How workplace mapping can revolutionise your organising strategy

As a union, our strength lies in collective power. The more members we have, the louder our voice becomes, and our ability to achieve real, lasting wins becomes greater. But how do we effectively grow our membership across the workplaces and industries we represent? How do we ensure we’re targeting our efforts where they will have the most impact? The answer lies in workplace mapping.

Workplace mapping is a dynamic and strategic tool that helps Reps and Branch Secretaries gain a deep understanding of the workplace landscape – think like a blueprint, including people, structures and networks, all of which can inform every aspect of your organising strategy.

What is Workplace Mapping?

At its core, workplace mapping is the process of gathering and visualising in-depth information about your workplace and colleagues.

This can be as simple as a hand drawn diagram to an in-depth and detailed spreadsheet breaking down shift patterns and floors. No matter what form your workplace map takes, its core purpose remains the same – to give you a comprehensive overview to power your organising, campaigning and union activity.

A GOOD workplace map can highlight:

• Physical layout: Floor plans, departments, work areas and even break rooms.
• Workforce demographics: The number of employees in your workplace, who is on what shift, what job role they do, and their working hours. This can also include equality data such as gender, ethnicity, disability or age to ensure your work reflects the diversity of your colleagues.
• Membership density: One of the most important aspects of any workplace map – you should highlight where members and non-members are, showing areas of strength and where to grow your membership.
• Key stakeholders: This can include HR, employers and even colleagues who you think would make good union representatives.
• Workplace issues: Highlight specific concerns, grievances or problems affecting your workplace, such as health and safety issues, pay or bullying.
• Communication networks: You should understand how information flows throughout the workplace, both formally and informally which can aid in your organising efforts.

How Workplace Mapping boosts your organising strategy

Strategic recruitment and retention

Workplace mapping is an unparalleled tool for growing Community membership in your workplace. By clearly identifying where members are and aren’t, as well as understanding the demographics of your colleagues, you can:

• Target recruitment efforts: Instead of recruiting members willy nilly, you can focus your resources and time on specific departments or shift patterns where membership is low. You can even tailor your approach to those specific colleagues.
• Personalise your approach: By knowing the issues that are affecting non-members, you can frame your conversations about joining Community around those issues and how we can support them e.g. a specific health and safety concern.
• Identify potential union representatives: Mapping can help reveal workplace talent who would make ideal Community Reps and activists, especially in underrepresented areas. This will help you to build a stronger, more widespread network of reps and ensure all shift patterns are covered.
• Improve member retention: By understanding what matters to members of your Community branch, you can proactively address concerns and strengthen their connection to Community. Regular communication informed by your map ensures that your members feel heard and valued.

Fuelling national and local campaigns

Effective campaigns are built on understanding your workplace and the issues affecting it. By utilising a workplace map, you can:

• Identify winnable issues: By tracking common issues affecting different departments or shift patterns, you can identify problems that you can campaign on to unite members and non-members in your workplace.
• Mobilise members: Whether you’re launching a campaign or taking collective action, your workplace map will help you identify key stakeholders in your workplace who can help rally and mobilise both members and non-members for maximum impact.
• Use evidence: An in-depth map provides you with concrete evidence, data and insights to strengthen your arguments and negotiations.
• Allocate your resources: By understanding your branch’s strengths and weaknesses, you can allocate resources, such as time, reps or materials where they are needed most e.g. spending your time recruiting members on floors or shift patterns where membership density is low.

Achieving wins through your workplace map

Ultimately, our goal as your trade union is to achieve wins and improvements for our members. Your workplace map helps you to achieve these wins by:

• Providing a clear picture: A clear understanding of the issues affecting your members (and non-members) will help you to address problems proactively, not only preventing issues from escalating further, but also proving the importance of union membership to your branch.
• Empowering your members: When members (and non-members) see their concerns are being mapped and acted upon, it builds trust and empowers them to be more proactive within Community, building a cycle of engagement and collective action. This could be as simple as referring a friend to becoming a Rep themselves.
• Building collective power: Workplace mapping allows you to systematically identify and engage with workers across the workplace, and in turn, build a strong, collective branch. This is how you truly deliver on wins for your members.

Getting started with workplace mapping

Don’t let the idea of workplace mapping overwhelm you – as previously stated, a workplace map can take many forms, even as simple as a drawn diagram in a notepad. Here’s how you can kick start your workplace map:

1. Start small: If you work for a large company, you should begin by mapping your own department or shift pattern.
2. Talk to your colleagues: One-on-one conversations are the most valuable tool when organising. It helps you to gather information, bond with colleagues and discuss concerns in-depth.
3. Use what tools you have: The humble piece of paper and a pen is just as effective as a detailed spreadsheet when mapping. Remember, you don’t need fancy software.
4. Team up: We would recommend involving other Reps in your branch, or even members when mapping your workplace. It is a collective effort, and mapping can be a great way to collaborate with your branch and empower them to be more involved.
5. Keep your map updated: In this modern world of work, the workplace is constantly changing, so make sure to regularly review and update your map to ensure it stays relevant and powerful.