Forward Looking Concern
An item in the news recently caught my attention: several major U.S.-based labor unions broke away from their umbrella organization, the AFL-CIO, to form a new organization. The nascent “Change to Win Coalition” says that its primary purpose is to organize more workers.
Before you tune out - because your workforce is not unionized or because you’re outside of the U.S. - bear with me: there are universal communication issues here.
If you accept the premise that employee communication can play a role in employee engagement, then you have to accept the corollary that bad employee communication can play a role in employee disengagement.
The stated goal of the new coalition is to organize more workers. Disengaged employees are among the most vulnerable. If they don’t know what’s in it for them - from you, from the organization - then the union grass might seem greener. In my experience, unions are communication savvy.
As the manufacturing economy has slowed, unions have hastened to beat a path into the service sector. Wal-Mart is seen as the holy grail in this effort, so much so that unions are now using the company name as a verb: “Stop the Wal-Marting of good jobs.”
Health care and retirement issues predominate. CEO scandals and pension problems render organizations ripe for organization. One analyst, quoted in the media, says that white-collar office workers are a likely future target. He cites “professional employees [accountants, etc], among high-tech workers [and] among workers in the banking and finance industry.” (Net audio: RealMedia or MP3 ) There’s already a movement underway to unionize desk workers at IBM.
In other words, expect to see union organizing branch out toward new classes of employees. Unions employ a variety of communication vehicles, some downright unexpected. The competition between these two mega union factions will mean an increase in organizing activities at companies. Another likely scenario is that unions around the globe will take note and follow suit.
Communicators have a responsibility to know the pulse of the workforce. That’s where audits, attitude surveys, and other measurements come into play. There’s also an element of issues management here: do you know what your employees are saying privately? The Internet and blogosphere are good places to gather intelligence - if you have a monitoring system in place to collect and analyze conversations.
This item might not be on your doorstep today, but it may be on the horizon. Just as public companies look forward financially, this is a forward looking concern for communicators.
And we may have to look wide too, at companies with successful track records working with a unionized work force. I can think of one airline that manages this well, while others struggle. I was reprimanded while speaking in Ireland for appearing to harbor an anti-union bias. The Celtic Tiger has shown the world that company-union partnerships can become the fuel for a successful economy (PDF).
As the world becomes more global, and communication travels faster, don’t be surprised if employees already know about these things. Communicators should be ready to discuss organized labor with workers. We need to be prepared to articulate what the company is doing right.
It’s our task, or it will be handed off to HR or Legal. And you know what happens then…