Merging two companies with different systems, products and cultures can be very challenging. When BMO was preparing to merge Harris Bank with M&I Bank in 2011, although it was technically a merger, the general perception was that it was more of a take over of M&I by Harris Bank. Our goal was to create a consistent customer experience across all BMO Harris branches while mitigating customer and employee attrition due to changes in products, services, policies, and procedures.
First, we needed to determine which processes we were going to move forward into the combined organization. In order to minimize the impact on our employees, I created a chart that mapped the similarities and differences between each of the different components needed to run a branch. a combined team to create recommendations for how we should proceed with each one. We engaged sales leaders and employees from over 600 branches between the two banks to comment on and evaluate each of the recommendations as well as ideas on how to implement the changes with a minimum of impact to themselves and to customers.
I compiled the data and made changes to the recommendations with the suggestions of the people who would be impacted the most by the changes. Using this process, the employees from both companies had more buy-in for the overall change plan. By engaging and listening to both sides, the best parts of both companies were adopted by the new organization and we managed to keep employee attrition from both banks to less than 15%.