HR smooths integration path at THUS

Citation

Campbell, G. (2008), "HR smooths integration path at THUS", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 7 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2008.37207fab.008

HR smooths integration path at THUS

Article Type: HR at work From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 7, Issue 6

Short case studies that demonstrate best practice in HR

In 2006 THUS plc, one of the UK’s leading telecoms operators, embarked on a series of high-profile strategic acquisitions. During this period it became clear that the company’s approach to HR management would be vital to the success of its business integrations. This article discusses the company’s award winning approach, which helped to create a smooth integration path.

THUS had a good year in 2006. As well as continuing to grow its business organically through new customer wins, it also acquired two rival communication service providers based in the north west of England – Your Communications (YC) and Legend in February of that year. These were highly strategic acquisitions so, in terms of products, services and customers, the new business units fitted with THUS extremely well. However, as with all acquisitions, there was a need to integrate the diverse processes and practices unique to each individual business unit. If this were not done successfully, the benefits afforded by the acquisitions would not be fully realized.

The integration challenges facing HR

One of the greatest challenges the HR department faced was in dealing with a sudden and large increase in staff numbers – an additional 700 new employees. This was over and above an increase in employee levels brought about by a highly successful year for new business wins. It meant that, in total, THUS had to manage a 60 percent increase in staffing levels across the company during the year. The challenges faced included the need to integrate new employees into the THUS corporate framework, making them truly feel a part of the enlarged organization and excited by the company’s future direction.

It was clear from the outset that the first step in the integration process needed to be a restructuring of the enlarged company’s HR framework. It was important that this restructuring harmonized working practices and ensured consistency where appropriate. New employees needed to quickly understand their position in the company hierarchy as well as the meaning of their new job titles.

Putting in place a new framework

Periods of integration are unsettling for employees regardless of whether they are members of the acquiring company or the acquired company, and it is important for them to understand their position in relation to their new colleagues. This is especially important in instances where there is a large discrepancy between the titles used to describe positions. To overcome this, THUS introduced the Job Family Framework in 2007.

This framework established eight distinct job bands across the various functional areas of the THUS business. These job bands allowed all employees, both old and new, to quickly establish their relative positions. THUS can easily monitor the job bands to ensure consistency across the business and has established a platform that will help it absorb all new employees in the future. If THUS decides to pursue the acquisition route again, it will already have in place a tried and tested method for quickly absorbing large influxes of employees.

Not all aspects of integration are tangible and easy to address, however. A company’s working culture is hugely important and is often based on many intangible elements, such as the atmosphere in the office. Such elements are, by their nature, extremely difficult to integrate. Both YC and Legend had their roots in the north of England and THUS, which has its head office in Glasgow in Scotland, was keen to use this pedigree to help integrate company cultures. To make employees feel a part of THUS as quickly as possible it decided to physically merge the offices. THUS opened an office in Sale as the new hub of its north of England operations, thereby creating a physical break with the past while making new employees feel engaged in the process.

Giving employees a voice

Underlying this process was the THUS strategy of engaging with employees on all levels. THUS and YC already had employee forums in place before the merger and THUS created one for Legend. The period of acquisition saw the status of the forums raised and they were held more regularly than before the mergers – once a week, with each meeting lasting a couple of hours. This meant that the HR team at THUS was liaising with three forums concurrently, and so ensured that the concerns of each business unit were given equal merit. Senior managers from across different areas of the business chaired each of these meetings, which covered company updates and HR updates and provided opportunities for employee representatives to raise any issues that were important to them.

Employee forums are always an essential method for a business to stay in touch with the thoughts of its staff, but they are never more important than when a company is going through a period of integration. They provide an excellent way for senior managers to disseminate information throughout the whole of an organization, while allowing them to gauge the reactions of employees to the integration and plan accordingly. THUS did not experience any major problems in running the forums; the Legend employees were keen to have a voice and embraced the introduction of their forum. They had previously had visibility of the constitution of the existing forum and the level of support and encouragement in relation to open communication.

The employee forums provided senior managers with the ideal platform from which to consult on each functional area of its business (customer services, sales, product marketing, etc) in a common and consistent format. The results of these consultations were then communicated to the whole company.

Three-pronged approach to communication

The communication plan was split into a number of areas including reactive and proactive communications for each stage. The stages were broken down into due diligence, acquisition and integration and it was a priority to ensure that all stakeholders, including both future and current staff, were kept abreast of developments as they happened.

The employee intranet, which was launched over ten years ago and which has been refreshed and updated over the years in terms of the technology and the content, provided an excellent communications medium. It was accessible to all employees and allowed them to view all relevant presentations and meeting minutes from all of the employee forums. The intranet was updated no later than 48 hours after each meeting, ensuring that it was kept as current as possible and all employees were kept fully informed.

THUS also produced a weekly newsletter and a quarterly employee magazine to supplement the intranet. These were already in existence and the content was such that it reflected what was happening during this very important period. Both kept all staff updated on business activities from all areas of the company and included summaries of the information posted on the intranet. To ensure that the messages being communicated through these publications were filtered down appropriately, THUS introduced a cascade process. This involved a monthly meeting where all contributors to the magazines were briefed on the messages and themes most important to communicate to the company as a whole. This was important not only in integrating the business but, in the longer term, in growing it.

This three-pronged approach, based around the intranet, weekly newsletter and quarterly magazine met the company’s aims perfectly. The HR department received positive comments from across the business about the content of the publications, which it continues to produce today. Good communication was one of the key success factors in the integration of YC and Legend.

Foundations for future growth

The methods used for integration and communication are ones that serve THUS well during its quieter periods, where the company is still looking to recruit and retain the best staff in the industry. New employees are established in one of the Job Family Framework groups and are provided with the employee forums through which to communicate their thoughts on the direction on the company and our senior management can keep them updated through established news channels.

This successful integration was managed by the existing team at THUS, by reprioritizing and refocusing the team’s activities to ensure the correct level of support. The THUS approach to HR proved so successful that in December 2007 it won the HR Team of the Year category at the HR Network (Scotland) Awards, a third-party endorsement for an HR campaign of which the company itself is rightly proud.

About the author

Gillian Campbell has been director of HR at THUS plc for the last four years. After graduating from Strathclyde University, she worked in the south of England in various marketing roles. Ten years ago she moved into the contact center sector and worked for Hewlett-Packard before moving to THUS. Campbell and the HR team support delivery of the company’s business strategy and objectives and, in her current role, she is also responsible for the company’s internal and external communications activities. She can be contacted at: gillian.campbell@thus.net