Last week I presented “Civility in the Workplace” at the 12th Annual Carroll County Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Conference. Politics dominated the news in the days leading up to the conference, and will continue to in the weeks to come. While civility in the workplace is always important, civility during an election year and the months beyond, is critical. As one part of the program, I shared information about how to get in front of the curve to help ensure organizational civility during an election year.

I was delighted to hear from the participants what some companies are already doing. Here are some strategies of theirs that you may want to consider for your organization:

• For 501C organizations, discussing politics at work is prohibited. The leaders of these organizations can and should remind their employees of this at every staff meeting.

• One college group created a task force comprised of students, graduate students, faculty, and staff. The task force, along with their attorney, communicated policies for their community.

• One leader said that their organization has taken a strong stand that nothing political can be discussed at work. Also, T shirts, tote bags, screensavers, and anything suggesting a political viewpoint are not allowed on company premises. Employees are encouraged to take their views and discussions off site and not during any type of work engagement.

• Another organization’s CEO has made clear their personal endorsement of one of the candidates. While each employee is encouraged to vote their conscience, all are very aware of their leader’s position.

• While some leaders are making the choice to be vocal about their preferences, a recent Gallup poll suggests keeping quiet.

There are many approaches, but now is the time to over communicate your organization’s policy. Have you done the following?

• Collaborated with senior leaders to devise your policy and ways to communicate it

• Ensured that the policy is applied consistently across all levels

• Reiterated the policy often

What is going on in your organization? I am interested in hearing about what you are experiencing.