they didn't know the rules, you'll be able to point back to when you sent training and where you sent instructions. You'll be able to reference where it was communicated what the expectations are."