50 ideas for union week

Union Week takes place in November each year (this year it’s 18-24 November 2024) and is our big annual recruitment month, where branches run events, aimed at significantly increasing our membership.

How can you make Bectu stronger by encouraging non-members to join this Union Week? We have put together 50 simple ideas to help get you started. If you’d like some guidance, drop our organising team an email.

Raise our profile

1. Tea/coffee with Bectu

2. Hold a big workplace meeting

3. Meet your local representatives session

4. Floor/building walking

5. Refresh your noticeboards

6. Promotional story on company intranet, where possible

7. Cards on tables in staff canteens

8. Prospect posters in staff bathrooms

9. Wear a Bectu badge with pride

10. Fly the flag for Bectu – include a Bectu flag on your mode of transport to get to work

11. Put posters, signs or pop-up banners in prominent locations eg reception areas, canteens

12. Tell your local press about what you are doing for Bectu‘s union week

Charity fundraising

13. Member recruit member charity fundraising

14. Ask local organisations or charities to run a stall in your workplace

Social media

15. Follow Bectu on Twitter

16. Like Bectu on Facebook

17. Share a Bectu social media post

18. Share your pictures with us! Tag us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Creative

19. Live music lunch

20. Union comedy night

21. Union film night

22. Union quiz

23. Union colour in

24. Reverse caption competition (we provide the caption, you provide the picture)

25. Write a Bectu poem

26. Chocolate fountain: skewer with fruit for members; marshmallow for non-members. Message: all employees benefit from a recognised union, but membership gives you more

27. ‘Knit and Natter’ – Learn to knit in your lunch break and de-stress at the same time

28. Bectu‘s Got Talent – members and staff share their skills via workshops, seminars etc

Competitions

29. Local competitions (e.g. design a poster, do a video, bake a cupcake)

Advice/information sessions

30. Decide a theme for the week (e.g. identifying, preventing and tackling stress)

31. Drop-in advice sessions

32. Organise a raffle for those who attend drop-in sessions

33. Advice for apprentices and young workers

34. World cafe concept: Set up tables where people pitch an idea, discuss a topic, consult on a workplace issue etc. After a set time, people move to another table for a different discussion.

35. Lunch and learn sessions on:

• stress awareness
• pensions advice
• financial advice
• coping with dementia

Use your union services

36. Check out Prospect Plus

37. Make a will free of charge with our solicitors

38. Book an appointment with Bectu‘s financial advisers, Quilter Financial Advisers

Wellbeing

39. Keep fit sessions

40. Union sports day

41. Homeworkers: take part in a co-ordinated body mapping exercise

42. Union bowling night

43. Five or seven-a-side mixed football match

44. Yoga or similar session

45. Tag teams – walk/run/boat from one branch to another collecting members on way. Finish at a Bectu office or workplace

46. Organise a silence/meditation room for staff who work in noisy areas

Recruit

47. Recruit a colleague

48. Talk to three non-members about Bectu and adopt them as ongoing recruitment “targets”

49. Give a colleague a recruitment leaflet/latest newsletter/your copy of Profile

50. Get a list from your employer and write to all your homeworkers