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Overview

The Employment tab allows you to create an employment relationship for each form submission. If you prefer not to, you can skip this tab and use the default settings.

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Why Collect Employment Information?

Employment relationships are central to labor organizing campaigns. Collecting employer information lets you:

• Link workers to their employers (shops, departments, companies)
• Build shop lists and organizational charts
• Identify shop leaders and organizers
• Generate shop-specific reports
• Send targeted communications to specific workplaces
• Track organizing progress by location

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Create an employment relationship on your public form

Follow these steps to configure employment collection on your public form:

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Step 1: Navigate to the Employment tab

To get started, select the Employment tab in the public form editor.

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Step 2: Enable employment creation

To include employment information, check the “Create an employment for the person created or matched by this form?” checkbox. The record connected to the form submission will now be associated with an employer. When enabled:

• An “Employer” field appears on the public form
• The submitter provides their employer information
• An employment relationship is created automatically
• The worker is linked to the organization in Broadstripes

When unchecked, no employer information is collected.

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Step 3: Create a custom label

Create a descriptive label for the employment input section using the Custom label field. Default: “Employer” Custom label examples:

• “Where do you work?”
• “Your employer”
• “Company name”
• “Shop name”
• “Worksite”

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Step 4: Choose the matching method

Next, choose the method by which employment will be identified and matched. This dropdown controls HOW workers will identify their employer on the form. Four options are available:

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Tiered drop-downs

The form recipient will select their employment information via drop-down menus, starting with the highest level of employment and then department and subdepartment, if applicable. How it works:

• Multiple dropdown menus appear on the form
• First dropdown shows parent organizations
• Second dropdown shows child organizations within the selected parent
• Additional dropdowns may appear for deeper hierarchies

Best for:

• Campaigns with clear organizational hierarchies
• Large employers with multiple locations or departments

Example:

• First dropdown: Select your division (Northeast, Southeast, Central, West)
• Second dropdown: Select your facility (lists facilities in chosen division)

Advantages:

• Prevents typos and variations in employer names
• Forces structured data entry
• Easy for workers when hierarchy is clear

Disadvantages:

• Can be slow if hierarchy is deep or complex
• May confuse workers unfamiliar with the corporate structure

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External system

Broadstripes will use the external system you choose to make an employment association. You will also choose which external system value will be matched. How it works:

• A single text input field appears
• Worker enters an identifier from an external system (employer ID, shop number, etc.)
• Broadstripes matches the identifier to an existing organization

Configuration: When you select this option, you must also select which external system to use from the “Choose the external system value that will be entered to match the employing organization” dropdown. This shows all external systems configured for your project. Best for:

• Workers who know their employer ID or shop code
• Campaigns with integrated payroll or HR systems
• When you’ve imported organization data with external IDs

Example:

• Custom label: “Employee ID”
• External system: “Payroll System”
• Worker types: “E12345”
• Broadstripes finds the organization with external system ID “E12345”

Advantages:

• Fast for workers who know their ID
• Works well with HR system integrations

Disadvantages:

• Workers must know their ID
• Requires external system setup in Broadstripes
• Creates errors if worker enters wrong ID

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Autocomplete

Broadstripes will automatically match existing shops/departments to recipients’ input. How it works:

• A single text input field appears with autocomplete
• As the worker types, matching organization names appear
• Worker selects their employer from the list
• Matches against organization names at ALL levels of hierarchy

Best for:

• Campaigns with many employers
• Workers who know their employer’s name but not the formal hierarchy
• Mobile-friendly forms (less tapping than tiered dropdowns)

Example:

• Worker types “acme”
• Autocomplete shows: “Acme Corporation”, “Acme West”, “Acme Manufacturing”
• Worker selects the correct one

Advantages:

• Fast and intuitive
• Works on mobile devices
• No need to understand organizational hierarchy

Disadvantages:

• May show too many results for common names

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Autocomplete, matching only against the lowest level of shop structure

A form of auto-matching that will only match on departments at the lowest level (works best for projects with unique department names). How it works:

• Same as Autocomplete above, but…
• ONLY matches organization names at the lowest (leaf) level of the hierarchy
• Excludes parent organizations from autocomplete results

Best for:

• Campaigns where workers should only be employed at specific locations, not parent companies
• Avoiding confusion between “Acme Corporation” (parent) and “Acme Plant 3” (actual worksite)
• Ensuring workers are linked to the most specific level

Example:

• Organization hierarchy: Acme Corp → Acme Northeast → Acme Plant 3
• Regular autocomplete would show all three when typing “acme”
• Leaf node autocomplete ONLY shows “Acme Plant 3”

Advantages:

• Prevents workers from selecting parent organizations inappropriately
• Ensures precise location data
• Cleaner autocomplete results

Disadvantages:

• Requires well-structured organization hierarchy in Broadstripes
• May not show any results if hierarchy isn’t set up correctly
• Can confuse workers if the “leaf node” isn’t how they think of their employer

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Step 5: Configure employer email notifications (optional)

A form can be set to automatically send the employer a copy of the recipient’s form submission. You will configure this option on the Email tab. This will require you to have contact information for the employer in your project, specifically an email address.

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Step 6: Enable multiple employments (optional)

Check the “Enable submitters to create multiple employments” box to enable form recipients to create multiple employment relationships. When enabled:

• Workers can add more than one employer on the form
• A link appears allowing them to add additional employments
• Useful for workers with multiple jobs or who work at multiple locations

When disabled (default):

• Workers can only specify one employer
• Simpler form experience

In the “Text for link that creates additional employments” field, enter a custom label for the link that allows them to add additional employments. Default: “Add another” Example alternatives:

• “Add another job”
• “Add second workplace”

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Step 7: Save your work

Once you’ve configured your employment options, click Save or move on to the next tab to continue customizing your form.

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Common Configuration Examples

Basic Manufacturing Shop Organizing Configuration:

• ☑ Create an employment
• Custom label: “Where do you work?”
• Selection method: Autocomplete (leaf node only)
• ☐ Allow multiple employments: No

Result: Simple, fast form where workers type their shop name and select from list. Large Multi-Site Employer Configuration:

• ☑ Create an employment
• Custom label: “Your location”
• Selection method: Tiered drop-downs
• ☐ Allow multiple employments: No

Result: Workers select from structured list of divisions and facilities. Industry with Many Casual Workers Configuration:

• ☑ Create an employment
• Custom label: “Current employer”
• Selection method: Autocomplete
• ☑ Allow multiple employments: Yes
• Additional employment label: “Add another job”

Result: Workers can add multiple employers where they currently work.

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Integrated HR external system IDs

Configuration:

• ☑ Create an employment
• Custom label: “Employer ID”
• Selection method: External system
• External system: “HR System”
• ☐ Allow multiple employments: No

Result: Workers enter their employer ID, and the system finds their employer automatically.

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Best Practices

Match your selection method to your data: If you have a clean organization hierarchy in Broadstripes, use tiered dropdowns. If not, autocomplete works better. Test with real workers: What makes sense to you may confuse workers. Test the form with actual members of your audience. Consider mobile users: Autocomplete works better on mobile than deep tiered dropdowns. Set up organizations first: Employment matching only works if the employer organizations already exist in Broadstripes. Import or create them before launching your form. Use clear labels: “Where do you work?” is clearer than “Employing organization” for most audiences.

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Next Steps

Here are links to the other documentation pages for public forms:

• Create a new public form
• The “Standard fields” tab
• The “Timeline” tab
• The “Form content” tab
• The “Email” tab
• The “Other options” tab
• Viewing and downloading public forms