TUC digital Archives - Page 4 of 13

Next steps in CRM for unions: 3 years on from PCS’ Salesforce move

Over the past five years our digital projects team have been working to transform PCS, based on the back of a move to the cloud CRM platform Salesforce and Microsoft Office 365.

Working with members on new content ideas around the cost of living

The cost-of-living crisis is having a huge impact on our members’ lives. Unions are working to help members win better increases to pay, but there could also be opportunities for us to offer members advice, community, news or practical help around other aspects of the situation.

The TUC Digital Lab worked with several trade unions and digital design agency Yalla Cooperative to run a user research project that could help union comms teams make choices around how they could develop this work in a useful way for members and the union.

Data for industrial action balloting – PCS case study

At PCS, we took the decision a few years back to modernize our membership database with Salesforce – a modern platform CRM system. That’s been an important underpinning for this work as it allowed us to take on deeper and more responsive tech projects in many areas around member data.

Where it’s been particularly helpful has been in balloting. We know the Trade Union Act thresholds are a problem for us all. So understanding turnout and where we should best focus our resources is a need for our union.

#StrikeTech – Unions using digital tools to build and win disputes

There are a whole bunch of challenges for union members in exercising their right to strike, and being able to raise sufficient pressure to win their disputes. Some of those are newer trends that have been born out of the pandemic. Some have been growing for a long time.

Firstly there are the hurdles in our way. We’ve got to contend with the some of the harshest regulations and thresholds on balloting and conducting strikes in industrialised economies. And many within the Conservative government are currently threatening to make this even worse.

Using P2P SMS in a strike ballot campaign – RMT case study

For the RMT national ballot this year, we wanted to organize a turnout campaign that was based on measurable success. And one that helped us get across the doubly punitive hurdles for transport unions from the Trade Union Act.

We had 42,000 members to canvas, across 15 different employers. Adding in numerous distinct grades and disciplines per employer, and we obviously had a challenge in developing our messaging.

Using social media in strike ballot campaigns – CWU case study

Social media has been prominent in our recent campaigns, but the first point I want to make is that whilst it’s very visible, it’s not a silver bullet. Amongst all the things we do to get a vote out, it is quite far down the ladder. Other forums are often higher in our priorities – such as what we can do in the workplace.

Other organisations’ ballots can be run electronically, but industrial action ones are mandated by post, so we really focus around that. Obviously we represent postal workers, so we’ve got a vested interest, but whilst we support allowing electronic ballots for unions, we have to recognize the fact that we haven’t got them now.

So it’s really important that in any campaign we’re conditioning people to vote by post, via home mailings and pre-communications, via our reps network, on peer-to-peer, whatever.

How to start a CRM change project in your union

Many unions are currently considering the future of their membership databases. For some, products are being retired or contracts coming to an end. For others, a run of high pressure large ballot campaigns has highlighted a need for greater accuracy and agility. In some, there are fewer developers with the expertise to support an older system, and it’s simply time to move to a new one.

For most unions, taking this step forward is also taking a step into the unknown. We’ve used the same systems for a long time, we’ve bolted on processes over the years which are unique to our union. And moving to a new system is a risk – it’s expensive, time-consuming, means transferring a large amount of data, and depends on everyone getting trained and enthused about using the new system.

Category: TUC digital