<p>Hear from Chatrane Birbal and Lisa Horn discuss the impact of this year’s election results, policy not politics and how HR professionals can ensure that public policy doesn’t have unintended consequences. Host Amber Clayton guides this discussion with SHRM’s Government Affairs team and how today’s issues intersect what’s going on in the workplace. <br /><br />--<br /><br /><b>EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING</b></p><p>Honest HR podcast episodes will help you build your competencies while earning professional development credits (PDCs) toward your SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP recertification! All you have to do is listen to a full mini-series to earn PDCs! All relevant details, including the Activity IDs, are provided during the podcast recording itself.<br /><br /></p><p>The Honest HR podcast is only one of SHRM's podcast offerings. And currently, it is the only one approved for recertification PDCs.</p>
Hear from Chatrane Birbal and Lisa Horn discuss the impact of this year’s election results, policy not politics and how HR professionals can ensure that public policy doesn’t have unintended consequences. Host Amber Clayton guides this discussion with SHRM’s Government Affairs team and how today’s issues intersect what’s going on in the workplace.
--
EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING
Honest HR podcast episodes will help you build your competencies while earning professional development credits (PDCs) toward your SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP recertification! All you have to do is listen to a full mini-series to earn PDCs! All relevant details, including the Activity IDs, are provided during the podcast recording itself.
The Honest HR podcast is only one of SHRM's podcast offerings. And currently, it is the only one approved for recertification PDCs.
Amber Clayton:
Hello everyone, and welcome back. I'm your host, Amber Clayton, Director of SHRM's Knowledge Center. On our episode today, we're going to discuss elections as part of HR expertise, US employment law, and regulations. We are fast approaching Election Day, and we're already seeing thousands of people waiting in lines to vote or mailing in their ballots early. Today, I'm actually going to be talking about elections with my colleagues here from SHRM's Government Affairs team. I'm pleased to be joined by Lisa Horn, Congressional Affairs Director, and Chatrane Birbal, Public Policy Director. Thank you for coming today.
Chatrane Birbal:
Thanks for having us.
Lisa Horn:
Thanks for having us.
Amber Clayton:
Great. What we're going to be talking about today is more about the potential outcomes of the elections versus what's happening right now in the voting piece of it. But for those who are interested in information about elections, Chatrane, what information do we have available to our members?
Chatrane Birbal:
Sure, absolutely. SHRM members have access to a new resource that the Government Relations team has launched. It's our elections resource page, and you can find that page at elections.shrm.org. On that page, we have a wealth of resources about the upcoming elections, not only the presidential elections, but also gubernatorial races and congressional races. You can find the candidates' positions on the workplace issues that we're following. You can even look up whether or not you are a registered voter yourself by inputting some identifiable information.
In addition, you can also find your closest polling location hours. Obviously, you may want to check that out before you head out to the polls to cast a vote if you're planning on voting in-person, because hours of operation may have changed or different protocols might be in place to ensure health standards with CDC recommendations and physical distancing. So, we highly encourage you to take a look at that page. Again, it's elections.shrm.org.
Lisa Horn:
Amber, I would also just add too that SHRM members should focus in on that same page the day after the election too, as it will be updated in real time and will be providing content to the members about the election outcomes. What we'll know at that point anyway, and what the impact on the outcome of the elections will be on workplace public policy. It will be a timely tool, so be sure to check back even after you have cast your ballot in November.
Amber Clayton:
Great, great. Well, so you mentioned it, Lisa, the potential outcomes of elections. Tell us what's next, what happens after Election Day?
Chatrane Birbal:
Yeah, and I'll kick it off. I think at this point in time, Amber, everybody's focused on Election Day. But as a Government Relations department, we're constantly thinking about what's next after the elections. So after the elections, this year in particular, there's going to be ballot counting. No doubt the current health pandemic is impacting the elections, and it's not just impacting the presidential elections, it's impacting elections across the board. This is mainly due in part because many people are probably not going to opt to vote in-person as they traditionally have done. Some may be mailing in their ballots, some will plan ahead and plan to participate in early in-person voting.
But what this means is thereafter on Election Day, we may not have the instantaneous results of the elections because of mailing in ballots. There's going to be different state efforts that are going to be ongoing possibly for up to a month to determine who is actually the winner of the presidential election in particular. This varies from state to state, and the reason being is some states are allowing voting for mailing in ballots to be counted ahead of Election Day, some are starting to begin the counting process on the day of Election Day. Similarly, when you think about mailing in ballots, some states even have different requirements about, they may count some of the mail-in ballots after Election Day, although they must be postmarked or postdated prior to Election Day.
Then as you can imagine in states like California, for example, counting may take days. It's not like political pundits announce officially on the news that evening that, "Here are the instantaneous results." To make matters even more problematic or prolonging the process even further, if there is a state where the numbers are looking really close, that state may have to recount yet again, and then there's going to have to be a second confirmation of that count. Needless to say, we may not, in this current year, be able to have those results possibly until the ending of December.
I was reading an article the other day about the presidential campaign in 1980, where Jimmy Carter was able to quickly go on and make his speech immediately. I think we're going to be reminded in this year's elections process in the 2000s elections, and those of us that may recall this was the Bush-Gore presidential election campaign, where we didn't actually know the results of that election for about a month, a month and a half in. So, we could be in for a little bit of a long haul this particular year.
But I do want to remind folks that there are a couple of key dates that we're going to be looking forward to following Election Day. There's December 14th, that is when the electors within each state has to meet and cast their votes. Then on January 6th, that's the day that Congress counts votes, and then of course, everybody I think at this point knows January 20th is inauguration day. Beyond Election Day, I would say look forward for those other key dates, because those will be telling on what the months and the weeks ahead hold for us.
Lisa Horn:
But before we finish this year out though, before we can look to next year, we still have to finish 2020 out. What does that look like?
Chatrane Birbal:
But I think we also have to keep our eye on the ending of the current Congress, right? We are currently in the 116th Congress. Come January, there will be a new Congress, the 117th Congress. The work of Government Affairs doesn't just end because it's Election Day, and we don't take a pause to the new year. There's still much to be done, it's already been a very busy year as Congress tackled COVID relief legislation in particular, that's dominated the legislative agenda. But next we have to think about what could happen in Congress between Election Day and the ending of the year. So, Lisa, do you want to share with us a little bit about what SHRM's going to be working on?
Lisa Horn:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, folks should know that right now, Congress is due to come back after the elections, the unfinished business of the 116th Congress. They'll be coming back in what is known famously as a lame duck session. Just to kind of level set with everyone, so they understand when they hear that reference to a lame duck session, what that means is that in these even numbered years following a general election, lawmakers, many may be coming back who didn't win reelection. And so, hence they are informally called a lame duck member of Congress participating in a lame duck session. The Senate's due to come back November 9th, shortly right thereafter the election, and the house is expected to be in session the following week.
As I alluded to, they've got some unfinished business. I'd say the biggest piece of business they have to tackle is funding the government. Right now, they're operating under a continuing resolution to fund the government through December 11th. But from HR professionals' perspective, what we are watching on their behalf, and will be impactful to the workplace come this lame duck session is what is going to happen with a number of these provisions that were implemented as part of the Cares Act, as part of the Families First coronavirus relief act. In other words, the COVID-19 related legislation that has a number of provisions that are set to expire at the end of the year. There is the emergency paid family and medical leave provisions, the paid sick leave provisions due to expire at the end of the year, an expansion of employer provided educational assistances due to sunset.
And of course, one of our main priorities has been the expansion of the paycheck protection program, PPP, to include our state councils and chapters. So, all of that has to be decided here before the end of the year, as they come back to hopefully tackle another stimulus package. As of right now, they're due to go out, and once they come back, they're slated to stick around really no later than December 18th. But for those of us who've worked in government relations over the years, sometimes we're still here as we get even closer to the holidays. So stay tuned, but that's what we'll be watching in terms of workplace policy before the end of the year.
Amber Clayton:
Let's hear a little bit about a new administration, and what happens when that new administration comes into play.
Lisa Horn:
Yeah, that's really an exciting time. Here, of course, we don't know if it's going to be a new administration. I think we could talk about both, what it would look like for a new administration, as well as if there's a second administration, but let's start with a new administration. It's often common that when you're running for President of the United States, and you would be a new president, that you start your transition team planning very early on. I would say probably as early as April and May of this year, Vice President Biden was probably pulling together a transition team. There's usually a key person that would be appointed to go into each of the agencies and start preparing for not only personnel, but also everything from information technology to key staffing hires, etc.
This is a huge process, and I think HR professionals, there's a great analogy here that if you're a new administration, once you're sworn in on January 20th, you are looking to make more than 4,000 presidential appointments, and more than 1200 of those require Senate confirmation. Therein is, we often see the lag in getting key people into key appointments, because Senate confirmation can take a while. There's vetting and hearings, and then ultimately just getting floor time to talk about the person's nomination. It's also the transition team is getting up to speed with more than 100 federal agencies, and organizing, and training leadership teams. Again, a lot of what HR professionals are quite familiar with, but you're trying to do this so quickly because you hear a lot about, "What's the 100-day agenda?" There's a real push to get your legislative priorities out there to have some quick wins, so that by the time the 200 day mark comes, you can really point to successes.
I like to use the analogy that the president is essentially the CEO of a very complex organization of about two million civilian federal employees and some two million military and reserve forces. This means ultimately that a presidential candidate must begin that transition activity very, very early in the process in order to be successful. I would say too, because the second part of the question, Amber, was about if it's not a new administration and it's a second term for President Trump, there's still a lot of work to be done in terms of transition. Because as we've already started to see with key people in the administration departing in recent months, and many others have signaled their plans to do so at the very highest levels, and have cabinet secretaries, etc., those individuals will need to be replaced. So, identification of who is going to be the key leader in those positions, again, the vetting process, and ultimately as we alluded to, obtaining government up and running at full speed, even under a second term for President Trump.
Chatrane Birbal:
Yeah, and I was just going to add just a little bit more to that, everything that Lisa said is spot on here. But I think one of the main points about a transition of power that many Americans may not be aware of is Congress legislates. Just like it legislates many other aspects of our lives, the transition of power is also legislated. There is a framework for how the transition of power should happen actually, it's called the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. Congress explained when they passed this Presidential Transition Act, that any disruption occasion by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and wellbeing of the United States and its people. As a result of that, to promote an orderly transfer of power, Congress then established this framework for the federal government to prepare for the transition from one president to another.
So, much like HR professionals, we all have protocols in our respective workplaces about how do you have transition, you put together succession plans and things like that within your organizations. Well, the government also has a similar type of plan. As you can imagine, when a commander in chief is taking office, there has to have a lot of many individuals in the room, and much protocol to ensure that there is an orderly transfer of government. I do want to mention that, and of course, since 1963, the presidential transition has become very complex as much of the world has, right? So, the act has bipartisanly been updated throughout the year since 1963. I think one of the things that's going to be a major challenge this year, as Lisa mentioned, if there is a Trump administration for a second term, I think it's slightly easier. But if there is a new administration, the current pandemic will make it even more so hard to do so.
As Lisa mentioned, a new president's going to be tasked with identifying individuals to fulfill many positions within government, so much like HR professionals have had to be conducting virtual interviews with candidates for jobs, the Biden administration will be going through the same effort. So, I think there's much to be learned from HR professionals. We can offer some insight on how we've been adapting to the new normal in the current environment. These are some of the challenges that a new administration's going to have to face, and let's be realistic. Congress themselves are also going to have to be dealing with some of these challenges too, challenges that have now been imposed by the current pandemic. With no exact timing in sight on how long it will take us to get to the other end of this pandemic, the new Congress is also going to be tasked with figuring out new ways of conducting business in this new environment.
Amber Clayton:
Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about SHRM's activities related to elections, and what we in our government affairs office, and our volunteers and our members are doing around this time.
Lisa Horn:
Well, I'll kick it off and then Chatrane can talk about some of the specific activities. But as we look to kind of picking up on the theme of a new Congress, there's a lot of opportunities for SHRM and our members in a new Congress as well. The 117th Congress could convene as early as January 3rd of next year, and those are always exciting times when you watch the swearing-in ceremonies happen, but then there's also a lot of behind the scenes activities that go on. Members are finding where their new office is located up on Capitol Hill, they're setting up their offices.
But there's opportunities there for SHRM, is that once the 117th Congress is ushered in, we get to start introducing them to SHRM, if they're not already familiar with us. Introducing them to the association, to the expertise our members bring to the table when it comes to workplace public policy, introducing them to our policy agenda on our five focus areas. SHRM has a wealth of thought leadership and content research, etc., that is incredibly helpful to policy makers. So, that's one of our first endeavors from the government affairs standpoint, is to make sure that those new members especially... and also continuing to build the prior relationships from members who are reelected, but the primary focus on a new Congress is the opportunities that exist with those new members.
Chatrane Birbal:
And I'll add a little bit more context too. But before I jump into initiatives at SHRMs, government affairs, and partnership with our membership takes on to elevate SHRM as a thought leader and a resource to lawmakers. I do want to mention, we've been talking a lot in particular in this last year about, "Policy, not politics." I kind of want to demystify a little bit about what it is we mean by that, because I think we need to have that solid foundation and understanding of what we mean by that before we can really talk about why we go about tackling or interacting with members of Congress and the administration. First and foremost, SHRM is a nonpartisan organization, and we have historically worked with the administration and Congress no matter party affiliation. SHRM does not have a political action committee, i.e., we do not endorse or financially contribute to any political candidate.
When we say, "Policy, not politics," we mean just that. We focus on the policy issues impacting workers and the workplace, and that's it. When the new Congress comes around, and the new administration, and new governors across the country... One of the things that we set out to do, because a main mission of SHRM is to elevate the SHRM brand, and elevate the HR profession as leaders within the workplace, and resources that can help lawmakers especially as tackle workplace issues. We all know from listening to the news this past year in particular, more so than I think ever before, that many of the issues that are going on in our society today really intersect with the workplace. HR professionals are the most well-positioned professionals to be able to articulate what is going on within their work sites, what is going on with their employees, and how is that transcending to their families and their communities?
At SHRM, our motto is, "Better workplaces create a better world," and we really do believe that, and so for us it's a larger undertaking. One of the things that we do at the very beginning of a new Congress, new administration when governors take office, is we like to send a welcome letter to those new policy makers. To one, say who we are, and two, say that we are a resource on all things workplace public policy, so that as they begin to work on their legislative agendas for the year, they will think about SHRM and the HR profession and say, "You know what? We're going to be working on this new build bolstering benefits for employees. Perhaps we ought to get an HR professional to come in here and talk with us about the utilization of this benefit," for example. That's why we really set out to proactively engage with these lawmakers at the beginning of the year.
In addition to that, we know that we cannot go at this alone. We have over 300,000 individual HR professionals, and we know that many of our professional members are friends, affiliates, neighbors. They may go to the same church, their children may go to the same school with new policymakers. So, we rely on our members to help us identify relationships that you all may already have. Actually, what we want to know is that you have that relationship, and we call upon you should that member have any question about the workplace. Then we can reach out to you and say, "Hey just wanted to let you know, this member of Congress is interested in this particular workplace issue. I think it would be great if you had a conversation, or you penned a letter, or you called the office."
We also equally rely on our members to tell us about some of those relationships that you already have. Also, we all know, especially in Washington DC, lawmakers like to hear from their constituents. Lisa and I, we are registered lobbyists, and while we have a lot of technical experience, lawmakers really want to hear from their constituents, and those are HR professionals across the country.
Amber Clayton:
So, why should HR be engaged in advocacy?
Chatrane Birbal:
HR professionals have intimate knowledge of workplace policies, of implementation of workplace policies that many others do not have. There are few lawmakers that have any experience with HR. These lawmakers write laws, they're very familiar with the legal field, they're very familiar with the political field, but they may not be intimately involved with the implementation, the inner workings of how laws are actually implemented within the workplaces.
HR professionals not only know about how laws are implemented, i.e., the administration and compliance of those laws, but they also add the human element to that conversation. HR professionals can explain to lawmakers how policies they are considering will impact the employee and their families, and the lawmakers need to hear from their constituents who are going to be impacted by these laws. As I mentioned before, SHRM has over 300,000 members that impact the lives of more than a 115 million Americans. That's a lot of constituents. That covers every part of this country, and I think that lawmakers can really benefit from hearing from HR professionals.
Lisa Horn:
Yeah, in many ways I would just add to that, HR professionals can be helpful in helping ensure that public policy doesn't have unintended consequences, in other words. Most members of Congress, when they're looking at policy proposals, they don't necessarily understand all the unintended consequences of what that implementation of that particular proposal could mean in the workplace. And I think because SHRM members are again, experts, and have a lot of expertise as it relates to workplace laws, they can help identify and improve many times, these policy proposals. So that's, I think, one of the key main ingredients of advocacy for us, is bringing that expertise of our members to bear with policymakers, to try to get the best public policy that works for workers and the workplace.
Amber Clayton:
Great. So, we answered the why, but how did the HR professionals get involved?
Lisa Horn:
Yeah, I would encourage all of our members who are interested in public policy and advocacy to join what's known as the SHRM advocacy team, or the SHRM A-team. We have a very robust website set up for advocacy at advocacy.shrm.org. You can learn more about the A-team, you can learn more about, again, the five core public policy pillar areas that we work on. Really, it's about building on those relationships that Chatrane alluded to, with respect to many of our members may already have a policymaker living next door. Or if not, it's constantly nurturing our relationship that when you reach out to a member of Congress and you offer yourself as a resource, you'd be surprised. I know in my tenure as a congressional staffer, I handled healthcare policy, and when the group of experts from the hospital group, for example, would come and visit me, they would share such great information in terms of the impact of a policy proposal would have back on my members' home state.
That was information that I didn't readily have available, and so if HR professionals can bring that type of information to bear about what's the home state, what's the district impact of a proposal. Again, that's something that a staff member and a member of Congress don't have, and it's very important information. It's about nurturing those relationships, and a great way to start those relationships is when you have a new member of Congress come in writing that your own welcome letter. As Chatrane mentioned, we do that at SHRM, but it's also having an immediate outreach to the office, introducing yourself and what you can bring to bear. A great opportunity to put that into action is at our upcoming policy at work conference, that I'm sure that Chatrane wants to share for more information about.
Chatrane Birbal:
Yeah! I know many HR professionals probably listening to our podcast is thinking, "I am immersed in my current day-to-day activities at work. How will I ever keep up to date with all of the policy issues that SHRM is advocating on? How can I be informed to be an advocate for the HR profession?" We have two really easy solutions here for you. First, SHRM has historically annually hosted an Employment Law and Legislative conference. Next year, we are rebranding the conference, and it is now known as SHRM's Workplace Policy conference. That conference is taking place March 22nd through the 24th. During next year's program, we'll have two days of programming to talk about trending workplace issues and potential legislation and administrative action, and even hear from some experts in the States about things that we may hear about legislative priorities in the States.
On the third day of the conference, we'll be putting our learnings into action by convening virtually with lawmakers across the country to tell them about SHRM, the HR profession, position ourselves as a resource, as the experts on all things workplace. And also, an opportunity to share with them some of the workplace issues that we're going to be focused on. As Lisa mentioned before, there are five policy pillar areas that we're actively working on. There are SHRM policy priorities that includes workplace immigration, workforce development, workplace healthcare, workplace equity, workplace flexibility, and leave. During our conference, we will have five policy pillar discussions where we're going to do a deep dive into those issues, and we'll be talking about those topics and the implications for the workplace and potential legislative action. That's a great way to hear from the experts about things that you need to be aware of.
Being a part of those conversations, it's not just to be aware of so that you can advocate with your lawmakers, but also, as an HR professional, it's good for you to have knowledge about those issues. Because then, you can take that information back to your workplaces and talk with your executive team about things that you may be anticipating coming down the pipe legislatively in this next year, because it's information that you were able to obtain in our conference. In addition to that, beyond this once a year in-person conference... And by the way, next year, our conference is going to be a little bit of in-person and also virtual given the current environment. Of course, that's subject to change depending on how the remainder of the year goes.
Year-round, the SHRM government affairs team puts together an HR public policy newsletter that we send out to all members on a biweekly basis. In that newsletter, you'll find the latest from Washington DC. We'll give you the rundown on recent regulations, administrative action, congressional action that may have been taken in that past two weeks or so, impacting the worker in the workplace. That's a great primer to read, should you be having a call with a member of Congress or a virtual convening with a member of Congress, or even state lawmakers. It's good for you to peruse that newsletter ahead of your conversation so that you can get the latest.
Of course, without fail, if ever you have a meeting scheduled with a policymaker, no matter what level of government... if you'd like to get the latest from SHRM on topics that you should be talking about with that policymaker, we highly encourage you to reach out to the government relations team to get the latest. And we're happy to put together some talking points for your conversation with that respective policymaker.
Lisa Horn:
I would note that the newsletter's been jam-packed with workplace public policy information as of late. This is not uncommon for... as an administration winds down or potentially is reelected, that there's a lot of regulatory activity towards the end of an administration. We're seeing a lot of that right now, which I'm sure Amber is getting lots of questions in the SHRM knowledge center as well about some of these rules mean for HR professionals in the workplace.
Amber Clayton:
So, we've come to the end of our show. Before we end, Chatrane, do you have any closing thoughts for our listeners?
Chatrane Birbal:
Sure. I would say not only be engaged in civic participation during the election cycle, I would highly encourage our HR professionals to also be civically engaged year-round. It's really critical and important now more than ever, especially when lawmakers are around the country are taking up issues that impact the worker in the workplace. Thank you in advance for all of your support.
Amber Clayton:
Great. Lisa?
Lisa Horn:
You know that I just encourage everyone to get out the vote when we've got, again, a lot of "Get Out The Vote" resources that can be helpful to our members on the website that we talked about earlier. Take advantage of that information and use it, share widely if it can be helpful to your employees as well. This is truly an exciting time, we're lucky to live in a country with free elections, and we can all take advantage of our right to vote. We have a lot of work ahead of us regardless of the outcome of the elections, and SHRM will stand ready to work with whoever is in the White House, and whoever is in control of Congress going forward.
Amber Clayton:
Great. Well, thank you both very much for joining us today. I think our listeners have probably learned quite a bit about our post-elections and what we at SHRM have to offer. Again, there are resources available with regards to elections on our website, as well as more information about our A-team. You could also reach out to the Knowledge Center if you have any additional questions that you're not able to find on our site, just go to shrm.org/hrhelp for information on the advisor service. Thanks again for joining us on Honest HR.
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