As the custodian of the organization’s culture, the human resources department is often viewed as the voice of change during such initiatives. Additionally, the charge of HR to manage personnel systems and structures makes it a key agent in such changes.
Mergers can be particularly challenging for HR departments, and throughout the years a few lessons have been collected by those in the field.
Mergers seem to pose the greatest challenge — even mergers of companies in the same industry can be very challenging. Companies that might appear similar from the outside could have different internal payroll systems, compensation and benefits systems, and HR infrastructures. Perhaps more importantly are the differences in norms and values within the company. One company might value free-thinking employees and practice informal communication across a flatter organization with empowered employees, while the other might be more conservative and calculated in risk-taking, strictly observing chains of command and expecting employees to work within the clearly defined limits of their assigned functions.
While the leadership in a merger can become consumed with the new systems and processes of the new organization, the most important element in the transition is the people. So, the leadership must ensure that employees receive timely and accurate information to combat rumor mills and bad information that might foster dissention and loss of commitment to the organization. To do this, many HR departments work with their internal communications departments to develop a consistent message that managers at all levels can relay to their employees.
Additionally, some merger efforts employed a tactic that sent the leadership from one company to speak to the employees of the other company at their respective locations. This helped put a face to the other organization with which they were merging, to feel comfortable, confident and trusting of that leadership, and to hopefully dispel any bad information or myths that employees of one company might have used to form quick, negative opinions of their sister company. Other communication efforts employed the use of webcasts, blog sites, regular newsletters, and bulletin board postings. Additionally, HR as the proponent for training and development ensured that managers at all levels were not only trained on new procedures and systems but also educated on the details of the merger. Studies have shown that employees feel more comfortable hearing change information from their first-line supervisors, so while HR may be tagged as the voice of the change effort, many times, they must use others, such as first-line supervisors and those most trusted by employees, to deliver the message.
However, when using so many voices to broadcast corporate messages, it is important that too much information is communicated. This is the danger in having so many managers empowered with information, because the change execution rarely progresses as originally planned. By providing managers with too much information on the change effort, HR and the leadership may be setting their organization up for disappointment or trust issues when certain planned change efforts are modified to a point that they are inconsistent with the manager’s previously published messages.
So, it can be important to keep change information brief and somewhat vague as the message addresses efforts planned beyond the immediate future.
Lastly, the most important concern on an employee’s mind throughout a merger would have to be, “Will I keep my job?” With mergers, duplication of staff work will surely surface. This is sure to force personnel downsizing, so it is important to execute the downsizing in a quick manner and as early in the merger process as possible in order to reduce some of the anxiety among the workforce. If the majority of cuts come early, then the remaining employees should be more relaxed and able to focus on their work.
Mergers can be challenging and stressful for both the organization’s leadership and its employees. As the voice of change, HR must ensure a communication effort that is characterized as consistent, timely, accurate, and concise. Platforms for delivering these messages should be varied, but they should include those most trusted by the employees.
Lastly, downsizing efforts should be executed quickly and as early as possible in the change process.
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