M&A Communication Essentials

Don’t get caught off guard! Guidance for communication leaders.

Most HR communication leaders are skilled at using communications to drive awareness, understanding and action for events like benefits enrollment, and changes to compensation, benefit or employee development programs. But what happens when an organization decides to pursue a merger, acquisition or divestiture? Do normal communication skills still work?

The answer is yes and no: a lot of the “normal” communication skills that are successful are the same ones needed to lead the communications for a merger, acquisition or other corporate transaction. Corporate transactions present some unique challenges that require a special type of communication leader: someone who can think strategically, is nimble and comfortable with ambiguity, has cultivated a strong internal network and can deliver within especially demanding time frames.

Confidentiality and changing dynamics surrounding these types of transactions mean there’s minimal time to develop and implement an M&A communication strategy. And yet, it’s a crucial business transaction. That means delivering the right communication at the right time to the right employee audiences.

When brought into the deal, there will be many factors that are not within a communication leader’s control. With M&A communication, it’s all about putting in place, ahead of time, the tools needed to be proactive to help manage the change that both the organization and the employees will experience.

Using a case study, this article provides guidance on practical, proactive steps to help control communication efforts in often chaotic M&A situations. One of the first steps is recognizing that the fundamentals of good communication practice always matter.

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What great looks like

Great M&A communication enables leaders to lead through change, acknowledges employees’ concerns, keeps employees focused on doing their day-to-day job well, and can help surface issues and concerns – all of which can contribute to keeping your company focused on ensuring a successful business transaction.

M&A communication defined

For purposes of this article, M&A communication refers to the material and messaging that a company develops to communicate with all of its employees to help them manage through the changes they are experiencing as a result of the corporate transaction. This article does not address individual employee communication governed by legal and regulatory bodies, such as communication related to the acceptance process, unions and works councils, employee transfer notifications, and consultation requirements. These have been addressed briefly in “Breaking-up is Hard to Do-People Aspects in Divestitures” on apac.aonhewitt.com under Resources/M&A Leverage.

Employ the fundamentals
Regardless of the topic, communication campaigns succeed when the communication team partners with key stakeholders to:

Identify team members’ roles and responsibilities.
Gain buy-in and support for strategy and key messages.
Establish objectives and a measurement approach.
Identify key audiences, what they need to know and do, the information and tools they need, and how to best reach them.
Meet all timing expectations.

In M&A situations, these fundamentals still matter – as much if not more – given how critical the communication can be to the success of the deal.

Case study

Here’s how one company successfully approached a time-crunched M&A situation and stayed true to the fundamentals of communication success.

Global consumer products company

The situation

Approximately four weeks before their CEO was set to announce publicly the company’s intent to divest a large international division, the company’s centralized HR communication team was charged with developing a robust employee communication strategy and plan for the announcement. Common for most organizations, their plan had to take these factors into account:

The needs of numerous audiences – corporate, regional and country leaders; HR business partners; people managers; external-facing employees; and general employee audiences.
Local communication requirements and practices, including translation needs.
The final announcement date was a moving target for most of the time leading up to when the announcement would actually happen.

The approach

Aon partnered with the organization’s internal communication team to develop an announcement strategy backed by a detailed communication plan (day-byday, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute) leading up to the public announcement. The communication included a CEO video and email, presentation decks, talking points for leaders and managers, Q&As and templated letters for each key stakeholder audience (e.g., customers, vendors) that could be customized at the business and local levels. They coordinated closely with legal and regulatory functions, as well as their media and investor relations leaders to ensure the messaging was in alignment with all public messaging.

In addition to creating a suite of announcement communications, the team also developed subsequent communication to keep employees informed as the deal divestiture progressed.

The verdict

The announcement communication campaign ensured that each audience received clear and consistent messages in a timely manner. Leaders had the necessary tools and resources to communicate with employees and other constituents. Through the transaction, employees remained focused on what the company needed them to do and knew how to get answers to their questions. In turn, employee input helped inform ongoing communication.

Keys to success

The HR communication team was able to achieve a “great” outcome by being proactive when they could, while focusing on the most critical fundamentals. Here's how they did it:

1. Activated internal network
To deploy communication campaigns during the year, the HR communication team had an already established network in their key locations across the globe. This network was comprised of regional heads, business leaders, HR business partners, as well as legal and regulatory experts. The team activated this network during the M&A initiative to help guide strategy and provide insights into local communication needs and resources. For example, the network provided inputs on who should review the content, whether the material needed to be translated, and if so, into which languages, and which communications channels were to be used by local leaders. The resulting strategy had the buy-in and support of the entire network, as local leaders felt they had a voice in its development and the flexibility in execution to adapt key portions to suit their local needs.

Learning #1

Build your network
Build a network and connect with them in quieter, business-as-usual times, which can be activated when you are called upon to lead an M&A communication initiative.

2. Created a detailed stakeholder map (Fig 1)
The HR communication team had a disciplined focus on the unique needs of each audience – e.g., leaders, HR business partners, people managers, customer-facing employees, general employee audiences. With guidance from Aon, they then created a stakeholder map to account for key considerations and messages for each audience specific to this transaction. This map helped them develop communication quickly and maintain a disciplined focus on each audience’s change and communication needs.

Learning #2

Know your stakeholders
Create and maintain a stakeholder map year-round to ensure you know your employee groups, their needs and challenges, and how best to reach them.

3. Simplified channels
The HR communication team recognized the need to prioritize speed, easy access, and global consistency (while allowing for local customization) into their communication strategy. The majority of communications were created for electronic distribution, and presentation decks were formatted with minimal graphic design. The team relied primarily on emails directly to employees or their leaders who cascaded the messages. They created a new Transition Resource Center (TRC) section on the company intranet site that served as the central repository for all transactionrelated communication, including a new mailbox where employees could submit questions. The mailbox was monitored regularly and answers to the submitted questions were posted to the TRC for all employees to see. Every communication promoted and referenced the TRC to ensure employees would use it as the main resource for transaction-related news and information. The simplicity of the format and channels allowed the HR communication team to work nimbly and swiftly to add content as new information was confirmed or as timing changed.

Learning #3

Simplify your communication
There is little time to design graphically, print or mail material so focus on the quickest, most efficient and most effective ways to reach your employees.

4. Developed content to meet the needs of both the organization and employees (Fig 2)
Critical to the success of the transaction was ensuring that employees stayed focused on continuing to do their jobs well. However, the HR communication team knew employees would be distracted from their jobs if their most pressing issues were not addressed in conjunction with the announcement. These are quite universal issues and included: how will my job, pay and benefits be impacted; what does this mean to my day-to-day work and interactions; and what opportunities will I have with my company in the future. Though some answers were unknown on announcement day, employees still needed reassurance. The HR communication team worked through this ambiguity by communicating what they could through a steady cadence of messages. At the same time, they acknowledged the questions they could not answer, committing to address them when more was known. Action-oriented educational material developed with Aon for in-person and online sessions enabled managers to help employees through the transition.

Learning #4

Prioritize your messages
Employees need to understand how they will be impacted by the news before they can focus on what needs to be done

Summary

Given how common it is for organizations to pursue deals involving acquisitions, mergers and/or divestitures, HR communication leaders need to be ready at any moment to implement the M&A communication in support of the transaction. By having fundamentals in place and operating smoothly, the communication leader is able to draw on skills and resources needed to develop and implement a successful change and communication campaign. Success is achieved when the needs of both the organization and its employees are identified, understood and addressed throughout the transition.

Andrea C. Mindell
Partner
Aon Strategic Advisory
[email protected]