When merging with another business, one of your key issues is how to keep your top employees. They may fear you will lay them off or fear they will lose the independence of their role. The result is that many companies lose some of their most prized employees to rivals who make them an offer when they find out your business is about to merge.
For years companies assumed that what mattered the most to employees was money. Throw enough money at someone, whether through a wage increase or a retention bonus, and they will stay. While that may have worked in the past, many modern-day workers have other priorities.
Gallup conducted a poll of workers and found that only 34% felt engaged in their workplace. More money does not create engagement. If your high-performing employees are disengaged, you need to find a way to address this if you want to keep them.
Companies have been trying to tempt their employees to stay by offering all sorts of things, from bean bags to gaming rooms to free yoga classes. Yet, when a survey asked the workers what they wanted, their replies showed it was more about the job than the perks. Top of the list was to work for a business that aligns with their values. That suggests that sometimes your problem is you have the wrong employees. You may have the most talented marketing manager on the planet, but if you sell fast food and she believes in healthy food, one day, her values will win out, and however much you offer her, she will walk.
Once you have identified who to keep, you will need to transition their contracts. You need to ensure that you treat employees equally, no matter which of the two merging companies they worked for. You also need to ensure you deal with those you layoff according to the local and federal employment laws. Otherwise, litigation battles could hamper your bright, new future.
