While BBVA’s purchase offer for Banco Sabadell is being forged, the staff of both entities are restless. In Spain they exceed 21,600 and 12,700 employees, respectively. Workers who are aware that none of the previous mergers have been completed without undertaking a staff cut. In fact, the banking sector has lost about 140,000 employees due to crises and mergers of entities since 2008, according to José María Martínez, general secretary of the State Federation of CC OO Services. And, in his opinion, this was not going to be an exception if it finally comes to fruition. But before it happens, Sabadell defends itself from its rival’s hostile takeover by alerting the CNMV that it could cause the flight of its best executives.
Although integrations usually involve excess people, since they are mostly carried out to achieve synergies, says Marcos Sanz, partner of the human resources consultancy Peoplematters, this is not always the case, as is happening with the silent mergers that the food sector. Or as happened with the award last July to the renewable energy company Cox of the engineering company Abengoa in bankruptcy. Since September, both have operated under the same roof as Coxabengoa, in which “they have opted to maintain all employment because we are growing and we make signings every week,” explains Pablo Barrasa, its human resources director, which has 117 positions. currently open and made 367 hires last year, which this year aims to double.
Addressing workforce integrations after a merger means, first of all, drawing the image of the unified business (the newco, as it is known in Saxon terms, points out Cristina Hebrero, partner responsible for People & Change at KPMG), its culture and its organization. From there, the leadership that will undertake the new project is decided, “which greatly defines the cultural change that is going to occur, whether or not the buyer’s criteria are imposed,” says Hebrero. Ideally, it should be a mix of both companies, both experts indicate. The next job is to identify critical groups to prevent them from leaving in the interim of the merger process that usually generates concern. Planning the size of the workforce (frictions must be anticipated and communication promoted) and unifying human resources policies (compensation, labor relations, talent development and selection procedures…) would be the next stages.
At the new Coxabengoa headquarters in Palmas Altas in Seville and already with a common management system, the key to the unification process of both companies has been internal communication, Barrasa highlights: four days in which the executive committee explained the situation of the endorsements and the strategic plan to all workers (close to 9,000 employees, only 100 from Cox) and set the objectives to be achieved.
“The secret that Abengoa is still alive and that Cox is going to grow by double digits is the people: either you have a committed team or you are not even around the corner,” says the human resources director, who adds that to The staff from Abengoa having a new project when they seemed doomed to disappear has been a shock, something that can be seen in the turnover, which has gone from 23% last year to 8% today. “The staff satisfaction index is the best in the historical series,” he boasts.
The union of two disparate cultures, “that do share the international gene”, in Coxabengoa has resulted in the introduction of management and procedures for both companies, those that operated from Abengoa after its long history, such as the one used in the prevention of occupational risks, and the speed in Cox’s decision making, the executive highlights.
Speed is what Masorange boasts, the company resulting from the addition of the telephone operators Másmóvil and Orange, with more than 2,000 and 6,500 employees, respectively. Its general director of People, Mónica Allés, could not be more satisfied with the speed with which the union of both staff has been undertaken: “We have only been integrating for a month and a half and we have done many things: we have the communication, the organization designed, We know where the people are, who their bosses are and what the strategic pillars are,” he lists.
As the process of authorization by the European Commission of the merger to create the largest Spanish telecommunications operator by number of accesses has been very long, explains Allés, these months have allowed us to define the steps to be taken. The first thing was to convey peace of mind and be close to the teams, says the executive. To this end, the management brought together 3,000 employees at the WiZink Center in Madrid (and another 2,000 remotely) in order to present the new management team, the new brand and to publicize the strategic priorities of Masorange, where its CEO, Meinrad Spenger declared that he ruled out an employment regulation file (ERE).
“On the third day after the operation was approved, the new brand had already been placed at the company headquarters and a welcome package had been given to each employee,” he says. Now the company is addressing what it calls integration workshops, in which the purpose and vision of the operator are explained and an attempt is made to strengthen collaboration between the teams. And it is establishing the methodology agile in their ways of working and retraining their employees. “We are measuring the steps, but the process is long; It never ends,” admits Allés. In fact, consultants talk that it will take years until employees stop saying “us” and “them” and unification becomes a reality. “Normally the process lasts about three years, although the real merger does not occur until new generations enter and those who knew the original companies retire,” maintains Cristina Hebrero.
Common pitfalls
On June 1, Másorange took another step in its unification: it will open a new headquarters in Madrid. A priority that aims to avoid some of the traditional pitfalls of integrations. The first are hierarchical clashes, according to the People Matters partner: managements are duplicated and often a decision has to be made between middle managers who remain as such. Be careful not to delay in distributing positions, in giving certainty to employees, keep in mind that the competition usually takes advantage of these moments to steal employees, warns Hebrero. “The longer the process lasts, the more risks there are,” says the KPMG partner, who advises protecting critical profiles. Then you have to avoid hallway rumors, which generally have to do with salaries (“compensation is critical,” according to Marcos Sanz) or things as mundane as whether the new company takes away the restaurant ticket or the cell phone.
In banks, says the CC OO representative, the biggest problems usually occur in changes in the culture of customer service, in the choice of people who are available and where they will work, the management line and the integration of the system. IT of the merged entities. We will soon check whether or not they are the ones that are repeated with BBVA and Sabadell in the event of a wedding.
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