The first place a culture will start breaking down is in communication, but conversely, it also can have the most significant positive impact on a company’s culture.

Communication is the first place for cultures starting to breakdown and is also the first place where one can have a significant positive impact on the company culture. Just like in any relationship, when employees, the leadership, and the owners have open, clear communication, everyone works better together. Trust gets built up; the mission and values of the business are clearly understood; and targets are clear, and thus easier to hit.

What are some things you can do to improve communication?

With today’s technology, it’s pretty easy to send out your message in a variety of ways. Social media, videos and audio messages, and in-company email blasts are just a few ways communication can be open to everyone at every level. Managers and leadership teams are not infallible and relying simply on them to pass the messages along can mean some things get lost in the day-to-day shuffle.

How do you tell you’re not communicating enough? Well, if your rumor mill is going crazy at the water cooler, you’re not doing enough to trust your employees and keep them informed.

There are of course times when secrets will need to be kept and not everyone can know the whole story of everything going on in the company. However, keeping your values, goals, and channels of communication open and available will go a long way to helping your employees feel valued and involved.

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One thing that’s important to remember with a merger or acquisition is that there will be a wide range of emotions amongst employees and leaders alike. What kinds of feelings do you think are happening with the employees? Managers? Leaders? Everyone will react differently, but how they react can have a major effect on workplace culture and productivity as a whole. It is especially critical how the leadership feels during a merger or acquisition, as their reaction can trickle down and affect the employees at large, possibly creating a resistance to change and a downturn in morale.

How can you then make two teams come together, work together productively, and feel like they belong after going through the period of upheaval?

You need to merge the workplace cultures effectively to make sure all of the employees have a place to fit in. Perhaps most importantly, you need to allow for a period of grieving and healing to take place instead of aiming to force all of the changes from the get-go. Give the employees and managers time to find their footing and process their feelings. After all, many times in a merger or acquisition, owners can be ousted, leadership can change dramatically, and employees that had worked side by side for years can find half of their coworkers now gone.

When you’re ready to merge two company’s cultures, both companies’ cultural attributes need to be examined and explored, including their environment, values, and behaviors. Try interviewing employees on both sides to get a feel for their view of the culture, what worked, what didn’t, and get a feel for how you can then create a plan and direction to move forward.

And most importantly communicate, communicate, communicate. Communication is the key to a great workplace culture and a excellent foundation to begin merging two companies and making them work as collaborators and partners.

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