Personnel representative elections coming up? Instructions for digital elections

Are you about to elect a personnel representative in your workplace, but do not know how to do it?

Regardless of if you are electing a shop steward, an employee representative, an occupational health and safety representative or a personnel representative in administration, the process must be conducted according to good governance. Everyone represented by the personnel representative must be heard.

It is important to ensure that the people represented know about the elections, that they can run for the position and have a say in the election.

Digital elections are the way forward

All people eligible to vote may not work in the same premises or their working hours or commute might pose challenges to voting. Digital elections are the best solution in many cases.

What tools can be used to conduct digital elections?

The workplaces of many personnel representatives will already use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Both of these have a Forms survey tool that makes conducting a digital election easy.

Many workplaces will also use the Webropol application.

There are many other similar survey tools. It is important to ensure that the chosen tool allows sending a personal invitation to vote, that each person can only vote once and that no trace of who voted and for whom is left in the system.

The three meeting model

We recommend a three meeting model for digital personnel representative elections:

1. Deciding on the election. The decision to elect a personnel representative is made in the first meeting.
   • Open the nomination of candidates and decide its schedule.
   • Choose or, if necessary, appoint an electoral commission.
   • Decide on other schedules related to the election and dissemination of information.
2. Opening the elections. The candidates are stated in the second meeting.
   • Decide to open the elections by digital voting.
   • If there is no need for elections, state this and the elected persons.
3. Stating the outcome. The outcome is stated in the third meeting.
   • Decide to notify the employer, the represented people and YTN electronic services of who were elected.

The meetings are general meetings, which means that all represented people are invited. The meetings can be organised digitally on Teams, other such platform or via email.