They are not “union employees” they are your employees, and if you want to persuade them of the need to change behaviors or beliefs, you have to communicate effectively to them – directly to them. Historically in negotiations, employers have agreed to let the trade union keep its membership up to date on what is happening at the bargaining table.
Our clients have found they have seen proposals to save pension schemes mis-characterised as schemes to “gut” pension plans…seen employees convinced the company had “billions in profits” – when really they were just sales, and the company was losing money. It is easier to shape employee opinion when communications are done up front, before your position is misunderstood or miscast. Sometimes, enlightened and cooperative union leadership will work with you to jointly convey these messages – other times you may need to communicate directly to the workforce to prevent misunderstandings.
ERA (UK) works with local professional partners to shape the external view of the company as well, including outreach into relevant communities and governmental or public relations assistance. Internal and external messaging must be thoughtfully coordinated.
When you want to reach agreement on a better collective agreement, avoid industrial action or prevail in a ballot recognition campaign, ERA (UK) consultants can help.
Negotiations support – communicating for success at the bargaining table
Does the old collective agreement work for you? Getting a good collective agreement can be the key to your success. Bargaining never gets any easier, and establishing a good baseline to work from – as well as avoiding the surprise of undocumented “past practices” that cost you time and money -- may be the difference in success or failure of your new business. Ask our clients who failed to assess this and found millions of pounds in poor work practices embedded in unwritten past practices.
Our clients have secured agreements that allowed them to compete by taking their case to the employees. Isn't that illegal? Not if you do it properly. If employees of the old company are unwilling to change to meet the expectations of the new company, you need to know that up front. Our consultants are experienced at getting employees to sign onto the new work culture, and designing exit strategies, or soft landings, for those who prefer to take their talents elsewhere.
Supervisory and Management Training in effective communications and advocacy for the business objectives
Many supervisors are promoted for technical proficiency, not communications skills – and certainly not advocacy skills. Many are not sure of what they legally can and cannot say during organising campaigns, negotiations, or even day to day human resource problems. We train them to be effective advocates for the business, better communicators and encourage and coach them as to what to say, not just what not to say. They learn to bring information in, as well as to hand it out.
Business Literacy Enhancement for management and employees
The foundation for successful communications. Once employees and managers understand where the business needs to go and why, they can become advocates for you, assets for you and allies for your business strategies.
Integrated employment relations and business strategies
What happens in another unit, another division, or another facility does affect what happens in yours. Trade unions coordinate negotiation and organising strategies across industries and international boundaries – you must do the same. Understanding that relationship, and making the linkage work to effect the desired outcome, is the goal of our strategic team. Frequently this involves coordinating employment labour relations, public relations, governmental relations, investor relations and legal resources – understanding the objectives and concerns of each and working together for a common goal calibrated to your bottom line business objectives.
Winning industrial action ballots – avoiding strikes and work stoppages
If your employees knew what you put on the table, would they really go out on strike? If they knew the consequences, would they walk off their jobs? Our clients shoot straight with the members, and have avoided strikes, lockouts and closures.
Effective strike plans
Going into negotiations without an effective strike plan is like going fishing with half a boat. Our consultants have helped create strike plans for nuclear utilities, medical centers, airline vendors, factories and phone companies…preparing it usually means you don't have to implement it.
Remaining union-free
Our US based partners enjoy a 96% success rate in NLRB elections – versus 42% for all employers who went to ballot in the US last year. UK based consultants have an unblemished record under the ERA 1999, in contrast to the more than 62% of UK companies that went to ballot. Winning the right way is a passion and a commitment. Read More...
Re-gaining a union-free workforce
It isn't up to us, and it isn't up to you…but employees can and do decide to return to a union-free environment. Contact us to find out how and why.
Union Vulnerability Assessments
If you must recognise a trade union which has majority support before the Application for Recognition is submitted to the CAC, then it is imperative to have early warning and trip wires in place to detect and mitigate organising efforts if you wish to continue to operate union-free. Electronic surveys or one on one interviews between the consultant and management team are used to identify extent of organising, employee alienation or vulnerability. This process helps allocate resources more efficiently and creates a trip wire so you can address problems before they become issues – and whilst you can still address them directly with your employees.
Employee Opinion Surveys
If you must recognise a trade union which has majority support before the Application for Recognition is submitted to the CAC, then it is imperative to have early warning and trip wires in place to detect and mitigate organising efforts if you wish to continue to operate union-free. Employee Opinion surveys measure employee alienation, predict labour problems, and identify areas of convergence of opinion to help target communications and efforts more effectively and efficiently. Also used to benchmark acceptable levels and measure performance, or to identify outliers for recognition or remedial assistance.
Employment Relations (“Environmental”) Audits
One on one interviews between the consultant and management team to identify employment relations issues, and intensity or energy around those respective issues. Helps identify extent of organising, employee alienation or vulnerability, and can be used in conjunction with electronic tools to drill down beyond the electronic feedback and begin looking for anecdotal examples, solutions and differentiation so that solutions really match problems. This process helps allocate resources more efficiently and creates a trip wire so you can address problems before they become campaign issues – and whilst they can still legally be addressed.
Establishment of effective Works Councils
In coordination with your legal counsel, we can help unlock the creativity, insight and skills of your workforce. Our consultants have increased employee participation in works council elections – and thus the credibility of the organisation. We expect to have 85% - 90% or employees turn out and vote in important workplace elections, and can help ensure that your works council functions as an asset to your business – constructively, not antagonistically. Call us to find out how.
Directing communications strategy and providing communications support
Whether it is cultural change initiatives, collective agreement support, legislative initiatives or union campaigns, we can help devise a communication plan that works for your employees in your culture. Through strategies, training, surveys, multi-media support, handouts, feedback, and one on one or group advocacy we can help formulate or implement your communications plan.
Other Services
Multimedia
Clients find that many times the one on one communications, or group meetings need to be supplemented by more dynamic presentations – video presentations; posters to graphically reinforce the message; payroll stuffers; newspaper ads and other vehicles to reinforce the employer’s message to its workforce or its neighbors and stakeholders. Videos can convey the truth about negotiations, about the employer’s offer, and about industrial action. They can be targeted directly to the employees’ homes…and to their families, and they have been used with great effect to avoid or mitigate the effect of ill-considered work stoppages. Posters have been used to explain and illuminate the need for the proposals the employer has made – they reinforce the managers’ messages and help supervisors become more persuasive advocates for the business. Learn more about RMI .
A team of experts.
We can monitor employee opinion overnight electronically, measure public opinion, and generate data to support negotiations either by using internal resources, or in partnership with a consortium of service providers that we regularly work with to offer one stop shopping. Our partners can calculate the actual costs and savings needed in negotiated, find the “story” to explain the need to change to the workforce, to the union leadership, or to the public, and do so quickly to take the guesswork out of negotiations. Clients do not want to find cost over-runs in the second or third year of a collective agreement because the data was measured improperly, assumptions proved faulty, or the internal resources simply did not have the depth of experience to apply to the analysis. If your team does negotiations every day, then they probably do not need supplementing – but if it is a bi-annual or every three year exercise, you should consider supplementing resources with experienced consultants who do this regularly. We succeed because we apply the right resources to the project…and your recommendation is the only marketing took we really need.
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