An organization’s greatest asset is its human resources — permanent, temporary and contracted staff. Unless an EMB safeguards the interests of its staff and responds to their concerns, it may well fail to deliver successful elections. Staff that are not loyal to the EMB and its principles may frustrate the EMB’s programmes or be corrupted by suppliers who want to win a tender or by politicians who want to win an election. Unhappy staff may strike, even during elections, and thus derail the electoral process.
An EMB cannot assume that its staff will be loyal and automatically share and work hard to implement the EMB’s values: it needs to support and generate this loyalty and professionalism. One of the great advantages of a professional EMB is that it can honestly tell its staff that their work, and that of the organization, is intrinsically worthwhile, and can contribute greatly to the welfare of the country. This should be constantly emphasized. The EMB also needs to treat all employees with honesty and fairness; provide competitive salaries and conditions; recognize the need for career opportunities; acknowledge staff achievements; provide a safe working environment; ensure equal opportunities; foster a culture of cooperation, teamwork and trust; train and develop staff to enable them to enhance and diversify their skills; and involve staff in the organization and planning of their work.
The temporary staff employed at election time are, for most voters, the public face of the EMB. In many countries they form a cohort that works each election, and therefore represent the organization, formally or informally, in their communities, and not just at election time. If they are motivated to project a positive image of the organization, this can help consolidate public trust in and support for election processes over time. This factor needs to be taken into account by countries considering mechanisms that involve less public interaction with staff, such as universal postal voting.
EMBs need to make a determined effort to support their staff, instil in them the values of professional electoral administration and respond genuinely to their needs.
EMBs under the Governmental Model, and other EMBs that are staffed by public servants, may be bound by public service-wide regulations and policies that may restrict their ability to deal in the most appropriate manner with their staff stakeholders. In such EMBs, staff relations may depend more on the attitudes of EMB management toward staff than on the ability to provide material benefits.
