Culture is one of the most common indicators of whether an M&A venture will succeed or fail. However, in our experience, we have found that only ~5-10% of the workforce is directly involved in the integration process, but everyone will be affected by its subsequent changes. So, how can leaders effectively capture the sentiment of the entire employee population?
Our advice is to collect feedback. Feedback helps to guide and inform the integration strategy in order to find out what is or isn’t working. Our favourite feedback methods include:
(1) Pulse surveys ✔️
Regular, concise surveys provide insight into employee wellbeing and whether staff have the resources they need to perform their jobs.
Top tip: We recommend anonymity to encourage honest responses, so you can get a true sense of how people are feeling.
(2) Town Halls ✔️
Dedicate time within your company-wide meetings for leadership to answer questions and address key themes, reassuring employees that steps are being taken to mitigate challenges and that their voices are heard.
(3) 121 sessions with managers ✔️
These give all employees the opportunity to understand how the integration affects their role and individual progression within the new company-wide structure.
These feedback mechanisms are invaluable to our clients, allowing them to keep a finger on the pulse and quickly course-correct if employees flag integration oversights or unclear messaging. Feedback without action isn’t enough — if you don’t respond effectively, you run the risk of building resentment and staff disengagement.
In one recent instance, comments within a pulse survey revealed that a specific IT platform was integral to a client’s internal operations, which was due to be deprecated in the original integration plan. We were able to preemptively prevent an issue from arising, as without this knowledge, the sales process would have been disrupted.
The best integration teams know they have to take everyone on a journey: from where they are now, to where they’re going. Gathering and addressing feedback is a critical step along that journey.
Follow Scion Consultants for more M&A tips and tricks 💡 #feedback #mergersandacquisitions #integration
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