- Embrace the fact that the work starts here. It did not end with the champagne after signing the papers at the lawyers offices
- Have a welcome meeting. Make sure you talk about their business (not just yours) and help them understand that you value it and them (or else why would you have bought it
- Assign a buddy to incoming staff wherever possible
- Get everyone onto the same email system etc on day one (so set things up in advance, in anticipation)
- Make the new team feel important not second class citizens
- But share your business values with them and seek to get buy in
- Identify small differences where they could feel worse-off or hard done by (like mileage allowances) and fix it so they are not, even if it costs elsewhere
- Be straight where there will be redundacies. Set-up a process that is indisputably fair, implement it quickly an allow everyone to move on
- Keep a weather eye open for trouble in the follow weeks. Act firmly, decisively and fairly. To not prevaricate or avoid potential conflict – the cancer will only spread and get worse. This applies to your ‘old’ team at least as much as the new ones
- Keep an open door to new staff; invite them to air their ideas for enhancing the combined business. And listen to their gripes
Next tip: selling (part of) a business