Staffing can be a significant proportion of an EMB’s costs, but also represent its greatest asset. EMB core budgets may be reduced by rationalizing structures, for example reducing the number of EMB members or secretariat positions. The EMBs in Cambodia and South Africa undertook rationalization exercises during 1999 and 2002, respectively. Maintaining a small core of permanent staff, backed by well-trained temporary field staff, can reduce costs while preserving efficiency. The examples of EMBs in a number of Pacific Island states, including Niue, Samoa and Tonga, show that core election staff can be kept to a minimum while maintaining functionality. EMBs can use management tools, such as task profiling, to determine the minimum staff members it needs to perform its functions. The EMB would then be required to justify the employment of additional staff on efficiency or effectiveness grounds. Use of temporary, rather than permanent, EMBs can also assist financial sustainability.
However, the political and operational sustainability of using personnel-related measures to promote financial sustainability must be carefully considered. For example, significant budgetary savings can be achieved in governmental EMBs, or other EMBs in which public servants or volunteers can be co-opted to serve with the EMB (as in India) during an electoral period. While assisting financial sustainability, this type of staffing profile can also have a negative effect on the performance of and public trust in the EMB, and thus the political sustainability of the electoral process. Finding a successful balance may not be easy.
An inability to retain sufficient experienced staff can have a negative effect on an EMB’s sustainability. Experienced staff, including temporary polling station staff, hold the institutional memory of the EMB—the knowledge of what has and has not worked, and the experience to pass on to new staff and other stakeholders. Staff retention requires active planning by an EMB, using measures such as reward schemes, professional training and development programmes (see Chapter 6), and opportunities for promotion. Exit debriefings for departing staff may help identify staff satisfaction issues that may need to be addressed. Advance planning of staff changes, including timely recruitment processes and mentoring of more junior staff, combined with accessible archiving of electoral records, will help the EMB operate sustainably when key staff leave.
