started to scale, things had to be aligned and expectations met. At first, the business saw employees as business partners, and employees wanted to be viewed as founders. Result? A balance had to be struck at the core of the relationship that helped create the right type of understanding between employees and the company that honoured expectations on both sides of the employment relationship. This, as Levy pointed out, resulted in greater transparency about strategy and decision making.
Measuring impact
When I talk about the need to provide an immersive experience for employees, Airbnb is an excellent reference point for this as employees, directly and indirectly, are surrounded by the truth. This is evident in the workplace design, communications, facilities and catering, and other EX practices such as giving employees money to spend on Airbnb for their holidays or short trips to
experience more directly what customers experience. With that knowledge as a guide, better CX outcomes can be achieved.
While engagement scores are one way to measure the impact of all the EX work, Levy says that employee referrals are the primary indicator of EX success.
‘Because of our EX, we are seeing people we would wish to bring into our community apply to work here based on what existing employees are saying to them.’ The other part to this is how well the mission is being communicated on the inside and outside. Are people compelled to action once they see or experience the mission of the business? This is also what differentiates EX as a field. It is not simply a question of pay, perks and benefits – it is the overall attractiveness, quality and impact the EX has on the world that draws people in.
command and control type leadership structure in place because it simply isn’t needed anymore. The more depth to the EX work, the more self-regulation and modification takes place. The community holds itself to account and so too do the individuals within it.
Organizations are deliberately and intentionally seeking to deepen relationships across the business. Is it a surprise then that employ- ees respond in a positive way to this and seek to mirror this level of care and commitment that they feel is coming from the company to them? Even in massively changing circumstances, this holds true and the EX can still be positive.
CASE STUDY Deepening EX into SAP’s merger and acquisition strategy
Operating in 180 countries with approaching 90,000 employees, and US $23.4 billion in annual revenues, the multinational software corporation SAP has acquired over 50 organizations and quickly realized the importance of investing in programmes that support employees joining SAP through acquisition. A recent acquisition is Qualtrics, the survey and feedback software firm, in a deal worth US $8 billion. With money set aside for investment in relevant sectors by the end of 2020, SAP is ambitiously positioning itself to benefit from growth opportunities in cloud-based technology and Internet of Things (IoT).
Juliet Harbottle, when she was Head of the Acquired Employee Experience, said, ‘SAP prizes the employees that come with acquisition firmly believing in the value that their skills, expertise, industry knowledge and relationships bring. As SAP follows its strategy of transitioning to a cloud company, these attributes become even more important when bringing new cultures and perspectives into the organization.’
Investing in people, not companies
Regardless of acquisition cost, the employees are viewed as an extraordinary part of that investment. The SAP merger and acquisition (M&A) EX is part of the integration team that works with all integration stakeholders – including HR, IT, Go-To-Market (GTM), Communication, as well as the business owners within the line of business itself – to successfully transition the acquired organization into the SAP business area. Alignment between functions is not a nice-to-have, but a business imperative.
‘We realized the need for an M&A EX about six or seven years ago and formalized it nearly four years ago; it is now a standalone workstream within the integration process that works with all integration stakeholders from due diligence, throughout the integration process, and until the integration is formally signed off and handed over to the business,’ said Harbottle.
The transition experience
The SAP M&A EX has a wide and diverse charter that focuses on the transition of employees into the business in a way which supports their productivity and engagement by considering all the touchpoints that an incoming employee is likely to experience as they join through integration.
Harbottle is clear that overcoming the challenges presented as part of bringing together two organizations with separate tools, policies and cultures requires a clearly defined approach and a checklist of experiences that are implemented as part of each acquisition. These are generally tailored to suit the needs of each acquisition, which itself may vary from country to country. As ambassadors for new colleagues, her team regularly conduct pulse checks and works with the integration teams to address questions, queries and concerns as part of a transparent and highly collaborative effort.
Aligning EX through coalition
Highlighting the importance of aligning roles and functions within EX work, Harbottle continued, ‘it is this type of broad and deep coalition that leads major EX efforts and the SAP M&A EX has transformed most aspects of how SAP considers people in its integration process moving beyond the integration of assets, including IP, to take a people-centric approach that considers the integration from the perspective of the incoming employee.’
The SAP M&A EX sits within the overall Integration Management Office (IMO) for SAP M&A and works with all workstreams to provide a holistic overview of all the touchpoints and integration milestones. ‘We see this as a highly collaborative role akin to an ambassador for the incoming employees or a project manager of people. Although the process and toolkit is fundamentally the same for each acquisition, this perspective means that no two programmes are ever the same, the EX for each acquisition is tailored to suit the needs and bridge the gaps between the incoming employees and the SAP business area. As such, our M&A EX is a very broad role that works directly with senior executives and integration stakeholders.’
Bringing together two organizations is complex. Policies, tools, resources likely to be different may not be aligned, and the M&A EX considers how to help the