​Too busy to vote? We're asking companies to give time off on election day

As the nation goes to the polls tomorrow, dozens of companies will be making it easier for their employees to vote by giving them time off.

A few weeks ago a group of us who work in the creative industries came together over pizza because, as the election wore on, we were concerned people were going to stay away from the polls. At the last general election, one third of registered voters didn’t cast their ballot. We were particularly worried about the statistics on young people and voting. At a time when so much is at stake, it feels vital that the people inheriting the future have their say in it, whatever their politics.

At 6.30am the next morning, I received an email from Sara Bender, strategy director at Mindshare: “So, what if we petitioned companies to do one simple thing? Tell staff, you can have time off to vote.” That email ignited the #TimeToVote campaign. We drafted a letter to employers, designer Pete Hellicar created the brand and two weeks later thousands of employees have been given the flexibility to take time off to vote.

#TimeToVote is non-partisan and simple: all companies need to do is let their employees know that allowances will be made for them to have time to vote on 8 June. They set the terms depending on what’s best for the organisation.

Maybe everyone is allowed in an hour or two later than usual, maybe they can leave earlier, or take a longer lunch break. Most important is that employees know what’s agreed in advance and schedule it in.

On election day they post a photo of themselves outside their polling station with the #TimeToVote hashtag, which will remind others to vote too. We hope that having time off to vote, planning it in advance and socialising it will increase the chances that people will go to the polling booth.

A wide range of companies have embraced the campaign, from Virgin Money, to advertising big-hitters such as Brothers & Sisters and PHD Media, to tech firms like Skimlinks and Quantum Black, to film and TV companies such as The Farm Group and Colin Firth’s Raindog films. So far more than 40 businesses have signed up, with more joining by the hour.

“Time To Vote seemed like something we couldn’t not do,” says Iain Tait, executive creative director of advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy. “Getting people to turn out for these elections is more important than ever, whatever your political leanings.”

Anna Godas, CEO of film company Dogwoof, says “Our team is very young and we believe their voices should be heard now more than ever. We want to make sure they get all the extra time they need to vote comfortably and without any time constraints or pressure.”

None of the #TimeToVote team has ever run this kind of thing before. We have done this with no funding – the campaign exists thanks to a huge amount of generosity and goodwill: from the person who designed the website for free overnight, to the volunteers who have been contacting companies every day for the past week.

After we conceived of the campaign we discovered that a similar project had been launched in America: Take Election Day Off. Spotify, SurveyMonkey, TaskRabbit and Western Union were among the more than 340 companies who gave their employees time off to vote in the 2016 US election.

Snap elections make for snap campaigns. We all wish we could have had more time, as support for #TimeToVote is now snowballing. We hope this initiative will continue to future elections and are keen to support organisations in enabling their people to become active citizens.

The campaign has allowed us all to get involved in civic life in ways we never could have imagined three weeks ago. We hope it has done the same for all the employers and employees who have signed up to #TimeToVote. Now to the polls…