Guarding Against Infiltration: The Imperative of Political Awareness in Organisations
by Aimee Cartwright
While UK political parties are divided in countless ways, they are in fact united by one common risk: political infiltration (entryism).
Regardless of your campaign team’s political stance, there is always a risk that ill-intentioned individuals will infiltrate your organisation. So, the question is not whether infiltration occurs, but how to guard your group against it.
Keep your campaign team safe in the next General Election by carrying out Political Advocate Checks on your candidates, to ensure everyone you recruit is genuine and aligns with your campaign team’s morals and principles.
Guarding Against Infiltration: Spotting the Signs of Political Infiltration
Campaign team infiltration isn’t always glaringly obvious, which is why so many political parties deal with infiltration scandals. Knowing the signs of infiltration will allow you to spot potential risks early on, and ultimately keep your campaign team as secure as possible.
Sign 1: Lack of cooperation
If there is any indication that a member of your campaign team isn’t interested in cooperating, this may be a red flag for political infiltration tactics. Individuals with deceitful intentions are unlikely to be the ones driving productivity, fostering positive relationships, and achieving the results you want.
While we must be careful to not jump to conclusions, if you sense that someone within your political party is dividing the group, it would be wise to investigate this further.
Sign 2: Aggressive tactics
As political infiltrators will want to blend in effortlessly with your group, they may well appear enthusiastic and driven to begin with. However, if you notice that their tactics are becoming aggressive, take this as an opportunity to consider their intentions.
Plenty of tactics that appear to come from a place of passion are in fact designed to turn voters away from the political party by way of intimidation.
Sign 3: Inconsistencies in behaviour
Consistency is key in campaign teams. You want to trust that your members will stick to your shared values throughout the campaign, regardless of who they are interacting with.
If a campaign team member is behaving considerably different around different people, or is shifting their political views dramatically, be wary of the risk that they are infiltrating your group.
Guarding Against Infiltration: Implementing the Political Campaign Strategies
Knowing the signs of infiltration can be empowering, yet true change is only made possible when members understand how to guard against this threat.
Strategy 1: Political Advocate Checks
Thanks to our powerful Social Media Checks for Political Advocacy, you don’t need to spend valuable time and money on in-house recruitment strategies that prevent political infiltration.
Our Political Advocate Checks are specialised, UK GDPR compliant, and ready for you to implement. We even offer expert guidance on integrating Social Media Checks in your recruitment practices and policies.
This type of background check ensures the individuals you welcome into your campaign team are not engaging in adverse online behaviours, such as employer criticism, racism, or extremism.
If a job applicant or current team member is sharing views that oppose your political party and influencing their followers to view the party in a negative light, this will also be included in our reports.
Strategy 2: Clear communication
Unless your goals and strategies are crystal clear to your campaign team, it will be difficult to distinguish between members who are simply misinformed, and members who are infiltrating.
Make sure your communication is open and consistent, as this will expose suspicious behaviours before they develop into issues with a lasting damage.
Strategy 3: Infiltration training
Political infiltration training ensures all members of the campaign team can spot signs of infiltration, which not only keeps members safe, but also makes it significantly harder for infiltrators to fly under the radar.
How you choose to approach training may depend on your campaign team structure, but we recommend training all members to reduce risks and increase education as much as possible.
How Can SP Index Help?
Take it from the leading Social Media Checks provider in the UK — our Political Advocate Checks are one of the most effective tools you can use for guarding your political party against infiltration.
With unlimited years of online history and 200 social and professional networking sites covered, and a fast turnaround for all clients, our compliant Political Advocate Checks are unrivalled.
To find out exactly how we can lower the risk of political infiltration in your campaign team, get in touch with SP Index on:
Telephone: 0800 468 1688
Email: info@sp-index.com
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