Mergers signal growth for Ohio business. However, if the employees in both companies are not adequately prepared, it could spell disaster. According to Forbes magazine, some studies indicate that the majority of mergers fail. Fortunately, many of the pitfalls are avoidable.
Statistics indicate that mergers frequently lead workers to become disengaged from their work to an extent, even when their responsibilities do not change.
Company leaders should consider that the move has the potential to alienate employees. Statistics indicate that mergers frequently lead workers to become disengaged from their work to an extent, even when their responsibilities do not change. In fact, this loss of engagement could take as much as three years to fully recover from. Creating connections and using these to communicate with everyone before, during and after the merger is one of the keys to retaining dedicated employees.
If there are employees who are not on board with the merger or whose duties are no longer relevant, they need to be identified and cut loose if possible. The longer a disengaged worker is around, the more of the company’s resources are wasted.
Inc. magazine reports that losing team members may also result in losing clients if the companies’ cultures are not a good fit. Taking the values of employees into consideration and finding ways to unite them should be one of the strategies of a successful merger. Not only that, the processes and operations from each company may or may not be similar. To help employees to feel more at ease with the merger, these should be identified beforehand, and leaders should determine which one will be used in which areas, or else create new ones that are carefully defined and communicated.
Learn more about BHMK corporate merger and aquistion attorneys and or call us at (513) 579-1500
