Strategic acquisitions and mergers are optimistic business endeavors — big investments in growth potential. Too often, however, fear overshadows that optimism. Employees, fearing change, struggle to meet the moment. Leaders, fearing culture shifts and integration challenges, lose track of the vision. And these fears are not unfounded. According to the Harvard Business Review, 70% to 90% of acquisitions fail to achieve their original business objectives.  

With the stakes high, it’s up to staffing leadership to decide the tone of an acquisition right from the start. Leaders and managers who can focus on the gains of an acquisition (growth, opportunities, greater reach and reputation, etc.) rather than the changes or perceived losses are not just smoothing the path to integration success — they are accelerating it.  

In my time in the staffing industry, I have noticed that leaders who are integration accelerators are exceptional in three areas of acquisition excellence: 

Aligning the ELT in advance. Before any deal is struck, leaders undertake critical business analysis that demonstrates their good decision-making and the potential for increased value. Those are the positive talking points you want your executive leadership team (ELT) fluent in ahead of the close date.  

Imagine, for example, you’re at an all-hands meeting after a major acquisition. An employee asks a member of the ELT about the strategic vision behind the deal. Instead of an inspiring, confident answer, they get a hesitant, unclear response. The seeds of doubt are sown in a moment like that. 

That’s why it’s critical to meet with the ELT several times ahead of the close of the deal to practice messaging. Employees want to work for businesses where good decisions are made. When they hear consistent, visionary messages from leadership, it builds trust and confidence, fostering the positive momentum required to tackle change.  

Combining rather than culling culture. One mistake staffing firms can make is thinking that they have to decide which culture “wins” in a merger or acquisition. “We acquired, so they need to adopt our culture.” Wrong. “The brand is ABC, so ABC is the culture.” Wrong again.  

Combining teams means combining experiences, values, processes and knowledge. That rich, diverse new combination will evolve and shape the culture. This is where focusing on the gains together has great power. 

One effective approach I have seen in post-M&A integration is to create a culture-focused team with people from both sides of the acquisition/merger. The job of this combined team is to identify where they overlap and where shared strengths lie, much like a Venn diagram.  

As this core team uncovers common values, this is also an opportunity to create dynamic shared experiences that unite teams. For example, if “customer service obsession” is a common value, consider hosting joint-team workshops on how to bring that service mission to life.  

Cross-team collaboration and validation of prized traits is a way to foster connection while edging cultural transformation forward. Rather than thinking of “your customer obsession approach versus ours,” these teams, through their work, forge new definitions and become the ambassadors of a common path forward. Instead of top-down directives from integration or corporate communications teams, active and collaborative engagement is what truly unites people and cultures. 

Inventorying employee gains. Humans trend to the negative. “Why might I lose? How could that hurt me?” Help employees resist fight-or-flight thinking by bombarding them with the positives.  

I saw this done recently by a staffing firm that designed creative visualization showcasing how the transformation would also expand the worlds of employees on both sides of the acquisition: new colleagues, more job opportunities, new mentors, more solutions, new training programs, more development opportunities, etc. This inventory of advantages, combined with a reminder of the value of being a part of a growing success story, can help root employees in that positive, gains-focused mindset.  

Uncertainty is a big part of business. How we face the unknown is what makes all the difference. Leaders who master the art of focusing on gains give their teams and employees a tremendous gift: the power to embrace uncertainty with less fear and more imagination.