Six Ways to Prepare Your Workforce for the 2026 Midterms

It may feel like déjà vu, but election season is here again. The U.S. midterm elections are less than a month away, and as campaigns and political commentary intensify, employers should be preparing too.

Although people may leave work to vote, the concerns and reactions will inevitably follow them back to their desks. In fact, during the 2024 election cycle, nearly half of U.S. employees said they had discussed political issues with a coworker in the previous month. The experience of 2024 should be a warning: Waiting until tensions surface is already too late to prepare.

The 2026 midterms will test whether inclusion, HR, and talent strategies can hold when employees experience the same outcome in profoundly different ways. Leaders need to anticipate what may arise and put the right policies, manager guidance, and decision-making structures in place before the polls open and after they close.

Why Election Season Is an HR and Inclusion Priority

1. Election issues are deeply personal to employees.

Political decisions can affect how employees understand their rights, families, communities, and futures. They can also shape how employees view their employer. Whether an organization speaks, remains silent, or changes a workplace policy, employees may interpret that decision as evidence of whose experiences and concerns matter.

2. Employees are entering work across a wider divide.

Political issue polarization in the United States increased 64 percent between 1988 and 2024. At the same time, the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 70 percent of people worldwide are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone with different values, facts, problem-solving approaches, or cultural backgrounds. Yet the workplace still requires people across those divides to collaborate. The inclusion challenge is to ensure that disagreement does not erode employees’ ability to feel respected, included, and able to contribute.

3. Organizations have less room for error.

Employee belonging is already under strain. Seramount research found that the share of employees who feel included on their team fell from 85 percent in 2024 to 50 percent in 2026, while those who feel they can be themselves at work fell from 83 percent to 47 percent. Election season will add pressure to inclusion strategies that leaders have spent the past two years rebuilding, and unclear expectations or inconsistent responses could deepen the cracks already showing.

Election Scenarios You Need to Be Prepared For

Election-related tension will not always arrive as an open argument. In fact, the issues employees experience most personally may create the greatest tension and be the hardest for leaders to see.

A few scenarios organizations should be prepared to handle:

• The morning after the election, one employee celebrates while another says the outcome threatens their family. Their manager is unsure whether to acknowledge or end the conversation.
• An ERG asks the organization to respond to proposed legislation that could directly affect its members, while other employees view any response as taking a political side.
• An employee shares a political post in Slack or Teams. A colleague reports it as offensive, but it does not clearly violate policy and similar posts reflecting other viewpoints have gone unaddressed.

Would your managers and leaders know how to respond consistently in each of these moments?

Preparing Your Workplace for the 2026 Midterm Elections

Seramount’s election-preparation toolkit is designed for moments like these. One partner used it ahead of the 2024 election, and although the team initially worried it was overpreparing, leaders later said the work gave them what they needed to respond to high-emotion moments and share practical information about benefits and available support.

The six-step framework below helps organizations put that preparation in place before they are forced to respond under pressure.

1. Review and repeat workplace policies  

Ensure employees understand what respectful dialogue looks like, when political speech crosses into harassment or discrimination, and how they should escalate concerns. With those expectations in place, people can be held to clear, established standards instead of interpreting the rules in real time. 

2. Reinforce company values

During election season, many organizations feel pressure to comment on partisan issues. However, only reacting to select topics can cause people to question why the organization responded to one topic and not another.

To keep communication consistent, leaders should use company values as their north star. Before commenting, consider how the situation connects to existing commitments around respect, inclusion, and ethical behavior. This approach allows leaders to ground their responses in their organization’s viewpoints.

3. Equip managers to navigate difficult conversations

Managers need more than permission to step in. They need language that helps them set boundaries without shutting down legitimate concerns, along with clear guidance on when to involve HR.

ERGs can help surface concerns and connect employees with resources, but they should not be expected to manage emotionally charged conflict. HR should establish clear boundaries and escalation paths.

4. Support well-being and civic participation

Leaders can help address these concerns by reminding people how to access mental health resources, employee assistance programs, and other wellness benefits. Organizations should also communicate what flexibility employees have to vote. According to a 2024 Seramount Employee Voice Session (EVS), 75 percent of participating companies offered paid voting leave. Offering this support demonstrates that the company respects the democratic process and understands that election outcomes affect employees’ lives outside of work.

5. Listen before reacting

When political concerns come up, the loudest person in the room is not the only voice worth listening to. Others may hesitate to share their thoughts, especially if they’re afraid of being judged.

To avoid creating a political echo chamber, use trusted channels and groups to understand how employees are feeling. ERGs can surface concerns that may otherwise go unnoticed, while manager check-ins and listening sessions can show whether an issue extends beyond one team or group.

Armed with these insights, leaders can determine what resources people need to move forward. They can also avoid issuing a broad response that overlooks the people most affected.

6. Prepare a communications plan

A tense period such as the midterms is the wrong time to decide who owns internal and external communications. Without a clear process, HR may assume PR is leading while PR waits for guidance from HR.

Before the election, clarify which teams draft and approve messaging. A simple decision tree can help with this. It also reduces the risk that one message appears principled while another appears political.

The Bottom Line

These six steps provide a foundation, but every organization still has decisions to make. Who owns the response when an issue crosses HR, legal, communications, and inclusion? What role should ERGs play? When should managers escalate?

Seramount works with partners every day to answer questions like these and can share what we are seeing across organizations. Making those decisions now gives leaders and managers the clarity to respond consistently when election-related questions or tensions arise and helps protect employee trust and belonging.

Read our Preparing Your Workplace for the Midterm Elections guide for more practical guidance, or connect with a Seramount expert to discuss the questions facing your organization.

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