Day Four: True Unionproofing

So by now you’ve indoctrinated your current employees with a presentation on the company’s union-free operating philosophy and the reasons behind it. You’ve begun sharing that philosophy with new employees, starting on Day One. Beyond that, you’ve gotten a strong message out to everyone on the importance of protecting their signature.

You’ve begun training your supervisors, giving them insight into what unionization could mean to the company and to them, personally. You’ve put into place the educational tools for the knowledge and skills they need to address employee concerns. Plus, you’ve demonstrated how they can put that knowledge into action.

You’ve removed any fear you may have had of facing an “ambush” election- you know who to communicate to, when to communicate and what to communicate. You understand the powerful connection employees’ families and spouses can have in a union organizing campaign, and you know that the quickest and best way possible to reach them is a website.

But what can you do to keep up that momentum, to begin creating a truly union proof culture? The answer lies in “positive employee relations.” This concept encompasses not only creating ongoing methods for educating employees and managers on unions, but creating an environment where a union (or any 3rd party involvement) simply isn’t necessary.

Begin that ongoing process by crafting a communication schedule or calendar. This could be a combination of face-to-face meetings (or intentional one-on-one interactions), video, and online communication. Your schedule should help you create consistency, which, in turn, engenders trust, something your employees and managers need to embrace your union proof culture. Make sure you aren’t the only one involved in this approach. Upper management should also have a spot on the calendar so that they are consistently reinforcing the message as well. Again, this could take the form of a live meeting… a video message delivered via email… or whatever fits with your company’s working style and current culture.

Make sure that within that schedule, you’re continuing to educate employees and supervisors on the most modern organizing tactics that unions are using today. This kind of message keeps everyone alert and aware of the ways in which they might be approached, and serves as a good refresher. Providing managers with this information can also help protect the company from organizing attempts, as their awareness will help them sound the alarm when they know the signs of organizing activity.

The biggest mistake you can make now in communicating and trying to stay up to date is falling into the “one and done” approach.  Don’t think union proofing is something you can check off on your to-do list – as they say, it’s a lot like bathing… it doesn’t last, so we recommend you do it every day. Truly, union proofing needs to be a part of your culture and because it will be a living-breathing, on-going message, you have to find the consistent delivery mediums that work best for your organization.

Online communication channels provide a logical choice for creating your platform. Here, at various levels and access points, you can include all the information your workforce needs to stay informed, aware, and alert.  So, think through the information and resources your managers and employees may need or want. Remember to make it a two-way conversation! We can’t recommend that strongly enough – one-way communications rarely succeed. This is frightening for many companies, but it is exactly this kind of transparency that creates an environment where employees don’t see the need to seek representation by others.

So, let this take the form of two websites that work for you in tandem. The first is a password-protected website to support and encourage your managers, by providing them with training and higher-level intel. This site should be updated regularly, and include messages from upper management regarding how and when (and what) to communicate with employees. Additionally, you can provide a wealth of resources – remember the training we talked about on Day Two? This website can serve as the central access point for all of it. Consistency, again, is key. Managers should know exactly where to turn for training, to ask questions, and to get the reinforcement they need.

Add a second website (public, if you’re REALLY looking for transparency) to carry your company’s union-free philosophy. On this site, you can also provide an employee area, with labor education and campaign information (at the appropriate time) for employees and their families. This campaign information can include data on the specific union targeting employees, including finances, dues, and constitution, as well as addressing concerns and questions employees may have, any issues the union may have brought up, and more.

Remember, if you create an ongoing, trusted and consistent resource NOW, that’s where your employees will turn when and if they are approached by organizers or have concerns. It must be a two-way conversation – use social media to create employee-only areas (private Facebook groups, protected Twitter accounts, etc.) for specific groups of employees, based on activity, geography, job descriptions, or whatever designations make the most sense for your union proof culture.

So, take a big, deep breath! You're almost there! And a great way to consistently provide your entire workforce with new and fresh information is to keep up to date on labor developments yourself, which you can do easily with this free bonus; UnionProof's "Join the Conversation" email. Each and every Monday morning, we send out all the latest developments in labor news, so you'll never miss a thing!

BONUS! 
Get your free weekly labor news update each Monday morning.

To sum up Day Four, if you don’t have a proactive strategy and calendar in place, it IS possible  to have an organizing campaign and, with the right tools, somehow pull out a win, we do see it happen! But consistently, the post- election debriefing (done to avoid the expense and stress of another campaign) leads to a conversation - not about salary or campaign issues - but about doing a better job of communicating with the workforce.

So if you think your employees could relate to comments like, “We don’t feel connected or involved in decisions that affect our jobs/lives,” “No one listens to my concerns,” “I don’t know what is going on, and changes just happen with little or no warning...” , that’s a powerful warning sign that you need to start putting your union proofing communication strategy into place right away.

Tomorrow, you’re going to get the resources and the recommended actions for crafting a truly Union Proof legacy, one that will reach far into the future success of the company.