Young Workers’ Fortnight Discussion Session
The objective of Young Workers’ Fortnight is to engage and empower young workers in your branches and to give them the opportunity to become active union members.
A great way to do this is holding a discussion session with young workers.
By holding a discussion session, you are showing young workers their union is listening to them and they are valued and can give you as a branch some much needed insight to how members and feeling and shape the branch agenda. Discussion sessions are very simple and can be held over a lunch time, done in person, hybrid or fully online.
The premise is to send a set of questions ahead of time, giving participants the ability to take time to think about their responses so when young workers are engaging with the session, they are prepared.
A great way to capture the results is via a Mentimeter. Mentimeters are very easy and user friendly to set up and allow respondents to answer questions openly and honestly. By having the questions answered ahead of time, you also have a springboard for your discussion if the room gets a bit quiet.
Mentimeters also help with the worry that they are putting their head above the parapet or are the only one thinking about the issues. The responses are organised in a way where the words or phrases submitted most are largest and you have a graphic as a talking point. However, you can use which ever format you feel most comfortable with, such as surveys, polls, Microsoft forms, or just having the discussion.
It’s important to keep the questions open so the responses are genuine and not guided by any biases. However, if there are particular issues that are impacting your branch then this should be factored into the questions you set.
Here are some examples of questions that work well:
- What is your favourite thing about working at [employer/branch]?
- What overall thing would make working here better for you and your colleagues?
- What thing would make it better specifically for you working at [employer/branch]?
- What was the last cause of annoyance in the workplace?
- What would you never change about your current working situation?
They are generally focused on the positive aspects, to support a constructive session whilst leaving room to air frustrations, with questions on the big picture as well as the individual. This supports the feel of community that is important to us all, while allowing room for the individual’s thoughts.