Why true People Inclusion is a critical part of Team Integration
Cindy Gunn, Head of People at Gi Group Holding UK, speaks about her team’s efforts to integrate new colleagues from Kelly Europe and to build a truly inclusive workplace.
The Starting Point
Over the past 25 years Gi Group Holding has acquired more than 50 companies which it has successfully integrated into its set of service providers in the recruitment and staffing sectors. Each acquisition offers the overall business new opportunities but they also present new challenges. Gi Group Holding UK has been involved in many of these integration processes: most recently involving Encore Personnel Services and Kelly Services Europe. Consolidating teams has required a lot of focus on making sure employees understand the Holding’s overall mission and are working from the same playbook. Cindy Gunn, People Leader at Gi Group Holding UK & Ireland explains, “With our Encore employees we needed to work to align goals and help them integrate with the Gi Group mindset and overall mission and vision. At times, it felt like there was an ‘us vs. them’ culture in parts of the business, but that mainly stemmed from nervousness related to the move from a smaller business with a family feel and higher levels of empowerment to working in a much larger company with a more corporate structure where incoming team members had, at times, the perception that their influence and authority had diminished. Understandably, they would have liked to retain some policies and systems that kept the previous work atmosphere in the company they came from.”
While feelings and perceptions are important, other challenges with team integration often relate to process speed. In this space, communication forms a critical part of team integration and consolidation. Clear, consistent messaging impacts employee buy-in and commitment to building and boosting the newly-integrated entity where they work. Cindy Gunn explains, “For Kelly employees, we had had some struggles and expressed frustrations with process timing. A number of team members provided feedback that they would have appreciated a more expedited integration process with quicker updates on planned future roles and whether they would continue to work in the new business and, if so, in which specific area. Now our teams are at a point where the bulk of the restructuring is complete and integration is advancing. Of course, we have always been mindful in our teams of the need to be as transparent as possible but the bigger the acquired organisation, the greater the number of challenges for team consolidation is likely to be. Fortunately, we have moved forward into our full onboarding processes and are investing into welcome and teambuilding programmes. So I believe our Kelly peers can now see our business’ true commitment to People Power and building a strong integrated entity for the future.”
Integration Strategy
Efforts to consolidate and integrate employee teams post-acquisition always involve a good amount of planning, and they vary based on the size of the company acquired, that company’s existing culture and its alignment with the new business, strength of leadership teams, etc. Plus, there’s the communication element that accompanies the planning as stated above. As part of current integration efforts, the Gi Group Holding UK leadership team is focusing on making new team members feel welcome and helping them forge connections and solid relationships with their new colleagues.The first step involves a series of break-out days to welcome our new team members from Kelly. We have arranged meetings for our colleagues in Ireland and also the UK. This is all based on employee functions. So we have one set of meetings for our operations staff, a full Central Functions teambuilding planned for September, and other gatherings where needed. These welcome days consist of meetings where the heads of each department talk new employees through our team structure, individual employee functions and also our business’ strategic priorities. Around that, we plan a number of fun activities focused on relationship building between team members and forging deeper connections over dinner and drinks in the evening.
Many businesses note that focusing on personal connections and clear explanations of business strategy are critical for building integrated, cohesive teams. This involves highlighting points of similarity and alignment between business cultures (from the perspective of the acquiring and acquired employee teams) and delivering tangible examples for demonstrating how new employees can influence strategy as well as company policy and also make a real impact in achieving company goals. Gi Group Holding’s focus on a sincere and warm welcome for new colleagues is having a valuable impact based on Cindy Gunn’s observations, “Our teambuilding efforts have worked really well with integrating Kelly employees into the Gi Group culture. We have been able to get our new team members up to speed on what our key focus areas are and what impact they can have in helping achieve business aims. We are also conducting a Culture Listening project for our Kelly colleagues. This is something we did last year for incoming Encore team members and the programme received a national award. Headed up by our Group Head of L&D, Emma-Louise Taylor, the project gives all our colleagues the chance to air their views, concerns and ideas for improvements through a group discussion session and a follow up questionnaire. Our executive and senior management teams then make a pledge to implement new initiatives to make improvements across the business as recommended.”
Fulfilling the #ChangeLives Promise
When working to make the experience within the Gi Group Holding team more meaningful, the company decided a few years back to outline a higher mission for the delivery of services in recruitment, staffing and other lines of business. This effort involved underscoring the true value of employees’ daily work activities and showing them literally how they could change lives for the clients and candidates they work with and support. This philosophy today pervades all aspects of company operations and has become a mantra for all colleagues committed to making a deeper impact through efforts to help match clients and candidates with meaningful work opportunities. Cindy Gunn addresses how this mission plays out in the day-to-day business, “I believe that it varies from person to person and from team to team. Some people embrace the #ChangeLives motto and feel proud to work for an organisation that has a clear slogan representing what the business believes in: doing good things for good people. In some cases, employees find themselves so deeply involved in the operational day-to-day work that they don’t always reflect on this higher mission. In many cases this is understandable though because our UK and Ireland teams have had to deal with a flat economy, a cost of living crisis and also political uncertainty in recent years. Together, this has all made for a tough business environment. Still, I believe it is important to keep reminding our people of this greater objective or mission. Helping people find meaningful employment has a lot more value beyond just helping the company boost its bottom line.”
Outside communications on changing lives within the Gi Group Holding team, the tagline is a critical element in company recruitment tools, onboarding programmes and induction presentations. This promise or creed helps the HR team direct people’s attention to what working at Gi Group is all about: delivering meaningful, sustainable employment that does actually change people’s lives; certainly from the candidate perspective, but also from the client perspective where they can build teams that have a stronger attachment to their business and its long-term mission. The #ChangeLives promise also boosts prospects for employee retention and commitments to business sustainability and building a respected, trusted brand. Cindy Gunn and her team have reported plans to deliver visible reports on the impacts of the #ChangeLives creed by gathering employee and candidate testimonials explaining how GI Group has helped shape and change their lives for the better. This is a project targeted for 2025 once work on the Kelly Services integrated has been fully completed. With over 25 years of successful integrations and quality teambuilding behind it, the Gi Group Holding UK team will definitely have many inspiring stories to tell.
