How to engage employees during extreme uncertainty
Working with leaders and managers to maintain employee morale during a merger in the financial sector. 
In March 2007, the bank I worked for at the time (this was not Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland) announced it was going to merge with a competitor. I was head of communication for the client side (CS) of the investment bank.
The implications for our part of the business were considerable and divergent. There were clear areas of overlap with the competitor where we could expect redundancies and there were others where our expertise and skills would drive up market share.
The announcement created considerable disquiet within the CS management team I supported. The management team was immediately concerned about the difficulties of retaining staff, keeping them motivated, holding onto clients and bringing in business.
Developing a comms plan
My team saw the merger as a good opportunity to secure our seat at the management team's table. We quickly developed a communication plan, which was designed to engage and motivate employees during the period of uncertainty ahead. In preparing the proposal, we researched best practice, which included looking at relevant case studies from Melcrum. Also, Bill Quirke from Synopsis ran a master class for my team on communicating during mergers and acquisitions.
For each phase, we identified how people were likely to feel and what they'd want to know.
The CS management team comprised seasoned investment bankers who had limited patience with soft communication approaches. Nevertheless, I included a section in the proposal which took the team through the change curve and the likely stages of the merger process to day one of the new organization.
For each phase, we identified how people were likely to feel and what they'd want to know.
The communication proposal also included:
- Key messages for use during the first phase of the merger process.
- Activity plan: we took stock of the communication activity to date and its impact and considered this against the heightened communication needs during the merger. We recommended increased face-to-face communication with employee groups and more two-way communication. We also suggested more external communication about deal success and our industry expertise.
- A responsibility assignment matrix (RACI) spelling out who or which part of the business had responsibility for communicating which messages to our audiences.
- A tool kit for leaders and senior managers.
The proposal also included a monthly pulse survey to track the impact of the communication approach on employees by checking that:
- Information was getting through and being understood.
- Leaders were seen to be doing all they could for CS.
- Employees were able to carry on with business.
- Employees had an opportunity to discuss the situation with leaders and have their questions answered.
- We also included a mood barometer to find out how people felt about the future.
Leadership endorsement
When I presented the proposal I was amazed by the interest of the management team in the change curve. It was the catalyst for a long discussion on whether or not leaders should reveal their own feelings to their teams about the deal. We finally agreed that by showing their feelings, leaders would be seen to be more authentic although we all recognized that it was equally necessary for them to maintain a bank line and use the key messages consistently.
The overall proposal was readily agreed and we ran the first pulse survey immediately to establish the bench mark.
Best laid plans
In the meantime, the proposed merger became more complex, and exciting, with a consortium of three other financial institutions indicating its interest for the bank. For CS there were pros and cons to each bid. The merger that we'd started with quickly became a pitched takeover battle in which the media took a great interest.
I was amazed by the interest of the management team in the change curve.
These external developments didn't change our overall communication approach but it did mean that legal approval had to be obtained for all written communication and there was tight control and coordination by Group Communication over what was communicated and when.
A further challenge was the deep knowledge of much of our employee audience since they advised clients on mergers and acquisitions. These teams followed, speculated and predicted the outcome of the takeover battle with informed interest.
The business imperative
During the takeover negotiations, the risk to the business of teams leaving, productivity falling and losing market share to competitors was very real. Our job as the CS communication team was to help our leaders to motivate and engage their teams and keep them focused on winning and closing deals.
All leaders agreed to communicate more often and in different ways. We used a mix of all-staff townhalls, conference calls for managers, floor walks and written/electronic information. In each forum, leaders were encouraged to use the generic messages for CS and to bring these to life by making them relevant to the particular audience, within the (quite strict) legal constraints.
Power of the pulse survey
The monthly pulse survey was an essential component of the communication approach. Each month, we provided the management team with the overall CS results, comparing them with the previous ones. The results were also cut by sub-business area and compared both to the previous month's results and to the overall CS results. By analyzing the results in these ways, we were able to quickly identify communication or business issues.
Each month, I presented the management team with the results, plus our recommendations for any changes to the communication activity or key messages. In addition, I held one-to-one meetings with each of the management team members to go through their individual results, comparing them with the overall CS results.
One of the questions we asked was whether employees felt that their management team leader was doing enough to look after their part of the business. We asked this question because we believed there could be a link between feeling that a management team member was doing all s/he could and individual employee commitment to the business and therefore, perhaps to attrition rates.
Early results showed that some management team members needed to do more to explain how they were looking after the business and so my team suggested ways in which they could do this. Even without disclosing confidential information, it was possible for management team members to update their teams on how they were preparing for either outcome.
Thought leadership program
One of the signature programs of the CS communication team was the "Thought Leadership" program, designed in 2006.
Its aim was to raise the profile of CS in the media and at key industry conferences. We worked with the PR team to arrange one-to-one media and presentation training and then the PR team targeted journalists and we secured non-sponsored keynote-speaker slots at targeted industry conferences.
This program had been hugely successful. We'd seen a 100% improvement in the media coverage during the 12 months following the launch of the program.
We expanded the program as part of our merger communication plan, nearly doubling the number of thought leaders.
Despite the takeover battle, the client side of the investment bank delivered the best year it had ever had.
While it delivered the obvious external benefits of maintaining the media coverage about our deals and industry expertise at a time when most of the press coverage was dominated by the bidding news, it also had very positive internal benefits. The program was perceived as a recognition program and we used the thought leaders as ambassadors to speak to other employees. It was also a very clear demonstration of our focus on winning and closing business.
Actions speak louder than words
Our leaders implemented the plan, communicating frequently and regularly. Their communication ensured that CS employees were appropriately up to date. In all communications, leaders stressed the importance of winning and closing deals and we stepped up our efforts to celebrate success. This helped maintain a steady business momentum, despite the takeover battle, which resulted in CS delivering the best year it had ever had.
Our pulse survey results showed that during the course of the takeover negotiations, CS employees felt that they'd been able to carry on with business as usual and this strengthened as the months passed. Over the same period, we also saw a shift away from negative feelings about the takeover to more positive ones.
The communication plan delivered exactly what it had been designed to do: engage and motivate employees during a sustained period of uncertainty. One of the advantages of communicating during the takeover bid was the clarity of purpose it gave my team and leaders within the CS business. And this focus helped us achieve our goals.
My ongoing aim is to try to maintain that focus and clarity in the day-to-day, business-as-usual communications, which are often confused by conflicting and unclear objectives.
Top tips
- Face to face is vital. Cut the audience into segments and get your leaders in front of them, time and time again.
- Move quickly with a pragmatic plan. Any crisis or change program is an opportunity for a communication team.
- Run regular pulse surveys to monitor progress and pick up issues. They can help a communication team by showing that the approach is delivering.
- Make the legal team think. The first response from our legal team to our communication activities was often a "no". But we usually came to a workable compromise.
- Work externally as well as internally. Generating positive coverage through the Thought Leadership program for deal wins counterbalanced takeover headlines.
- Don't worry that employees always want to know more. The pulse survey usually showed that employees wanted more information – but we were giving them as much as we could. Acknowledge that more will be shared when appropriate and focus on what you can communicate. But don't forget to challenge yourselves, the legal team and your leaders to ensure that as much information as possible is shared.
- Emotions are OK (in small doses). They enhance leaders' authenticity and can have a positive impact on loyalty.
- Be brave. It's the time for the communication teams to show their metal. Try new things, experiment and define good practice.
In October 2009, Louise became head of Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland communications. Before that, she was head of internal communication for RBS Global Banking and Markets. She's a recently qualified executive coach and has extensive communication experience in several sectors.
Have your say
Have you had to put in place additional employee engagement efforts during the recession? How has your communication strategy changed as a result? Are you using any new or different channels to engage?
Recommended resources:
Dealing with the financial crisis at ING Wholesale Banking
Communicating and rebuilding trust in the finance industry
How to prepare an "elevator speech" to communicate strategy
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