Stress-free social elections thanks to a scalable digital platform

The challenge

Social elections are crucial for HR teams, but organising them is legally complex. The process involves mandatory physical and digital steps that follow one another in quick succession, and each step has to happen exactly according to the official timeline.

The scale is enormous: hundreds of thousands of employees vote within a two-week window. The tool has to absorb that peak load, support multiple voting methods (in person, digital or by post), take language legislation into account, and adapt flexibly to new government decisions.

Paper-based and digital flows have to mesh perfectly so that the strict deadlines are met, even in unforeseen circumstances such as a postal strike.

SD Worx was therefore looking for a technically capable partner with in-depth knowledge of this domain and proven skill in the complex work of translating regulations into software.

The approach

As a solution, Teal Partners designed three closely interconnected tools.

• The Procedure tool is a custom web application with an intuitive, task-driven timeline that turns the complex legal process into clear actions. At every stage of the election procedure, the person responsible within a company sees exactly what needs to happen. The tool supports the entire course of the elections: from generating documents and managing employees, candidate lists and polling stations, through to tracking invitations and ballot paper orders. In the event of complaints or procedural changes, the tool automatically creates the appropriate follow-up steps.
• The Convocation tool allows employees to view and download their letter of convocation digitally and to confirm receipt.
• On election days, the chairpersons use the ElectionDay tool to manage the voting process: opening and closing e-voting, checking off voters digitally, calculating results, and generating and signing the official report.

1. Smart document and data management

All legally required documents are generated automatically on the basis of synchronised employee data from SD Worx's core HR and payroll systems. The solution takes language obligations per site into account and creates multilingual documents where necessary.

For printed material there is an integrated ordering process: letters of convocation, ballot papers and envelopes are ordered through the tool and produced and dispatched by a printing partner at exactly the right moment.

2. Event-driven architecture in the cloud

Under the bonnet runs a modern cloud environment on Microsoft Azure, using .NET, Angular, Azure SQL and cloud storage. Thanks to an event-driven architecture with messaging and asynchronous processing, the application stays performant when thousands of companies generate documents at the same time, or when emails and letters go out en masse. 

3. Integration with e-voting

For digital voting, Teal Partners integrated the specialised solution from LumiGlobal (formerly known as AssemblyVoting), a secure digital ballot box, into the tool. All eligible voters arrive in the digital ballot box with the correct data, and SD Worx can follow the status of the elections live via dashboards.

What appeals to me so much about building this software is that the platform has a direct, tangible impact on thousands of people.

David Vercruyssen

Full-stack developer

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The result

1. A grip on a complex legal process

HR teams can see clearly which steps are needed and when. The scope for error drops dramatically and it becomes easier to meet deadlines. If a candidate has to be replaced, a complaint comes in or a document turns out to be incorrect, the tool automatically adjusts the timeline, activates the right follow-up steps and creates new documents. 

2. Flexible and compliant with changing regulations

The flexible set-up makes it possible to translate legislative changes smoothly into new functionality. Because social elections are strictly tied to legally fixed dates, the application has to be able to cope with last-minute changes, such as shifted reference periods or objection procedures.

Specific parts of the tool can be modified and activated without taking the whole system offline. Small updates are automatically tested first and then rolled out immediately, without any interruption for users.

3. Everyone works more efficiently

Case managers at SD Worx can handle more clients at once thanks to this digitalisation. The process has become far simpler for companies: there are no more manual intermediate steps such as uploading, forwarding or chasing documents. Everything is created and delivered at the right moment. Companies can choose to be guided through the process or work entirely independently in the election tool.

4. Scalable to hundreds of thousands of employees

Thanks to the cloud, messaging and an event-driven architecture, the solution comfortably handles large peaks in document generation, convocation emails and vote processing. As a result, the application remains stable even during the busiest weeks.

How did Teal Partners make the difference?

Developing the software for the social elections is one of the longest-running collaborations between SD Worx and Teal Partners. Tom Desloovere, Team Manager Legal Payroll Advice & Social Elections at SD Worx, explains what makes that partnership work.

"Teal Partners don't just program what we ask for. They know the social elections procedure inside out. That means we can arrive at the best solution together. The developers come up with ideas themselves: 'This is how I'd approach it, what do you think?' If the proposal is legally sound, they build it. During testing, we review the solution from a legal angle again. That interplay is very important. Our skills are complementary.

Social elections are difficult enough as it is. The tool has to make the process easier. That's why Teal Partners also pays a lot of attention to simplicity and ease of use, both for us and for our clients.

A technical problem can have major consequences. Social elections are deadline-driven work, with peak periods in which thousands of people use the tool at the same time. On election days in particular, everything has to be right. If something goes wrong, we have to act extremely fast. But we have always managed to solve the problems. Teal is always on standby. It's a stressful period, but it also shows the strength of the partnership.

Teal Partners think proactively about improvements. After every election we look at what could be better. That way we avoid errors becoming entrenched in the software. Each time, the tool is adjusted, refined and improved. That explains why we're still using it after all these years."