By Unions21 | 2 min
Unions21 Executive Director Becky Wright recently spoke to Howspace about the work we’ve been doing within their Unions Community workspace, an online collaborative area for trade union staff
Howspace: What are you working on in Howspace?
Becky Wright: Right now, our insight work seeks to ask: 1) How do unions represent the workforce of today – and tomorrow and 2) How can unions be agile and evolve in a digital era?
Specifically we're looking at the union jobs of the future, how the labour market is changing and what it means for union strength and, lastly, union operating models. From this we are also practically supporting unions to make this change with strategic reviews, governance reviews, support for activist development and building the skills of union staff.
We are using Howspace to help us primarily when we're doing our practical work, through training and strategic change engagement with union staff. I've also started to use it internally to capture ideas from colleagues on what we can further develop.
H: Why are you doing this?
BW: A combination of factors! Mainly because as union staff ourselves, we've seen the need to help unions to make these changes. But we use Howspace because it offers us a lot of options to deliver to unions the support that we want, and at a high quality.
Some examples are our courses on Member Experience Research, Strategic Corporate Research and the Union Innovators programme, and the online parts of our Future Leaders programme.
H: What are you learning so far from our community space?
BW: How much we're very similar across unions, regardless of the industrial relations climate we're in. I've found the community space that Howspace is developing really helpful for that.
H: What tips would you give to someone trying something similar?
BW: Really think through what you want the Howspace to do and then experiment a little bit. For example, like any training, make sure you know the aims, objectives and the pedagogy you want to ground your work in. Then be open to the many ways that Howspace can help you. And if you get stuck, the new AI function can be very helpful.
Anyone interested in accessing the Howspace Union Community can do so as long as your work is related to unions in some way. Fill out this form to arrange your access.
