
Plenty of companies will go through the motions of ‘acquiring data’ to avoid ending up in a tribunal, but a lack of genuine consideration for the people who will be doing the work can hurt operational success in the long-term. Sun Tzu’s phrase that “time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted” is pretty apt here if you’re looking to acquire a company; you need to think about what the people will be like as well as the financial figures.
There are many potential bumps in the road. For instance, employees of the company you’re acquiring may be used to a working culture entirely different from your own. Even then it may not just be the working culture. On one occasion two UK pharmaceutical companies merged and suffered a significant breakdown in employee engagement over flexible working attitudes. One workforce was used to being trusted to deliver whether working from home, onsite or at another venue, whilst the new owners believed that if you were not present you were not working.- Build a strong management team to ensure a smooth transition and communicate honestly and regularly. Get people in both organisations together as early as possible. Tell staff about the changes and how they might be affected;
- Plan the new business processes carefully before the transition takes effect. The effect of a transfer or merger affects different functions differently. Give some thought to the way departments will be affected and take steps to minimize the impact;
- Be realistic in workflow planning. It’s fairly usual for people to be less productive than normal when they are dealing with the changes; and
- Allow time to work through the changes and get back up to full speed.
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