On the eve of Election Day, with more than 2 million votes already cast in Massachusetts, startups are still finding ways to encourage their employees to get out and vote.
Knox Financial, the two-year-old startup that helps homeowners become landlords, is giving its employees flexible paid time off to vote, whether they planned to take advantage of early voting or vote on Election Day. Knox now employs staffers in Georgia, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Texas, where voters will experience varying degrees of ease in casting their ballots.
"More than ever, it’s important this year to make a plan to vote," CEO David Friedman said in an email to employees. "The lines have been quite something to see! If this means you need a few hours next Tuesday to make it happen, please plan accordingly."
For nurse staffing startup connectRN, voting advocacy this year has been a months-long project. The startup published a public-facing blog post in August with key election information in several states with an eye toward mail-in ballots. Internally, a connectRN Slack channel's question of the week recently was, "What's your voting plan?" designed to encourage accountability among employees.
As for voting on Tuesday, like Knox employees, connectRN staffers can take flex time: “connectRN employees have been encouraged to share their voting plans, take advantage of their flexible time off policy to vote and discuss any stress or concerns regarding the election and voting with their managers," the company said in a statement.
Unlimited vacation time, a policy spearheaded by California tech companies, has grown rapidly over the last several years. A report from Indeed's Hiring Lab in 2019 found that the share of job postings advertising unlimited vacation increased by 178 percent between May 2015 and May 2019, with tech roles making up the largest share of those. The policy isn't without its downfalls: It lets companies avoid paying out unused vacation days, and employees with unlimited time off usually end up taking less vacation time than those with traditional vacation policies.
For voting purposes, though, flexible time off may finally be a boon for employees—at least those at companies that have not declared Election Day a company holiday, as Twitter, Walmart and Cambridge biotech Arrakis Therapeutics have. (Arrakis made that decision early on, back in June.)
"While more than half our workforce is outside of the U.S., we're encouraging our U.S. employees to take a few free hours (or as long as they need) to go vote," Cynthia Gumbert, chief marketing officer at Somerville-based software startup SmartBear, said via email. "Everyone worldwide at our company will be watching the results closely as they come in."
