Dive Brief:

• A new study on acquisitions and mergers found that people are the greatest barrier to successful integration, according to a new Price Waterhouse (PwC) study.
• PwC’s 2017 M&A Integration Survey Report,  M&A Integration: Choreographing great performance, showed that employees undergoing a company merger are often paralyzed by indecision, fear and confusion until they have a sense of whether or if ever they'll belong in the new organization.
• The study also found: 42% of study respondents said that company integration was incomplete, although they were less likely to describe integration as difficult; only 45% said they were “completely committed” to integrating staff; and finally, gaining access to management and technical talent while acquiring another entity is twice as important now (33%) than in 2013 (15%), but achieving that goal has decreased.

 Dive Insight:

If HR leads the integration of employees in company mergers, an uptick in the success rates might occur. HR is the expert in motivating, training, developing and engaging employees. HR also has the skills, knowledge and resources to help employees facing a merger find ways to cope with and overcome the fear and confusion that integration into new companies generates.

M&A failure consistently hovers between 70% and 90%. HR has an opportunity to step in and improve communications to help the business overall during tumultuous acquisitions.