Whilst the news that Ernst & Young (recently rebranded as EY) has recently acquired Greenwich Consulting may be good news for some, it could pose challenges for the HR team.
Over the past couple of years the Big Four have been slowly buying up specialist consultancies to increase their global presence. HR professionals within these accounting firms now have to integrate different cultures and practices and this can be particularly challenging if the two organisations are very different.
EY for example has around 30,000 people working in its Advisory teams throughout the world. Greenwich Consulting, on the other hand, was a specialist consultancy with 130 employees who would probably know each other reasonably well. They will now have to hit the ground running and fit into a much larger organisation that in all probability has a very different work culture.
HR professionals now need to understand the decision-making and leadership style of the company they are taking over. They also need to establish whether there are differences in the way the two organisations regard personal success.
The role of Human Resources looks likely to change beyond all recognition over the coming years and the professionals who survive will be the ones who understand the potential cultural problems associated with an acquisition and know how to solve them.
What do you see as the major barriers to successfully integrating employees from differing work cultures? How can these be addressed so that everybody benefits?
