Merging organizations takes time, and HR departments in the public sector are learning it can take a lot of time.
A word of advice for public-sector HR departments struggling with amalgamation: move fast but have patience because it’s not easy and it does take time.
Things don’t happen quickly in the public sector. Not with responsibilities to the public, and the constraints of politicians and their budgets being what they are.
As modern and efficient as the public sector wants to be — and that is the intent of the amalgamations — adopting a private-sector-style business plan is unworkable. Besides dealing with heavily unionized workforces, working in the public sector means decisions have been, and will continue to be, made with more than just bottom-line considerations. On top of that, the push for “efficiency” has meant, almost invariably, downsizings and doing more work with fewer resources, making the challenges of amalgamation all the greater, often under unreasonable timelines that raise the ire of unions.
Making a megacity
It’s been two years since six municipalities and one regional government merged to form the “new” City of Toronto, yet co-workers doing the same job are still governed by different collective agreements, jurisdictions and responsibilities are still being established and nothing close to a corporate culture has emerged.
Given the chance to do it again, they would do some things differently, says Bob Gautreau, senior HR consultant for the City of Toronto.
Things have to start at the top, so put the senior team in place as quickly as possible, he says. It took a full year to put the management team in place for the new city. “That was too long,” he says.
And bring the unions to the table as quickly as possible. “When we merged we had something like 56 different agreements in place,” says Gautreau. Two years down the road, arbitrators are still settling disputes while some employees are doing 35-hour weeks at the same time co-workers in the office, doing the same job, are doing 40 hours. There is no short cut through harmonization of collective agreements since the unions will typically relinquish little, but get the sides talking about it right away.
Keeping morale up
In most cases public sector mergers means there will be jobs lost making already anxious employees even more so.
Next May, a series of layoffs will begin at the newly formed Saskatchewan Land Information Services Corporation (SLIS), which has responsibility for the province’s land survey system and the system of registering ownership of, and interests in, land. The layoffs are less a result of the amalgamation than technological improvements, says Bev Bradshaw, a general manager with SLIS.
“It is difficult to keep morale up when employees are working on a project that will eliminate their jobs,” she says.
For some time, temporary staff have replaced departing employees and supports are being put in place to help employees reduce or at least manage their stress. A redeployment program gives qualified SLIS employees the first crack at jobs that open up in the Department of Justice.
And career counselling, and training and development programs have been introduced to help employees get the skills that will make them more employable. Unfortunately, participation has been low, says Bradshaw. Employees either feel they don’t have time, or else they blame the employer so much for being put in that position — and fully aware that as union employees they will get work somewhere — they have little interest in developing new skills.
Communication also becomes critical, says Karen Bright, director of HR for the new SLIS. Even if it’s not good news, by letting employees know as soon as possible of changes, rather than through the rumour mill or some third party, employees hopefully will feel they are being dealt with as fairly as possible.
One of the biggest challenges facing public sector HR departments during amalgamation, is blending many cultures at once. Seldom an easy task, (research has shown culture fit is one of the largest post-deal hurdles for merged businesses) in most cases in the private sector when companies merge there are only two companies involved and typically one culture asserts itself in a dominant way, says Gautreau. “We were seven different companies merged into one.”
On top of that, short-staffed, under-resourced HR departments are pushed to put the basic HR infrastructure in place and can’t find the time preparing employees as much as they would like.
Inevitably, the culture of the parent companies tend to linger a little longer. In Toronto, departments wanted to set up along geographical lines, in effect re-establishing their old responsibilities. The city wants to reverse that trend by structuring departments along functional, rather than geographical lines.
Busy with the basics
In February 1998, the federal and Saskatchewan governments decided that 220 employees from three different operations, one federal and two provincial, would be merged to form the Department of Post-Secondary Education and Skills Training. In the time they had to prepare for the official Jan. 1, 1999 launch, the management team had to work quickly to prepare employees for cultural change and a new operational model, train staff on new programs, and ensure the appropriate infrastructure was in place, says Barbara MacLean, executive director of regional services branch.
As the launch date approached management was still busy ensuring the basic infrastructure pieces were in place. “Our priority by the end of November was just to make sure everyone had a desk, a chair and a computer,” says MacLean.
Over at SLIS, HR struggled with similar issues.
“Essentially the HR department is me,” says Bright of her position with SLIS. For the first six months or so after the amalgamation was announced she was preoccupied with putting the foundation in place for a new business: the benefit and pension plans, compensation and classification frameworks. What were the key competencies? Who was available to fill them and how would gaps be filled?
They would like to spend more time preparing employees for the new culture in a conscious, explicit well-planned way, but because they’re so preoccupied with basic processes it can’t be done and inevitably it gets put on the back burner, says Bradshaw.
By no means does culture get ignored, in fact it shapes every decision the executive makes, says Bright.
“You don’t do culture as a specific project and then put a little tick mark on it when it’s done because it just doesn’t happen that way,” says Bright. Even something as basic as administrative processes can send a strong message about the kind of organization you are. Besides that, allowing employees to hang on to a little bit of the past may help them cope with becoming part of a new company. Pushing too hard for a uniform culture can drive out some of the things that are near and dear to employees, she says. “One culture at the expense of everything else is not necessarily a good thing.”
Some HR managers suggest that letting old cultures flourish will only translate into fragmentation, while others feel it would be beneficial if it would help employees cope.
Andrew Hume, who worked as a communication consultant with British Columbia’s Victoria Capital Health Region when seven separate health-care facilities were folded into one umbrella organization, agrees it can be good if employees continue to feel a strong commitment to their parent organization.
That’s actually a very positive thing so long as the links between the component units are recognized and employees understand that their decisions and actions also affect other parts of the organization, he says.
Whatever the management strategy, employees are going to hold their own view, so it is better to respect that than try to unnecessarily force them into some preordained cultural model, he added.
“Nobody likes amalgamation being pushed on them,” says Gautreau. But once it becomes clear that it is coming and there isn’t anything that can be done about it, the only alternative is to roll up the collective sleeves and get started.
“We are getting there, but it’s taking much longer than I’d hoped,” he says.
A sentiment echoed at the Saskatchewan Land Information Services Corporation and probably most public sector organizations in the midst of an amalgamation.
“Cultural change isn’t fast,” says Bradshaw. “We are moving along and we are making progress, even if it is one or two employees at a time.”
Things don’t happen quickly in the public sector. Not with responsibilities to the public, and the constraints of politicians and their budgets being what they are.
As modern and efficient as the public sector wants to be — and that is the intent of the amalgamations — adopting a private-sector-style business plan is unworkable. Besides dealing with heavily unionized workforces, working in the public sector means decisions have been, and will continue to be, made with more than just bottom-line considerations. On top of that, the push for “efficiency” has meant, almost invariably, downsizings and doing more work with fewer resources, making the challenges of amalgamation all the greater, often under unreasonable timelines that raise the ire of unions.
Making a megacity
It’s been two years since six municipalities and one regional government merged to form the “new” City of Toronto, yet co-workers doing the same job are still governed by different collective agreements, jurisdictions and responsibilities are still being established and nothing close to a corporate culture has emerged.
Given the chance to do it again, they would do some things differently, says Bob Gautreau, senior HR consultant for the City of Toronto.
Things have to start at the top, so put the senior team in place as quickly as possible, he says. It took a full year to put the management team in place for the new city. “That was too long,” he says.
And bring the unions to the table as quickly as possible. “When we merged we had something like 56 different agreements in place,” says Gautreau. Two years down the road, arbitrators are still settling disputes while some employees are doing 35-hour weeks at the same time co-workers in the office, doing the same job, are doing 40 hours. There is no short cut through harmonization of collective agreements since the unions will typically relinquish little, but get the sides talking about it right away.
Keeping morale up
In most cases public sector mergers means there will be jobs lost making already anxious employees even more so.
Next May, a series of layoffs will begin at the newly formed Saskatchewan Land Information Services Corporation (SLIS), which has responsibility for the province’s land survey system and the system of registering ownership of, and interests in, land. The layoffs are less a result of the amalgamation than technological improvements, says Bev Bradshaw, a general manager with SLIS.
“It is difficult to keep morale up when employees are working on a project that will eliminate their jobs,” she says.
For some time, temporary staff have replaced departing employees and supports are being put in place to help employees reduce or at least manage their stress. A redeployment program gives qualified SLIS employees the first crack at jobs that open up in the Department of Justice.
And career counselling, and training and development programs have been introduced to help employees get the skills that will make them more employable. Unfortunately, participation has been low, says Bradshaw. Employees either feel they don’t have time, or else they blame the employer so much for being put in that position — and fully aware that as union employees they will get work somewhere — they have little interest in developing new skills.
Communication also becomes critical, says Karen Bright, director of HR for the new SLIS. Even if it’s not good news, by letting employees know as soon as possible of changes, rather than through the rumour mill or some third party, employees hopefully will feel they are being dealt with as fairly as possible.
One of the biggest challenges facing public sector HR departments during amalgamation, is blending many cultures at once. Seldom an easy task, (research has shown culture fit is one of the largest post-deal hurdles for merged businesses) in most cases in the private sector when companies merge there are only two companies involved and typically one culture asserts itself in a dominant way, says Gautreau. “We were seven different companies merged into one.”
On top of that, short-staffed, under-resourced HR departments are pushed to put the basic HR infrastructure in place and can’t find the time preparing employees as much as they would like.
Inevitably, the culture of the parent companies tend to linger a little longer. In Toronto, departments wanted to set up along geographical lines, in effect re-establishing their old responsibilities. The city wants to reverse that trend by structuring departments along functional, rather than geographical lines.
Busy with the basics
In February 1998, the federal and Saskatchewan governments decided that 220 employees from three different operations, one federal and two provincial, would be merged to form the Department of Post-Secondary Education and Skills Training. In the time they had to prepare for the official Jan. 1, 1999 launch, the management team had to work quickly to prepare employees for cultural change and a new operational model, train staff on new programs, and ensure the appropriate infrastructure was in place, says Barbara MacLean, executive director of regional services branch.
As the launch date approached management was still busy ensuring the basic infrastructure pieces were in place. “Our priority by the end of November was just to make sure everyone had a desk, a chair and a computer,” says MacLean.
Over at SLIS, HR struggled with similar issues.
“Essentially the HR department is me,” says Bright of her position with SLIS. For the first six months or so after the amalgamation was announced she was preoccupied with putting the foundation in place for a new business: the benefit and pension plans, compensation and classification frameworks. What were the key competencies? Who was available to fill them and how would gaps be filled?
They would like to spend more time preparing employees for the new culture in a conscious, explicit well-planned way, but because they’re so preoccupied with basic processes it can’t be done and inevitably it gets put on the back burner, says Bradshaw.
By no means does culture get ignored, in fact it shapes every decision the executive makes, says Bright.
“You don’t do culture as a specific project and then put a little tick mark on it when it’s done because it just doesn’t happen that way,” says Bright. Even something as basic as administrative processes can send a strong message about the kind of organization you are. Besides that, allowing employees to hang on to a little bit of the past may help them cope with becoming part of a new company. Pushing too hard for a uniform culture can drive out some of the things that are near and dear to employees, she says. “One culture at the expense of everything else is not necessarily a good thing.”
Some HR managers suggest that letting old cultures flourish will only translate into fragmentation, while others feel it would be beneficial if it would help employees cope.
Andrew Hume, who worked as a communication consultant with British Columbia’s Victoria Capital Health Region when seven separate health-care facilities were folded into one umbrella organization, agrees it can be good if employees continue to feel a strong commitment to their parent organization.
That’s actually a very positive thing so long as the links between the component units are recognized and employees understand that their decisions and actions also affect other parts of the organization, he says.
Whatever the management strategy, employees are going to hold their own view, so it is better to respect that than try to unnecessarily force them into some preordained cultural model, he added.
“Nobody likes amalgamation being pushed on them,” says Gautreau. But once it becomes clear that it is coming and there isn’t anything that can be done about it, the only alternative is to roll up the collective sleeves and get started.
“We are getting there, but it’s taking much longer than I’d hoped,” he says.
A sentiment echoed at the Saskatchewan Land Information Services Corporation and probably most public sector organizations in the midst of an amalgamation.
“Cultural change isn’t fast,” says Bradshaw. “We are moving along and we are making progress, even if it is one or two employees at a time.”
