OFHCW - LiUNA Local 1110 — Responsive Website Design, Database Design & Development, Content Management System

The Ontario Federation of Health Care Workers represents more than 50 health care facilities and agencies across Ontario, and being backed by LiUNA, they have the strength and support of over 100 years experience and 600,000 members in North America. So, when they came to us for online expertise and ideas for creating real value for their members, we were honoured and began with a discovery session laying out a series of goals and marketing initiatives.

One of their initial priorities was a content management system for updating their website quickly and without the need for technical or graphics support. A platform from which they could communicate to both the entire membership, and to individual bargaining units, at a moments notice. So, we began by designing a database to host individual bargaining units, or groups of employees unionized by organization or agency. Each bargaining unit has a representative, or agent, and so the database contains all their contact information, their picture, the name of the unit and it's location, a detailed description of the unit and a means of instantly posting notices via plain text, DOC or PDF. This 'bargaining unit' listing can be quickly searched on the website and gives members access to important information, particularly around times of work action and contract bargaining.

The website itself, although designed around this database, also gives staff at head office a News & Events platform for communicating to their membership, pertinent environmental information for care givers, changes and additions to legislation, local and provincial events, holiday information and so much more. There are also many pages in the website designed to educate health care workers thinking of joining a union, like what it means to unionize, how to start negotiations, what employers can and can't do if you attempt to organize a union, etc. It's a fantastic recruitment tool for staff; they can post member testimonials, disclose answers to many helpful FAQs and now publish indepth articles to the blog.

Not only does the content management system make it easy for staff to maintain the website, but the tools we built into the CMS make email marketing second nature. All the forms on the website send personal user information, particularly email addresses, to a client database that can then be accessed by an email marketing tool. The email marketing tool can be used to create and send monthly newsletters, weekly or daily briefs, or event advertisments with a wysiwyg html editor. And to make things even easier, any news, event or blog posts staff publish to the website, can be copied to the email marketing tool with the click of a button, and emailed to the client database.

And the final feature essential to keeping the site useful to the target audience, and staff alike, was designing the entire system to be responsive. So, not only is the public-facing website designed to work perfectly on desktop, tablet or smartphone, but so is the management tool, or CMS. This proprietary content management system was developed to work on any device, so staff can use a mobile device to make updates to the website even while on the road.

Our first stage goals for this project have all been met, and now we monitor traffic, and user patterns using Google Analytics, and keep the OFHCW updated on the performance of their new marketing platform.