Employee Communication During Mergers and Acquisitions

Communication is the key to organisational success and nowhere is this truism more apparent than in the influence of internal communication during a transformational process as dramatic as a merger or acquisition. During the complex process of bringing the two sets of employees together, continuous effort is crucial for keeping in touch with how people feel; communicating information clearly across both bidder and target; and beginning the process of creating a new culture for the merged company. Communication is vital, but information on what to do when and how to overcome, or at least minimise, the practical problems inherent in trying to communicate at a time when there is often little news, and when so much must remain confidential is essential. Employee Communication During Mergers and Acquisitions provides a blueprint for your internal communication during a merger or acquisition, it contains checklists, examples and tables to help busy communication and integration teams by providing them with practical guidance and examples of what they should consider. The authors start with the genesis of your strategy and the statutory framework before the partner company has been identified, then move on to each of the stages of negotiation, merger announcement, pre-merger preparation, and in the critical first 100 days, following the merger. The book includes chapters exploring the process of developing the employer brand for the new entity as well as of measuring and building on the success of your strategy and is illustrated throughout by a range of case studies.

Jenny Davenport is a Director of People in Business, a consultancy specialising in the people aspects of change and mergers, communication, top team relationships, employee relations and surveys. She was previously employed by The Industrial Society, in a range of management roles, and by Charles Barker, then the largest PR Agency in Europe. She has worked in the USA, Australia and France as well as in the UK. She was instrumental in launching the Employee Communications Association in April 1994 and is author of a number of books on communication. Simon Barrow is Chairman and founder of People in Business and creator of the Employer Brand concept aiming to bring the best of brand management to people at work. This approach emerged from the two main themes of his career - brand management working for Best Foods (now Unilever) and for Colgate -Palmolive and secondly in researching and understanding employees and their management, in particular during the 30 M&A transactions he has worked on. He is co-author with Richard Mosley of 'The Employer Brand' (published by Wiley in 2005 and now in six languages).