The concept of mapping the workplace was originally developed to assess occupational and environmental pollution in workplaces and to identify areas where health, safety and welfare are at risk. It has since been extended to cover other areas of concern.

In practice, it means breaking the workplace down into component parts to determine the level of TU density within an organisation. For example, a factory which works a 24/7 system could be broken down into shift rotations, office area, maintenance section, transport section and departmental areas etc.
A public authority could be broken down into separate buildings and offices or departments within them.

After mapping, it may be found that certain shifts or departments have little or no trade union members, and could be targeted for recruitment or equalities anomalies, TU representation or membership density. For example, there may be some shifts or areas with no trade union appointed safety reps, TU or learning reps.

This can be adapted to map out equality features of the workplace, identifying areas where more can be done to achieve greater equality in the workplace.

See the attached word document for more detail on
Workplace equality mapping

Once workplace equality mapping has been carried out, reps can begin to look at how they can organise for equality.

This involves trying to gain an understanding of what barriers there are to joining and becoming active in trade unions, and then to find solutions for these barriers in order to encourage a greater diversity of members becoming engaged with the union. The more diverse the membership and activists, the better placed a union will be to understand and represent the needs of all of their members.

For more detail on Organising for Equality, see these two word documents:
Organising for equality
Organising checklist