Posts Tagged ‘leadership’

One of the fastest growing unions in the world is the SEIU. The Service Employees International Union is like most large unions with members in many fields but their core membership is hotel and hospitality industry. If you wonder why this is, just look around at the staff the next time you stay in a hotel.

Recently I stayed in a nice hotel in Florida and the entire staff was composed of Latino and African Americans, except for the Door Men and the Management. I didn’t meet any of the management or staff. This was just my observations over a few days.

Most of the people cleaning the rooms didn’t speak English, while I’m very sure the management staff I met didn’t speak Spanish. How can management really work with employees and help them with their issues if they can’t communicate to them? How can employees trust management when their world in which they live are so different?

In order to effectively manage a workforce you must have a leadership team that is diverse and reflects the workforce they are leading. Not only that, a company will have an almost impossible task in staying union free if the diversity of the employees is significantly different from management.

If the SEIU targets a company for organization, do you think they send in 50 year old white guys to talk African Americans, Asians, and Latino’s into signing union cards? Think about it.

One of the most fundamental moves you can take to improve labor relations is to ensure the diversity of your management team is fairly close to that of your employees. At a minimum, you need to make sure that if your employees don’t speak English, that you have leadership that can speak their language.

Remember, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you can’t talk with your people, how will they ever know how much you care?

With everything going on with EFCA and the probable changes to the National Labor Relations Act if EFCA doesn’t pass, many companies are wondering what they should do.  It is clear that things are changing.  It is also clear that Unions have a seat at the table in the White House and they have been reengerized since the election.  So what should a CEO do?

There are two critical steps a CEO must take, regardless of any changes in the law.  Step one is to train your leadership team in labor relations and union avoidance.  Every member of management that regularly interacts with hourly employees must know and understand the basics of labor relations and union avoidance.

What are the basics?

• What is the companies stance on unions?
• What exactly is a union and what are the basic facts about unions?
• How should they answer employee questions about unions?
• What rights do the employees have in an organization drive?
• What is an unfair labor practice?
• What are the do’s and don’ts for management in a union campaign?

If you have a young supervisory team, odds are they have no experience with unions or union drives and if left untrained could cost your company in a number of ways. Money spent on training will save thousands in unfair labor practices fines and penalties.

Remember, over the last five years in the US 58% of union elections have been won by the union.  Your best line of defense when engrossed in a union campaign is a well trained management team.

The second step you should take is to complete a Threat Assessment.  This is basically an internal audit of everything that could impact the relationships between your employees and your leadership team.  A Threat Assessment will identify gaps in your policies, procedures and practices that could cause employee morale issues.  Fixing these issues will not only improve your operations but will prevent those issues from being used as a rallying cry for a union organizer.  A Threat Assessment won’t guarantee you won’t be targeted by a union, but it will proactively identify issues so you can address them before they become a campaign issue in a union election.

In summary, if you proactively focus on improving labor relations, changes brought about by EFCA really won’t matter.  You will have an enthusiastic workforce who works for and respects their management team.   When you have strong labor relations based on mutual respect and trust you don’t have to worry about any major union organization battles.   The only CEO worrying will be your competitor.

What do they agree on?

• We are in a unique time in history
• Leadership is more valuable than ever
• While times may be tough, it is also a time of great opportunity

Alan Weiss has a great post you have to check out. Click Here

Listen to two of the masters, Tom Peters and Seth Godin: