Tips and Answers to Your Questions
The Negotiations Process

How and What to Communicate to Staff Early in the Negotiations Process

The process of negotiating a merger or other form of partnership signals a significant potential change within an organization. As with any significant change, a merger will stimulate anxiety and fear among staff. Effective communication during the negotiations process is essential to helping staff understand and accept change and to shaping the internal environment. Care must be given to how and what is communicated in order to ensure a process that staff can support.

HOW to communicate

Communication with staff of an organization entering a strategic restructuring negotiations process should follow these basic principles:

Proactive: Communication should occur as early in the process as possible. Staff should learn about the fact that the organization is entering into negotiations prior to the actual process beginning. This information must come from the leadership, not the street.

Clear and Honest: The sensitive nature of a potential merger will stimulate speculation and rumor. The communication of the negotiation process must be delivered in as clear and honest a manner as possible. Maintain and build on the communication process and staff will not need to look for alternative information sources. Trust will build if the message is one they know that they can trust and understand. Because the process will be full of unknowns, communications should include a timeline for when the process will produce decisions and how those decisions will be communicated.

Consistent and Continuous: If the staff do not believe the message or the messenger, they will seek information elsewhere. Staff will need information that is delivered in a style and regularity on which they can depend.

Use of Various Forms: Communication with staff should utilize a variety of forms – direct presentation, Q and A, small group meetings that concentrate on limited group concerns, memos, email, posted messages, etc. The more staff comes to expect communication about the process, the more comfortable and less surprised they will be by the outcome.

Do Not Over-Promise: The process of negotiating a merger means that no one individual is in total control. The decision is in the hands of the full Board of Directors, therefore the Executive Director can only provide messages of how the process is proceeding, and cannot promise what the outcomes will be.

Respect and Care: Because of the anxiety-producing nature of merger negotiations, the messenger must understand that the staff will want to have their concerns and feelings heard. The message must be delivered in a manner of respect for what staff are going through. They need to feel that the leadership clearly understands their vulnerability and respects their need for honest information.

WHAT to communicate

The message being communicated to the staff should include:

The Nature of The Partnership Being Explored: If the organization is going to enter into a negotiation for a merger with another organization, tell the staff that. Do not try to downplay the nature of the partnership by saying things like, “We are just looking at a collaboration.” You risk loss of credibility by not being up front.

The Ultimate Decision is Unknown: The staff needs to know that this is a process of negotiation and that the outcome is unknown. Indeed, the organization may decide to merge, but it may also remain as it is or may enter into a less integrative form of partnership.

Do Not Avoid the Big Question – “Will I Lose My Job?”: Nonprofit mergers rarely result in a large number of layoffs, which will be somewhat comforting to the involved staff members. However, the message needs to be clear and direct that staffing will be determined and negotiated as part of the process. The message should also explain that the organization is committed (hopefully) to a process that helps any affected staff with transition planning and support.

Opportunity for Questions: Staff will have lots of questions – Why is this being considered? Are we being taken over? What are benefits of a potential merger? Can’t we just stay the way we are? Prepare and have answers for these questions and others you speculate will be posed. Be prepared to present the potential benefits of a restructuring effort and why it is important for the organization to consider this option. Also be open with the fact that there may not be answers, at this time, to many questions that are being asked.

Staff Involvement: The task of negotiations is primarily that of board members and the CEO, but certain senior staff members (CFO, HR Director, Development Director, Senior Program Staff, etc.) may have a role in preparing and presenting information. Moreover, if the organization proceeds with a merger, all staff will be involved in the integration phase.

An initial message to staff may be something like:

“The ABC organization is entering merger negotiation discussions with XYZ organization. The two organizations are exploring the potential benefits of a partnership as well as considering potential drawbacks. The merger negotiations team is composed of from ABC and from XYZ. The negotiations are expected to last somewhere between four and six months. During that time there will be regular updates on the progress of negotiations with opportunities to answer questions. As negotiations proceed we will have a more complete picture of what a merged organization may look like and there will be opportunity for staff feedback. We understand that these discussions may cause anxiety among staff, which reinforces the need for ongoing dialogue. We intend to keep you informed of the process and will make every attempt to answer questions to the extent that information is known.”

The process of negotiating a merger or other form of partnership signals a significant potential change within an organization. As with any significant change, a merger will stimulate anxiety and fear among staff. Effective communication during the negotiations process is essential to helping staff understand and accept change and to shaping the internal environment. Care must be given to how and what is communicated in order to ensure a process that staff can support.