Merging Cultures: How to Retain Employees After an Acquisition

“There is this trap we fall into of assuming we know what employees want and what they need. And we don’t. We can make some generalizations, but we need to ask. And we need to understand that it will evolve and change.”

Joey is an Acquisition Integration Manager and Employee Experience Lead with Cisco.  He helps create an engaging experience for employees entering Cisco via acquisition. This work includes mapping out the team’s journey into the company and ensuring they are welcomed, connected to the Cisco community, and set up for success. In this episode, he talks about starting off on the right foot, the importance of building relationships, and creating a community that supports the whole person.

“We all come to the table wanting to be helpful. But there is a fine line. Sometimes by being helpful you’re doing more harm than good. Instead of handing employees the information, teach them how to navigate the organization to find it. It’s like the old adage of giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish.”

• Provide opportunities to engage the whole person, not just who they are as an employee.
• Teach employees to be self-sufficient.
• Learn employees’ names and get to know them.

“Most acquisitions fail. And one of the leading causes of that is the clashing of two organizations’ cultures. So it’s something that we pay attention to. We spend a lot of time studying the organization, understanding who they are.”