PwC survey: Retention Is Becoming More Difficult During Mergers and Acquisitions

People management, particularly retention, is becoming more difficult during mergers and acquisitions, according to C-suite leaders and senior managers responding to a late 2019 PwC survey. In 2019, 10% of respondents reported "significant success" in employee retention during M&As, compared to 45% in 2016 and 56% in 2010. The results, released in June, also found that 64% of organizations reported having full-time employees in HR dedicated to the transition. The report noted an increasing sense of challenge in navigating the people and organization aspect of integration. Eighty percent of respondents reported this aspect to be "difficult," compared to 58% in 2016. Organizations are also increasingly assigning an executive sponsor to transition teams, an occurrence which PwC said has doubled since its last survey. However, even though 65% of respondents said access to managerial and technical talent was a "very" or "most important" deal objective, only 17% said this objective was "completely achieved." Change management programs are also considered insufficient, according to the report. PwC considers change management to involve seven aspects, and "not one company" reported involving all seven of those drivers. Only 5% said they had three or more.