How to Keep Your Corporation Out of the Culture War

TLDR:

For companies that wish to hire talent of all political stripes, or to reduce the frequency of campaigns to fire employees for political nonconformity, we offer the following advice.

1. Expand your definition of diversity to include diversity on perspectives, function and political views

2. Reconsider what colleges you hire from, including large state schools and even people who have not attended college at all.

3. Orientation: Be direct with candidates and new hires. If you decide that you want your organization to be politically neutral or self-consciously politically heterogeneous it’s a good idea to say so in job postings, and to introduce that idea to employees from their very first day.

4. Make sure your human resources department understands that employees are expected to deal with each other and navigate a way of getting along, and that they should only come to human resources if it involves something more serious.

5. Use real data from anonymous employee surveys to determine if there is an unwelcome environment. Don't rely on social media.

6. If a social media firestorm demands that you fire an employee, slow down. Social media firestorms lose energy quickly so even having just a mandatory two-week cooling off period can get you past the critical period.

7. Don't make firing a first or preferred punishment. Consider something short of firing. As a society we should revive the virtue of forgiveness, and learn to accept apologies again.

8. Ask yourself "where does this end?" If you have an employee who other employees want terminated, and you do terminate them, you have set a precedent for what counts as a fireable offense. Over time, that line tends to shift in one direction only. Eventually, you may be left only with employees who share a narrow ideology and a punitive orientation toward all but the most doctrinaire speech.