In times of uncertainty and anxiety, it’s crucial to use our words frequently and deliberately. This is true across most situations, and certainly true for companies going through contested mergers. As M&A activity increases and more companies reach large, debatably market-dominating sizes in coming years, there is good reason to believe that more and more companies will go through disputed acquisitions. This means, in turn, that more employees will experience this unique limbo.  

Times of change are unnerving for employees in general. When you add in the additional layer of complexity that a contested merger brings, it only increases the onus on leadership to communicate often and with intention. Across my experiences advising companies through these trying times, I’ve developed a few guiding pieces of advice that tend to be true in all contested-merger situations.

1. Always remain transparent. If you don’t have the answers and don’t know when you’re going to get the answers, don’t make something up—acknowledge the uncertainty, and say you’ll share the information as soon as you’re able. 
2. Dispel rumors. When employees are worried about something, silence from leadership can be deafening. Employees will often receive it as a validation of their worst fears. Work with leadership and different stakeholders to get ahead of this. Identify the different rumors that may start spreading among employees, and develop a crisis plan that spells out in advance how you’ll address each one of them. 
3. Communicate about the conversations you’re having. Employees want to know what’s being discussed, and they love hearing about what’s been committed to. Once, when I was working with a mid-sized healthcare company being acquired by a large conglomerate, we were able to get a written commitment from the acquiring company that they would retain talent. Sharing this with their new employees greatly helped to ease employee fears and curb attrition. Gestures like this, which are ultimately all about building and demonstrating trust, can make a major difference for the talent that a company is able to retain, and ultimately, for the new culture it’s able to build.

A leadership team that takes all three of these pieces of guidance seriously will find itself in a strong position as it navigates the murky waters of a contested merger in both the pre- and post-integration stages. Still, however, there is no substitute in doing this work for an in-depth, holistic understanding of the specific situation and details at hand. Reach out if we can help you get started.