Here’s a fact of union life – all members leave, one way or another.
They often do it for a reason you can do nothing about. They might stop working in an industry, decide to study, emigrate, retire and so on.
But others leave for avoidable reasons. They don’t think membership is worth the money, their circumstances change, the union had a recent ‘win’ so they feel they don’t need membership anymore, the union took a position they disagree with, or they felt let down at a moment they thought they should be getting help.
The value of retaining members is obvious. Unions should always be recruiting new members but losing them unnecessarily means you’re having to work twice as hard to grow.
Plugging leaks in a bucket helps it fill faster. That’s what a focus on retention does.
The good news is that digital interventions to promote a stronger relationship between union and member are relatively cheap and can be scaled across thousands of people.
This new guide from the TUC Digital Lab looks at ways of identifying and taking opportunities to retain members across each stage of union membership, from beginning to end.