Integration Communications Planning: The Basics

Communications planning around an integration is often overlooked, or tends to drop off significantly shortly after Day 0. Acquired employees need frequent and meaningful communication to stay engaged and motivated and good Communication Management Plans (CMPs) should always:

• Define what subsidiary employees can expect during the Integration process
• Ensure subsidiary employees understand integration goals and processes
• Provide subsidiary employees an understanding of the acquiring company’s culture
• Reinforce Executives’ high-level commitment to the integration objectives and timetable
• Ensure feedback mechanisms are in place to collect and address issues

Guiding Principles for effective communication plans include
• Frequency, Frequency, Frequency
• Open and honest communication goes a long way to calming anxiety and keeping people focused. Avoid harboring info that could be shared or limiting distribution to a select few
• Messages should be tailored to the audience. Don’t “blast” communications that might be irrelevant to portions of the audience
• Always have a channel to collect feedback-and address the feedback in your subsequent communications
• Personalize messages wherever and whenever possible
• Make sure communications come from people with recognized authority and who are an “established presence” among acquired employees
• Always craft message to address employee perspective of “what’s happening, why, and what does this mean for me?”