There are a number of basic and often competing considerations in determining the most effective timing of training sessions for voting operations staff.
The weight given to each of these considerations will vary in election environments of different maturity and trainer resource availability, and be affected by:
• how much advance notice of the election is provided;
• the basic educational and literacy levels of staff recruited;
• the extent of any existing base of competent staff with experience in voting operations officials' duties.
These timing considerations include:
• Knowledge retention: For how long can polling officials be expected to retain the information provided during training sessions? Allied to this are considerations of learning reinforcement--how many times do recruited staff need to be presented with the information before it is assimilated to an acceptable level.
• Knowledge absorption capacities: Particularly when commencing from a zero knowledge base, there can be limits on how much information can be absorbed effectively in a single training session. This will affect the effective length of training sessions and, therefore, the possible need for multiple sessions and their optimal timing.
• Evaluation of knowledge transfer: Sufficient time needs to be allowed between training and activation of staff to allow an assessment of their knowledge (see Knowledge Assessment) and implementation of remedial training or replacement of those who cannot reach an acceptable knowledge or skill standard.
• The election timetable: There needs to be an awareness of the timing of activities in the election timetable and the duties of different categories of staff in relation to these.
Training will be more effective if delivered in synchronisation with the election timetable and divided into different sessions to avoid information overload, particularly where the same staff are being trained for different functions. Thus, training in some activities--for example, early voting, or in assisting with packaging and dispatch of election materials--is better handled earlier than that for voting day or for the ballot count.
• The numbers of staff being trained: What time period is required for all staff to have effective training contact, given the trainer resources available?
• The training structure: For example, training under a cascade model will need to be commenced earlier than where all election staff are trained simultaneously.
• Affordability and cost-effectiveness: Each training session will have costs related to the venue, equipment, staff transport, and materials. Where training sessions can be timed to coincide with other activities, there can be cost-effectiveness gains.
For example, use can be made of opportunities for training where voting operations officials are involved in the packaging of election material for voting stations.
Timing Guidelines
In considering the optimal timing of training, it is more useful to work backwards from voting day, the point at which the bulk of staff will be actively employed. An appropriate aim is to have all voting station officials and count staff trained, whether single or multiple sessions are used, by around seven days before voting day.
Leaving training to any later will present problems in assessment of training effectiveness and providing remedial training or training replacement staff for those found to be inadequate.
It may also present training management problems given other tasks to be completed in the week before voting day. Conversely, if training is completed any earlier, knowledge retention levels may deteriorate.
From this "deadline" of seven days before voting day, other training timing can be determined. Particularly where cascade models are used (see Training Methodology), it would be prudent to allow around seven days between the completion of trainer training sessions and these trainers conducting sessions, whether these be by regional trainers for voting station managers or voting station managers for their staff.
This period will allow time for the newly-trained trainers to become familiar with the materials they have to present and the methods of presentation required.
The length and number of training sessions required for various officials may be as much determined by cultural expectations as the breadth of competencies to be developed. However, intensive session presentations of more than five to six hours in a day will tend to tax both the attention of the trainees and the energy of the trainers.
Staff for Special Voting Facilities
Where different training sessions are to be held for staff recruited for special voting facilities, and for general assistance with election operations tasks, these should be timed to coincide with the commencement of their tasks.
As there are considerably smaller numbers of staff involved, training timing will be less complex. For general assistance staff, training can be more cost-effectively conducted by combining an initial session at the commencement of their duties with continuing on-the-job sessions as new tasks come due under the election timetable.
For special voting facility staff, formal training, as for general voting station officials, should again aim to be completed around seven days before their duties commence.
Electoral District Managers
Where electoral administration at a local level is undertaken by temporary staff--in the roles of returning officers, local election commissions, or regional administrators--it is more effective to maintain a continuous register of potential staff and provide them with continuous refresher training. If these staff are recruited only at the commencement of an election process, their training should be undertaken immediately.
Use of Briefing Sessions
Formal training sessions can usefully be augmented by less formal refresher sessions in the last week before voting day, depending on affordability. For example, if voting stations are set up on the day before voting day, involvement of polling staff in this activity will reinforce their roles and assist in building team relationships.
Most importantly, the hours of duty for voting station officials on voting day should be structured to allow a briefing session for all staff, by the voting station manager, prior to the opening of the voting station. This is vital to provide an opportunity for reinforcement of procedures in the "real life" environment, and also as the only effective means of transmitting to all voting station staff any changes in the voting environment or procedures that may have occurred in the time since they were trained.
Opportunity for the same style of briefing or refresher session should also be provided before the commencement of the ballot count.
Electoral management bodies must maintain regular contact with their voting station and counting managers on any procedural or environmental changes between their training session(s) and voting day.
Continuous Training
Where permanent electoral management bodies are in place, there is considerable cost-effectiveness in attempting to maintain contact with voting operations staff, particularly senior voting station staff such as voting station managers. Not only does this assist in recruitment for future elections, but it can also provide a continuing training environment.
Continuous training need not be face-to-face formal sessions. By use of simple means such as regular low-cost newsletters, providing invitations to visit electoral administration offices or events, or even by merely maintaining some social contact, election administrators can promote team-building activities, provide information on changes to voting frameworks, systems, and procedures, and reinforce knowledge already gained. This will then provide a sustained basis of knowledge which intensive pre-election formal training can extend, rather than commencing the intensive training phase from a zero knowledge base.
Using continuous training strategies can provide significant advantages when applied to more senior officials in environments where cascade training structures are used. Even allowing for inter-election drop-out rates, cost-effectiveness is maintained.
