Culture Clash | Why HR is crucial in a merger or acquisition

Business mergers and acquisitions have slowed down significantly due to economic strain.

Investors are being cautious with where they put their money, and founders are focusing more on sustaining themselves and less on growing their company at pace. That being said, experts remain optimistic that despite cautiousness, the M&A space will thrive, and UK businesses are likely to be bought by foreign investors now more than ever.

So, what are some of the challenges HR professionals might face during a merger or acquisition? There are a variety of challenges that arise when two companies come together. Things that take HR managers years to cultivate become disrupted and a business’ culture, policies, employee benefits and retention rates are all challenged. That’s why HR professionals have one of the toughest jobs when it comes to maintaining employee wellbeing and being a trusted message-carrier between employees and executives during the process of a merger or acquisition.

Why are you so important?

HR needs to be involved in the entire process of a merger or acquisition as they’re the backbone in making sure the company moves forward as usual. There might be new company policies, the possibility of compromised company retention, and desires to downsize or bring about redundancies. Despite these varied potential outcomes, all of these are dependent on the continued success of one of the most important aspects of a business; culture.