Day Five: Your Union Proof Legacy

At this point, the comprehensive union avoidance strategy you’ve built has some powerful substance to it. You began by communicating your union-free philosophy with both existing and new employees. With that done, you gave your managers – your first line of defense – the training, tools, and support they need to be the Company’s biggest advocates. Then, you assembled the resources you’ll need should an organizing drive ever become reality. Finally, you returned to employee and manager communications with the objective of keeping your message fresh, engaging and positive.

Today, we’re going to talk about how your strategy can have a much more far-reaching impact on your company, it's employees, and it's future. This part of your Union Proof communication strategy is all about creating a lasting legacy; a UnionProof culture.

But, just for a moment, let’s look past the objective of staying union-free, and focus on simply doing the right things as an employer.  Reinforcing your “employer brand” and creating happier employees has been proven to increase engagement and satisfaction and reduce turnover. Key to this effort is making sure employees feel “in on things,” which in turn gives them a greater sense of connectedness and control… you see where I’m going… and less of a need for any outside, third party involvement.

This is where creating your legacy comes in. Even bad news - if communicated properly, in a way that employees can understand - can be a positive point for your employer brand. The concept being that unions do exist, they are always seeking new members and every topic, every department, every company decision ties back to your union-free status in one way or another.  So, creating a legacy of a union proof culture begins with communicating well, and making sure that communication flows across every department, at every level.

Start with the size of your organization and its current growth rate.  How many managers do you have per employees? Are you geographically diverse, meaning do you have employees in Distribution Centers, Call Centers, Manufacturing facilities, Retail stores or Headquarters? This could make you more susceptible to organizing attempts – unless you communicate well, and consistently across those locations. That requires effort, and often, funding to get those messages out to all locations.

How is the company structured for communication now? What internal systems such as email or intranet are being used? It’s often a good idea to communicate in expected and consistent ways.

Finally, how many people are on the union avoidance team? Before you answer, think a bit more broadly about this - are there other teams such as HR, Benefits, Safety, or Legal who need to be educated on how to connect with employees as a part of your union proofing strategy? Think about who runs the on-boarding program, they are a huge part of your communication plan! Finally, is the C-Suite or upper management taking this effort seriously? Sometimes a single top-down mention of the importance of your strategy is all it takes to get others to support you!

>> Related: Building Your Employee Relations Dream Team

Helping everyone understand the potential Cost of Unionization can provide the buy-in and support you need to establish a budget for your ongoing and more custom-created union avoidance communication tools. Once those who establish budgets understand that prevention of union organizing activity is far less expensive (and time-consuming) than fighting an actual drive to unionize, the prospect of creating a union proof legacy for the company can become a reality.

So with that support in hand, you can now create a union proof legacy that is meant to last. This means connecting the entire company with the idea that remaining union-free is a vital element of the company’s ongoing success.

Creating custom-crafted messages that inform and educate employees & managers on the importance of protecting their signature can be incredibly powerful. With your culture, your language, your demographics, uniforms, even geographic identifiers make your communications just like your audience. This kind of custom approach makes the entire message more relatable, and therefore, more memorable.

How do you want your legacy to look? To what do your people best respond? Custom videos, websites, eLearning and even social media and mobile device apps may be what your organization needs to delivery the very best in employee communications.

Don’t limit yourself - there are almost always internal resources and volunteers to seek out and bring into your employee relations team to share ideas around this common objective.  What about your “tribe” – those who are in similar positions, similar situations, and are working to create a similar union proof legacy? Look for like-minded organizations to join or private groups that share information and data on remaining union-free.  When your company becomes actively involved in these organizations and their events, you’re truly creating a culture and a legacy that respects your union-free operating philosophy.