Intranets embody the culture, processes, and governance structure of an organization. After a merger and acquisition, new employees can feel lost, resulting in a decrease in productivity. This practical guide aims to show how the intranet can be used to welcome new employees, instead of becoming a point of contention.

Step 1: Centralize Employee Communication

During a Merger & Acquisition (M&A), rumors and speculation can run rampant. The change management team needs to centralize all employee communication. To tightly control employee communication, the following steps are recommended:

  • Designate one intranet as the primary intranet.
  • Ensure all employees use the primary intranet to access company resources, using multiple domain Active Directory sync.
  • Make any other intranets secondary, and provide links via the primary intranet.
  • Restrict access to secondary intranets to only the employees who need access until the secondary intranets can be depreciated, using external link security.
  • Use comment moderation until new employees are fully acclimatized to the current culture
  • Require content approval by the change management team for all employee communication

Step 2: Connect People

With a merger, new relationships will have to be formed between the current and new employees. A searchable People Directory helps employees make these new connections. Employees can find each other by searching by name, email address, phone number, title, or skills list. Add new employees to the People Directory using multiple domain Active Directory Sync. The People Directory helps employees put a face to a name using profile pictures, which can automatically be imported from your Active Directory.

Understanding the new hierarchy during mergers & acquisitions can be a challenge. You can visually display the new hierarchy to employees using the Employee Organizational Chart. This gives employees a display of any employee’s supervisor, subordinates and department members along with their contact information.

It is important to promote employee communications during mergers & acquisitions. A great way to strengthen social ties on your intranet is using the