From: Gabrielle Shepherd
Date: Yesterday at 4:15 PM
Subject: Invitation: Transition planning meeting for Iggy Co. merger
Transition planning meeting for Iggy Co. merger
When: 9:00-10:30am
Where: Level 2 Conference Room
Who:
CEO, Marcus Adams
COO, Eliza Perkins
Head of HR, Natasha Banks
New Business Director, Miguel Cervantes
TechTrend is merging with Iggy Co., a medium-sized software company. This merger will gain us additional market share and revenue, but our work force will need to be cut by 10%. This will lower team morale in addition to the added stress of the cultural shifts as the two companies come together.
To minimize impact to production, management directed that the transition be completed within a three-month period.
There are differences of opinion between our COO, Eliza and our Head of HR, Natasha. Natasha prefers that new job descriptions for management roles be written, and candidates from both companies be encouraged to apply. Those leaders would then build their teams through a requisition and interview process. Natasha feels strongly that her approach would retain top talent and that the workforce reduction would naturally occur through attrition rather than layoffs.
Eliza feels strongly that in order to save time, managers should be hand-selected by a team consisting of senior leadership from both companies, and those individuals should build their respective teams. In this scenario, employees not filling a role in the combined organization would be laid off. Eliza feels that her approach is the only way to meet the three-month directive from management.
I’ve been tasked with managing this project and assuring we balance the impact to personnel and morale while maintaining production levels and completing the transition on time.
Gabrielle