The Situation

Two leading homebuilding companies merged, and new leadership was planning to announce the new company identity to everyone within the organizations. As part of the gathering, leadership wanted to include an Employment Value Statement (EVP) as part of the official “Day One” launch. The VP of Human Resources hired inTalent to create an EVP that would motivate employees and clearly articulate the new company’s blended culture. Most of all, the leadership team wanted to create a memorable experience capturing the excitement of the new company through well-planned meetings and a lasting message that would drive all employee communication going forward.

The Challenges

The two companies joining forces had very different cultures and histories; so management wanted to be thoughtful about reconciling two sets of work styles and values. In addition, the merger led to some downsizing, so there was negativity and confusion among employees which needed to be addressed.

The inTalent Solution

The first step was gathering information about how and what the employees felt the new company could and would be. The inTalent team created a web-based survey open to all employees and received a whopping 48% return rat. We designed the facilitation guide for employee focus groups held in several different markets and reviewed input from recent leadership meetings.

inTalent incorporated feedback into three different versions of an EVP so the leadership could see which approach “felt right.” The VP and CEO collaborated with inTalent to shape the EVP into its final message, which would be presented at the “Day One” management meeting.

inTalent also helped craft the VP speech used to introduce the Values Statement to the leaders. It included a participatory activity helping the audience articulate and incorporate useful feedback into the final version.

Finally, inTalent helped leadership shape the details of the entire gathering, creating an opening video kicking off the meeting with humor and excitement, as well as designing interactive sessions to keep the audience engaged.

The result? The company’s CEO was thrilled with the messaging and the level of participation. The management team gave positive feedback and felt connected to each other, and most importantly to the new company.