“You won the union election, but now you have to heal the team.”
Winning a union election is not the end of the process. It is the beginning of a more difficult one, healing the rifts in your culture that develop during a union election. The employees who supported the union are still there. So are the conditions that made the campaign possible. What the organization does in the weeks and months that follow determines whether those conditions are addressed or compounded.
Two areas where companies consistently underinvest after an election: hiring and onboarding. Both feel like operational functions. Both are cultural ones. Getting them wrong accelerates the fracture that the campaign already created. Getting them right is one of the clearest signals to the existing workforce that the organization means what it said during the vote.
Getting the Hire Right
How should approach getting the right person in the right seat?
The first principle is transparency. New hires should know the company went through a union campaign, understand where the organization stands, and hear the reasoning behind that position. Concealing that context does not protect the company. It puts new employees at a disadvantage before they have a chance to form their own view of the culture. Union supporters on the existing team will find them. Better that the company gets there first.
The same discipline applies to defining the role itself. A common failure: companies rush to fill seats without clearly defining what the job requires or what accountability looks like. A well-defined position is the starting point. Without it, even the right candidate ends up misaligned, and misaligned hires in a post-election environment create problems that compound quickly.
Core values matter
One of the most effective tools for assessing culture fit is a core values presentation. Rather than asking candidates to describe past behavior, ask them to review the company’s values and present how those values appear in their own lives. It sounds straightforward. What it does is surface how people think, what they prioritize, and whether the way they operate day to day matches the culture the organization is trying to build. Behavioral interviews tell you what someone has done. This approach shows you who they are.
Culture fit is far harder to correct after the hire than a skill gap. A values presentation makes the assessment concrete rather than intuitive, and it gives candidates a clear picture of what they are walking into. Anyone who joins without that context is set up to struggle.
Onboarding as a Cultural Statement
Paperwork and compliance training without human interaction is a setup for disconnection. New employees need to know what day one looks like, who to go to with questions, and that their feedback matters from the start. Supervisors should check in. Senior leadership should be visible. The direct relationship the company defended during the campaign has to be modeled, not just described.
Structure matters here. A new hire who spends the first week filling out forms and watching safety videos has no idea what the culture actually is. They will learn it from whoever talks to them first. In a post-election environment, that is not a variable worth leaving to chance.
The current team
One dynamic that rarely gets enough attention is the existing team. In high-turnover environments, tenured employees often stop investing in newcomers because they have seen too many people leave. That pattern has to be identified and interrupted. When long-tenured employees disengage from onboarding, new hires pick up on it immediately. The message it sends is not the one the company wants promoted.
Onboarding is a team responsibility, not an HR event. The people who work alongside a new hire every day shape that person’s understanding of the organization faster than any formal program does. Building that into how onboarding works is the difference between a new hire who integrates and one who drifts.
What Actually Keeps People
Pay comes up in every post-election conversation, and the answer is always the same: compensation needs to be fair and competitive. Once it reaches the market, it stops driving satisfaction or retention.
The concerns that fuel campaigns are seldom driven by pay issues. More often, they are about feeling unheard, inconsistent management, and a lack of voice. Those concerns require direct attention. A wage increase without addressing them is a Band-Aid, not a solution.
The practical work starts now. Review the issues raised during the campaign. Address what can be changed. Explain clearly what cannot. Invest in supervisors who can engage rather than deflect. Build a hiring and onboarding process that reflects the culture the company claims to have.
Listen to the full episode: Right Person, Right Seat
Winning a union election is just the beginning. You have 52 weeks to prove your team made the right choice, strengthen frayed relationships, rebuild trust, and avoid another campaign next year. Explore all 13 episodes of the Next 52 Weeks series on the Left of Boom Show.
Frequently Asked Question
Can we screen candidates based on their views on unions?
No. Selecting or rejecting candidates because of union sympathies or organizing activity is an unfair labor practice under the NLRA. The focus should be on role fit, qualifications, and alignment with company culture and values.
What is the biggest onboarding mistake companies make after an election?
Treating onboarding as an administrative process rather than a cultural one. Paperwork and compliance training without meaningful human interaction leave new hires disconnected from the start. Day one should include supervisor check-ins, visible leadership, and a clear path for raising questions.
How soon after an election should we revisit our hiring and onboarding process?
Immediately. The months following an election are when employee trust is most fragile and new hires are most closely watched by the existing team. A clear, consistent process signals that the company is serious about the culture it claimed to have during the campaign.
