Communicating your social elections: the internal plan that lifts turnout
Turnout at social elections is decided less on polling day than in the weeks before it. A good voting method is not enough: without communication, the deadline goes unnoticed. Here is a ready-to-adapt internal communication plan, step by step, with the levers quantified by research.
Why communication makes the difference
This is the most solid finding in turnout research: it is not the voting channel, but the communication around the vote, that mobilises. A simple SMS reminder raises turnout by about 3 percentage points, and well-paced communication can add 3 to 8 points. Across several hundred workers, that is dozens of votes, often enough to reverse a declining trend.
Conversely, the classic mistake is to bet everything on a single announcement, sent once, through a single channel. The message drowns, and turnout stalls.
The timeline, week by week
Here is a reference pattern, to anchor on your day Y:
- 4 to 6 weeks before — the announcement. A first message explains what is at stake: what the WC and CPPW do, who can vote, when and how. You set the stakes, without technical detail.
- 2 to 3 weeks before — the first reminder. You announce the practical arrangements: dates, voting channel, delivery of credentials. This is the most useful reminder according to research.
- 1 week before — building pressure. Relay through managers, posters, reminders on secondary channels (SMS for the field).
- 1 to 2 days before — the final reminder. A short, direct message: "voting opens tomorrow, here is how". Interestingly, a reminder a week before is almost as effective as the day before, the key is to have repeated reminders.
- On the day — the opening. A message at launch, and a mid-point check-in if turnout starts slowly.
Channels: one is never enough
The intranet and email suit office employees. But they do not reach staff without a work email: manual workers, field staff, teams on shifted breaks. For them, you need other channels: SMS, posters at points of passage, team meetings, and above all the relay of frontline managers.
The rule is simple: map your populations, and plan a channel that speaks to each one. Forcing everyone through a single channel means accepting that you exclude part of them.
The key role of managers
Frontline managers are the most often neglected link, and the most effective. When a team leader mentions the deadline and raises it in person, the message becomes concrete and local: it is no longer "the company" communicating, it is someone you know. Give them a simple kit (a template message, the dates, the link or procedure) and ask them to relay it at two or three key moments.
What to say, and what not to say
Three messages are enough, repeated: why vote (the stakes, representation), when to vote (the dates), how to vote (the channel, the credentials). Avoid procedural jargon (day X, X+35) in general communication: keep it for the representatives. And state the confidentiality of the vote clearly, it is workers' first question.
In short
A communication plan that mobilises rests on four principles: start early (4 to 6 weeks before), remind several times (SMS is worth ~3 points), vary channels by population, and have managers relay the message. Each lever adds a few points of turnout; together, they reverse the trend. The voting method matters, but communication decides.
To understand all the turnout levers, backed by numbers, read Why turnout keeps dropping, and what actually lifts it. And if you want a voting system and communication support designed together, let's talk.
