Strategic HRM and leadership

Assignment

Presented to: Madam Silvia Ahmed Khattak Produced by: Muhammad Asim Ali Program: MBA (3years) S Roll #: 09 -1347

Question: Investigate the approach that a cisco system has used in its many success acquisitions. What are some of the human resource practices that have made acquisitions successful? Answer: Using acquisitions as a strategic weapon for increasing market share while enhancing customer satisfaction. Targeting companies that provide best fit for CISCOs own strategic direction and corporate culture .Cisco looks whether there is compatibility in terms of long term goals of the organization work culture and geographical proximity. Cisco believes in an organizational culture which is risk taking and adventurous. If this is lacking in the target company, then cisco is not convinced and backs out from the acquisition. No forced acquisitions. The company insists on no layoffs and job security is guaranteed to all the employees of the acquired company. The acquisition team evaluates the working style of the management of the target company, the caliber of the employees, the technological systems and relationship style with the employees. Once the acquisition team is convinced, an integration strategy is rolled out. A top level integration team visits the target company and gives clear cut information regarding cisco and the future roles of the employees of the acquired firm. After the acquisition, employees of the acquired firm are given 30 days of orientation training to fit into the organizational environment.

Further Cisco is an expert at employee integration. From the moment the acquisition is announced, Cisco human resource and development teams travel to the target company headquarters to meet in small groups with the employees and to answer questions. Furthermore Cisco integration team works with the target company management to MAP employees in other words to determine where in Cisco, they might belong. In the meantime, Cisco leaves much of the target company existing structure in place. Cisco has realized past mistakes from trying to force target companies structures into Cisco own. Then the day after deal closes, Cisco provides orientation to Cisco processes and this process that takes about a month. As a result the industry praises the company for being able to divest an entire company without hurting its productivity

The HR practices that applies in Cisco for successful acquisition: What will happen to my job? is the first question asked by employees when their company is acquired by Cisco. Employees are a critical part of the acquisition strategy, because they hold the key to the next generation of the product. The Cisco human resources (HR) acquisition team has designed the integration strategy around employee concerns to help facilitate and expedite acceptance of change by the new employees. Cisco HR applies the following principles and practices to these employee transitions: Cisco has a goal of retaining 100 percent of employees who transition from acquired companies. The Cisco HR team works with executives from the acquired company to help map employees to Ciscos employment structure for salary, stock options, and benefits. Cisco HR works with internal resources to handle routine transition tasks such as employee setup in HR and payroll systems. These tasks adhere to the standard processes defined by the HR integration team. Cisco HR also outsources some of the due diligence and project work related to individual acquisitions, which is especially effective for rapidly processing large companies with thousands of employees. To reduce the disruption and anxiety of the transition process for new employees, HR staffs are among the first Cisco representatives onsite at the acquired company when a deal is announced. Because communication is critical during the early integration phase, an internal Website is created for each acquired company to present detailed information and updates about the employee transition process, and to provide links to Cisco training resources. The Cisco HR acquisition team provides employee transition letters and hiring documents online to improve the efficiency of employee processing and create electronic personnel files that are easier to update and manage. The Cisco HR team hosts a new-hire orientation for all new employees at the time the acquisition deal closes. This orientation gives the acquired employees the information that they need to work at Cisco. Other training sessions address employee concerns such as immigration and company stock. The training sessions are formatted to meet the needs of the global audience and are delivered through online videos, in WebEx online conferences, and video conferences.

We must act as quickly as possible to make decisions and inform the new employees about their job status, because we know that until employees have that information, they will not be able to focus on their work, says Shari Yocum, director of acquisitions in the Cisco Human Resources department. Our goal is to have the new employees fully transitioned and ready to work as Cisco employees from the first day after the deal closes.