Key focus areas in terms of managing people issues during a global deal

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Leadership assessment, selection and team dynamics:

Leaders will truly be the torch bearers in any cross border deals. During periods of transition and disruption, employees look first to leaders for guidance, motivation and focus. The Aon Hewitt Deal Survey focusing on leadership and key talent provided the following insights.

Clearly, Asian companies are aware of this HR challenge but they are yet to develop "effective" strategies and top it with a rigorous implementation. To execute a cross-border deal successfully, Korean companies need leaders that can think globally and act locally. Leaders would need to have a high degree of adaptability, tolerance to ambiguity and collaborative skills in addition to being a visionary and an effective communicator. Companies need to assess and select leaders to form a global talent pool of a high performing team ― almost like a juggernaut in driving change and transformation.

Organization culture:

a lot has been talked about the importance of culture in a cross border deal. Yet, in pursuit of realizing growth and cost synergies, many a time leaders discount the extent to which the culture needs to be managed. It is then, when the chaotic culture makes the organization lose its strategic direction. As per the Aon Hewitt Deal Survey, 87 percent of organizations report that cultural integration was important or critical to transaction success. It is cited as one of the top three reasons for transaction failure. Korean companies will need to come up with a strategy to develop a desired culture that will reward the right behaviors to help execute the transition and post deal change management. To ensure deal success, culture should be a critical area for due-diligence and adequate risk assessment should be done in this area. Companies must define a high performing culture as per the deal and future organization strategy.

Total rewards:

total rewards are one of the most objective and visible area in the deal making where HR is involved from the beginning. Cross-border deals bring with them a lot of complexity in terms of comparing benefits and compensation structures across geographies. Also, total rewards in often considered as a primary tool for talent retention in the transition phase when there is little to offer for engaging the high potentials within the company. Korean players will need to prepare a clear strategy to develop total rewards programs and use them to retain critical talent in the short as well as the long term. With an organization's own total rewards strategy as a backdrop, most organizations will be guided by notions of "substantial comparability" with respect to total rewards in the context of an acquisition. Structure retention incentives will need to be special, timely, and to drive employees at all levels to "stay and play.

HR service delivery:

HR services often get under the magnifying lens, once a deal is announced as the function is expected to serve a reconstituted employee population. Any missed or late service has a negative effect on the employee engagement and productivity. Many a times a cross border deal could mean complex integration or transition of HR technology systems. Korean companies must plan for integration of HR technology systems to support the needs of the new organization and capturing key data using data-bridging techniques

Effective change management and communications:

cross-border deals may require organizations to transform and adopt large scale technical and process changes that can be described through detailed procedural steps. Additionally, such deals unlike other local deals may also require employees to appreciate different cultures and work styles ― something which is very tacit yet demands rigorous communication and change management efforts. Korean firms will need to meticulously plan and execute their change management and communication strategy if they intend to realize synergies on time.