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Creating Unionen. Short facts about Unionen, HTF and Sif How we organised the merger How we handled HR-questions Experiences. Unionen. HTF and Sif formed Unionen the 1 january.
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Creating Unionen • Short facts about Unionen, HTF and Sif • How we organised the merger • How we handled HR-questions • Experiences
Unionen • HTF and Sif formed Unionen the 1 january. • Unionen is Sweden’s largest trade union on the private labour market and the largest white-collar union in the world. • Members at Volvo, IKEA, H&M, Ericsson, Red-Cross, Ice-hockey teams. • Unionen has been formed in response to the changes taking place in working life.
HTF & Sif • Two different decision making structures. • HTF centralised • Sif de-centralised • Size • HTF 150 000 members, 350 employees • Sif 350 000 members, 650 employees • Background • Industry, big companies • Adminstrative, small organisation • We did not have members at same company • Not logical area of organisation due to change in business structure
Who am I? • Worked at Sif for nine years • One of three project managers from Sif during the merger process • Responsible for organisation and business issues. • Now responsible for organising members.
The process, time-line • Board-decision to start a pre-study June 2006 • First decision to work for a merger at extra congress (28th November 2006) • Final congress-decision (first week in October 2007) at parallel congresses 1st January 2008 – Unionen started
Our focuses in the process • Listen to experiences, but organise it our own way • We had two different ways of organising the merger • Focused on the congress • All we did aimed to make it easier to decide to merge • Three VIP groups • The boards and congressdelegates • Our managers in the organisation • Our own Union
How we made it happen • Project – to make ordinary work possible • As fast as possible to not loose focus on the members • Three ”lines” • Democratic process • Organisation and business • Launching Unionen
Organisation and business, projects • Make the organisation work from day 1 • Make sure we deliver to members • IT-issues • Planning and budgeting • Office location • Organisation • Human Resource issues
Human Resource • Our own Collective agreement • Introduction – ”What is Unionen” • Education • What is new in Unionen • Knowledge about other organisation (members, companies, collective agreements etc) • Cultural Issues • Managers recruitment • Incentitive for Voluntary termination of employment • Education • Retirement • Start own business
What we did good • Making sure that our own union was well informed. • We did it fast and “good enough” • Involvement – about 100 Sif employed was involved in the pre-merger work. • Board-meetings together once a month to make decisions. • Moved together fast. • When the decision was made we also reserved financial means equal to a years budget to be able to handle change in staff.
What we did that was not so good • We postponed too many difficult decisions until after the merger. (on the other hand that was necessary to reach a positive decision) • We underestimated the emotions connect to IT-systems • We waited too long with the internal collective bargainings. • Moved to Sif’s old office • Underestimated the cultural issues. Give it time. Much time to get together and get to know each other.
First days in Unionen • Big Kick-off/education together before start • Everybody kept their work tasks • Too big organisation • Not much happened • Safety • Executives in the regions 1st December • Executives at head-office 1st January • 21st january – new organisation
What happened until now? • Possible to have 675 employees based on economy • We were approximately 1000 • Cut-down at head-office to ensure service to members • Forming new organisation and tasks 15 Oct • Big anxiety • Low productivity • Incentitive for Voluntary termination of employment • Because we had the financial means we managed to solve all but 60 voluntarily.
Issues today • New organisation 15 October – making it work • Competence-change – New areas of responsibility • Competence-loss – don’t know yet • Changing focus of organisation – organising to keep our strength • Members change, we have to do the same – be where the members are, facebook, google => Strategic competence plan
Our lessons • We will from now on not be afraid to deal with negative staff issues. • Old problems have been solved • We now know we can make things happen in a short time • Good enough
How to make things happen in new organisation • Focus on tasks - list of things to be done before Christmas both on organisational and individual level. • We can now work with cultural issues and “employer branding”. • We are now an organisation that is both impatient and bruised.