Fishburn Hedges

18.10.2010

Employee engagement is frequently cited as the ‘oil in the wheels’ of successful change.  But it can be just as important to businesses when change comes to a halt.

This weekend, it was reported that the prospective merger between some of the operations of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the mining companies, will be rejected by European regulators. This would leave both companies falling back to their previous business plans. And whilst this might, on the face of it, simply seem like a return to ‘business as usual’, there can be some significant employee engagement challenges: having begun communicating a vision for change, and setting out the prospective benefits to the business, they find themselves having to row back without losing face or undermining employee confidence.

Acting quickly

A company facing a failed merger needs to act quickly. If they do nothing, leaders will leave a communication vacuum in which, inevitably, people will assume the worst: that the company has nothing to say that can counter the suggestions of failure surrounding the rejected deal. Questions and concerns from employees can begin to undermine confidence in the strategy that leaders are pursing.

Moving the narrative on

In such situations, leaders have to acknowledge that there has been an issue, why, and what this means for their company. They should acknowledge what has happened (and any lessons to be learned), but they must place this within the context of the strategy that the deal was designed to help deliver and show their conviction that this is a strategic direction that remains valid, ambitious and achievable. They should use a co-ordinated blend of channels at their disposal to achieve this: in smaller companies, face-to-face, audio and management cascades can play their part. For a more geographically diverse workforce, CEO films, audio statements and interviews/pieces on intranets or in corporate publications can all be useful.

Involving employees

Companies should also ensure that key managers within the organisation are briefed - if only with a statement or similar – and that the HR network is similarly prepared to deal with any employee questions or concerns. They could even use the opportunity to strengthen employee involvement in the business: proactively inviting views, ideas and concerns - about the future and any lingering concerns about the deal - so that those employees feel involved, respected and committed to take the strategy forward once again.

These are examples of steps that employers in a similar situation to these mining companies can take to retain employee confidence. The key message is one regarding speed: don’t let the issue fester, lest it begin to undermine employee commitment in the strategy to which they are being asked to commit. And that can only harm business performance.

Posted by Paul Sweetman