By Chris McGrath

Mergers commonly lead to layoffs. But there is often staff you want — or must — keep.

Good luck with that. Mergers are notorious employee engagement-killers. According to a study by Aon Hewitt¹, when a company is acquired, even if there is no significant impact on their job, the number of actively disengaged employees increases by 23 per cent. It takes three years to reach the pre-merger level of highly engaged employees.

So what’s an HR manager to do? First, let me share with you a few things not to do, based on a personal merger experience.

I was the lead web developer for the online banking project at a major US financial institution. I spent months coding and liaising with bankers, designers and mainframe experts. But just weeks before launch, our project was abruptly cancelled: we had been acquired.

We weren’t laid off, however, our team was preserved because of our “strategic skillsets.” Without a project to work on, though, and no clear directives or vision to embrace, our team foundered.

Making matters worse, new — and demoralizing — cost-cutting measures were introduced. Instead of pens, we would only be provided with pencils. If we wanted pens, we would have to bring them from home. The move was met with incredulity from our team. My laptop cost thousands of dollars, and I couldn’t be provided with a 29-cent Bic?

My team’s days devolved into trips to Starbucks, random internet surfing, long lunches and early departures to get a good spot on the tennis courts. I quit the day I got my “retention” bonus and most of the rest of the team was gone within a year.

What went wrong? Why did the bank lose a team they wanted to keep? Quite simply, it was a lack of communication. If you want to retain talent in a merger, you must communicate like you’ve never communicated before.

1. Communicate to reduce fear.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt are the launch pad of disengagement. During a merger, your first communications priority is to answer the “me” questions. What does this mean for me? Do I still have a job? Who do I report to? If you don’t have answers to those questions, tell employees when you will. Until the “me” issues are addressed, employees will have difficulty focusing on work.

2. Communicate to win hearts.
Once you’ve addressed any uncertainty, your next communications priority is to rally support for the organization and its long-term vision. Communications expert Shel Holtz says that “good communication is not just a one-way push of information down. Communication depends on people absorbing the information and ending up on the same page.”² A two-way dialog is useful here. You’ll know your “selling” is done when employees have confidence in and allegiance to the newly merged organization.

3. Communicate on multiple channels.
Face-to-face communication is the best, but there are practical limitations on the number of meetings that can be held. Jessica Tyler, a senior manager with American Airlines that worked on the merger with US Airways, comments on the range of communication channels they used for their merger. “We do email, webinars, and phone calls, and we have digital and print versions of our employee magazine. We use posters and TV monitors in break rooms. We also do customer letters and media. But the intranet is the hub for most of the communication.”³

Intranets or secured merger web sites are invaluable for merger communications, as they allow employees to consume information on their terms. They support interactive communications, such as Q&A forums, and they offer fresh, consistent content dissemination on a 24/7 basis. Millennials in particular demand this kind of modern communication, their expectations having been set by Facebook, Twitter and the like.

4. Communicate without letup.
According to merger integration consultancy Pritchett, “Silence is deadly. It only leads to rumours and speculation, giving a voice to the typical 30 per cent of the people in the target company who oppose the merger.”⁴ So communicate without letup. When there is no new news, share the dates when information will be available or when decisions will be made. Share the same information repeatedly — your message has to be heard multiple times before it is truly digested. If you’re not leading the conversation, you’re opening yourself up for others most likely less engaged or actively disengaged employees to do so.

Ultimately, the goal of any internal communications is to win the hearts of employees. Long after the merger has closed, you need to continue to “sell” the deal internally. As employees buy into the common vision and values, they become engaged. And engaged employees don’t quit.

Chris McGrath is co-founder of ThoughtFarmer and has been involved with over 200 enterprise web site and intranet projects. He experienced M&A culture clash firsthand during the merger mania in the US financial industry of the late 1990s, and has since been fascinated by the impact of intranet and social technologies on corporate culture. He lives with his wife and three children on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

1. http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2013_Managing_Engagement_During_Times_of_Change_White_Paper.pdf
2. “Reducing Culture Clash in M&A with Social Merger Software,” Chris McGrath, October 2014, p. 9.
3. “Reducing Culture Clash in M&A with Social Merger Software,” Chris McGrath, October 2014, p. 8.
4. “Top 15 Common Communications Mistakes in a Corporate Merger and Acquisition”, Pritchett.