Dive Brief:
- Only about one-quarter of employees surveyed by Clutch said they believe it is important to work for a company with views that match their own politics. Sixty percent of the 500 full-time employees polled said they couldn't tell whether their co-workers' politics matched their own, Clutch said in a statement. Politics, the report noted, added "no value to employees work experience."
- In more survey findings, about 40% of respondents disagreed that company leaders should take a political stand on issues related to their industry.
- Less than 32% of respondents agreed that differing political viewpoints in the workplace lead to a healthy exchange of ideas. More than half of those surveyed disagreed that political discourse lowered productivity, according to Clutch.
Dive Insight:
The Clutch report is in conflict with the results of other studies that hit on employees' expectations for their employers' social and political stances. For instance, in a Metlife study released last November, 70% of the employees polled said they think employers should address societal problems, and 52% said they expect their employer to help solve those problems. Some of this activity may fall under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility (CSR) — an organization's effort to address issues such as digital literacy, education, climate change, income inequality and other social issues, according to Deloitte and Forbes Insights.
Younger workers are reportedly driving the push for more CSR from employers. The 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey found that 77% of millennials cited corporate citizenship as "important" or "very important" — and 76% perceived businesses as a driver of positive social change.
CSR initiatives can take on a political tone, especially if the social issues they address are of highly political natures. Most workers are comfortable getting political at work, according to recent research. A 2018 Indeed report revealed that while 20% of employees favored censoring political talk at work, 54% said they were comfortable with the level of political discussions and 10% said too much political talk is censored at work.
