Is It Time to Overhaul the Campaign Staffing Model?
Here’s how staffing your campaign effort works.
You start by copying the template org chart. Tried and true from decades past. Campaign Manager, Finance Director, Communications, Political. So, it’s four or maybe five people you’re getting ready to hire, if you toss in an extra utility player, office manager/volunteer coordinator type.
The Recruitment Process
You do the normal things to recruit these people. You call your highest ranking “political friend” and that person gets you some names of “up and coming” young people who are “really smart” and hopefully “are from the area and know it really well.”
That’s the Campaign Manager. Then for the rest, you “put the word out.“
The Reality of Modern Campaign Staffing
Resumes come pouring in, all A-players, all fully dedicated to you or your cause. All willing to work 120 hours per week for virtually no pay. A team of unicorns, putting everything on the line for you… and all you have to do to keep them happy is give them a “cool job title” and some pizza.
Uhhh… No.
The Evolution of Campaign Staffing
Amazingly enough though, there was a day – several decades ago – when this would actually occur. A-player young people would take on these races as (almost) unpaid interns in order to earn their spurs. Your race was a right of passage and you or your cause benefited from how the system was structured.
Those days are way over.
The Current Campaign Staffing Challenges
Today, here’s how this looks. If you’re a top tier race, sitting at the tip of the spear in the fight for freedom and control of a legislative body, and you’re on track to make the General Election in November already, you’re going to get a ton of help from the various committees to get your effort staffed in the traditional way – those four to five roles we mentioned.
If you’re not in that – call it – two or three dozen races across the country – you’re going to struggle – mightily – to fill any of these roles or retain the people you’ve been lucky enough to convince to take them already.
Identifying and Addressing the Problem
This problem hasn’t just popped up overnight. It’s been growing and getting more problematic for years.
We’ve observed it as we’ve worked alongside various campaigns. We’ve seen them struggle with open positions, high roster churn, and huge variance in the quality of the personnel they’re plugging into their org charts.
The Need for a Market Pivot
What’s the solution?
As with most things, first we have to acknowledge that there is a problem. Our read is that we’re “there’ finally and that the market has fully grasped now that staffing races is an issue that’s not going away and in fact getting worse.
Embracing Technological Solutions
Second, the market has to pivot. Necessity is the mother of invention and we got lots of necessity right now so change is happening and it’s happening fast.
The easiest move for campaigns and 3rd party groups is to use more technology to reduce headcount requirements. Another easy move, outsource non-core back-office functions to vendors. A third easy move, lean on your General Consultant to back stop your personnel problems with their internal staff. Those are all easy and obvious and they’re being done everywhere just to keep the lights on and things moving forward.
Rethinking Key Roles in Campaigns
The next big move is a full rethink of the campaign staffing model and those four to five roles we mentioned; Campaign Manager, Finance, Comms, Political, and “One Other Person Who Does Stuff.”
It’s not at all uncommon to see campaigns just give up on the notion of an internal Finance Director and now more frequently even an in-house Communications person.
The Rise of Outsourcing in Campaigns
There are specialist firms that can sell you a fractional person for these roles and they do a great job. Finance leads on this front and the outsourcing of this role paves the way for outsourcing all of the others that really benefit from specialized expertise.
Case Study: Field Team Management Outsourcing
For the first time, after years of discussing this possibility, our team has been hired to own fully a role that’s been a sacred cow for campaigns forever – Political Director or what we call Field Team Management.
Think about the things that take up the most time – handling volunteers, creating walk surveys, calling supporters, cutting walkbooks, setting up and preparing super Saturdays, preparing target lists… all of these tedious, time-consuming tasks that distract your campaign manager and oftentimes get botched because of how much there is to do.
The Benefits of Outsourcing
What if, instead of having to stress about all of this, you could just hand it off and forget about it? Now your campaign manager and other direct campaign staff members can focus on what really matters – strategy and supporting the candidate.
Adapting to Workforce Realities
All that “necessity” has led the market to accept the idea that voter contact, door to door, phone and texting programs – both volunteer and paid professional efforts – can be fully stewarded by a vendor rather than done as an in-house function. We’re not going to say that “Political World” likes this idea, but it’s in acceptance about the need for it as the workforce dwindles.
This past year, we have really begun to dive into this new role. Depending on a team’s needs, we’ve evolved from being just tools, to being resources and helpful grassroots strategists. Our years of seeing field programs, our proven recruiting techniques, scripts, etc. have become valuable benefits to campaigns as they’ve been able to lean on us to handle unique and complicated field issues.
Earlier this year, our team received a call from a campaign manager who was stretched too thin. He was falling behind in volunteer recruitment. He was struggling to put the volunteers he had to work. He had a failed paid field program. He also wanted to improve his targeting and his scripts. And because he was falling behind on those, the core functions of his job were also suffering. Events weren’t being scheduled and the candidate was missing chances to win votes. Bottom line, because the field wasn’t going right, nothing was going right.
This campaign manager and his General Consultant needed an all-in-one fix, and that fix was us. Within a week, we put our team on the ground and took over these time-consuming tasks. It was an upgrade for field, but also had an immediate positive impact throughout the campaign.
Embracing a Minimalist Staffing Approach
The flexibility to outsource these roles, Finance, Comms, and now Field Operations frees up bandwidth for all kinds of things. And it reduces the stress to hire “just anyone” for these political campaign roles. Worst case scenario, your campaign could effectively operate with a minimum team of two, a Campaign Manager and a Number Two who serve as interchangeable pieces, part Executive Assistant, part Project Manager. Redundancy is crucial so we wouldn’t recommend going below two, but it can be done and probably will become a more common staff complement for campaigns as time goes on and that Org Chart finally gives way to workforce reality.
Embrace the Future of Campaign Staffing Today
Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to political campaign staffing? The landscape of elections is changing rapidly, and staying ahead means adapting quickly. Don’t let traditional models hold you back. Work with Patriot Grassroots and embrace the innovative strategies that are setting new standards in campaign efficiency and effectiveness.
