Employee Communication: How to successfully Merge Companies?

How to merge companies drastically different? Learn how Tata Realty has merged three geographically and culturally separate companies into a single, cohesive force via a centralized employee communication strategy and a mobile-friendly platform.

Discover their Employee Communication and merger journey

Tata Realty is one of the fastest growing real estate companies in India today, specializing in the development of residential, commercial, and retail properties. In fact, they have close to 700 employees working together as a seamless unit.

But this wasn’t always quite the case—their current workforce was created from the merger of three separate companies, which brought employees from different geographic locations and cultures together, and in a position where they needed to forge a common identity and communication channel quickly, in order to integrate successfully and succeed.

Their Challenge: How to merge and unify three companies that are geographically dispersed and dependent on mobile?

Tata Realty was thrilled to be merging three companies in different countries, and composed of different cultures. It represented a huge step for their company. But they knew they needed to create a common sense of identity from these different units, and get everybody on board some kind of common communication stream. Up until that point, the various workforces that made up the companies had been largely mobile reliant, up to 40%, and communication was more ad hoc than formal, relying on a jumble of WhatsApp groups and intranets.

Tata Realty needed to find a way to get them all together into a cohesive communication system, with immediate access to company resources and breaking company news. The employees are generally young and quite tech savvy—68% millennial in fact—but they had never been given a common digital space for communication, engagement, and knowledge sharing. But there was more to it than just enhancing communication. Tata employees care about making a difference in the world as well. CSR has always been an important objective, as a desire to help society at large is shared by employees and management alike.

Our Solution: A mobile-friendly, centralized, Single Sign On employee communication platform that brought everyone together.

In partnership with Sociabble, Tata Realty developed and introduced a new centralized communication strategy that utilized the Sociabble platform as the hub for all information streams.

Features include: 

Simple and Intuitive User Experience

Tata Realty didn’t want a complicated platform that would discourage users or require too much training. The solution proved to be a straightforward platform with an intuitive UX and simple search and menu bars that employees can readily get the hang of with a minimal amount of instruction. And when it comes to employee training or answering questions, Sociabble’s Mumbai office means that assistance is never far away.

Single Sign On

Tata Realty knew that the solution had to be centralized, with the ability to offer access to the other tools and platforms of the company. It had to be comprehensive, a central hub. Which is why their Sociabble platform relies on Single Sign On technology, which makes access simple. But security was also a consideration, which means that the platform’s GDPR compliance and strict data privacy protections are crucial factors. And thanks to the mobile app, their employee base, which is often on the go, should have access to all of it from their phones, no matter where they are.

Targeting and Engagement Features

Tata Realty wanted to be smart about ensuring that the right messages reached the right people at the right time. They saw the advantage of the Sociabble platform’s targeting and audience engagement features. In fact, the targeting feature permits them to create specific channels and to regroup dispersed employees who now work in the same department because of the merger, creating a unity amid the physical distance, and increasing group identity and cohesion. 

This has been especially important in light of the Covid-19 health crisis. With so many employees working from home, creating a sense of belonging and community at the company has become absolutely essential. Strong communication keeps employees connected and aligned. And when it comes to engagement, one feature that stood out was Sociabble Trees, a CSR module that rewards engaged employees with actual trees planted in their name, in forests around the world. 

Augmenting that, in terms of general engagement analysis, a full analytics package helps to monitor UGC content, and determine which pieces are most effective for driving engagement and communication.

The Launch: Training & top management make the difference.

While many elements have contributed toward the success of the launch of the initiative, three factors have proven especially effective in helping Tata Realty employees adopt their new Employee Communication platform:

Training and Consulting

Tata Realty has worked together with Sociabble to tailor-make a training program that includes recommendations about channel content, tips for boosting engagement, and educational programs for the IC team. Sociabble Heroes, a platform dedicated solely to clients, has also provided managers with a wealth of information about best practices, ready to use content, and new features.

Involvement of Top Management

Knowing that the best leaders lead by example, Tata Realty waited for their town hall meeting to kick off the new communication initiative, involving the MD and the senior leadership of the company. They took charge and showed their teams the power of the new strategy by putting it into practice themselves.

Proximity & Partnership with Sociabble Mumbai Office

The third factor has been the local proximity of the Sociabble Mumbai office, which has been utilized to create a close partnership and support system. When Tata Realty has questions regarding platform usage, they have a local team ready to assist them, that’s also on the same time zone and yearly schedule.

Together, these factors have helped speed up adoption and usage of the platform, with Tata Realty employees quickly adapting and embracing their new Employee Communication system.

The Results: Streamlined communication and an incredible engagement rate.

Tata Realty has successfully integrated the three companies onto a single cohesive communication platform, overcoming hurdles of geographic separation by getting everyone to embrace a common way of staying informed and sharing information. The involvement of top management at the launch had a huge impact and helped ensure high adoption rates from the start. 70% of the company was registered on the communication platform in the first 24 hours, and today, 99% of employees are registered and use the platform. And that initial enrollment push has only been augmented by sustained engagement drives designed to ensure continued use. 

The Sociabble Trees CSR feature, which was launched during the Tata Sustainability Month, has also proven to be a powerful engagement engine, with 600 trees planted during just those four weeks.

And thanks to UGC, two-way communication has been the norm, with both top-down and bottom-up information flows becoming standard at the company. Employees can now share their learning and experiences together on a common platform by participating in everything from phot contests to customer success stories. Additionally, employees now have access to a wide variety of targeted content, including industry news, company specific announcements and initiatives, wellness articles, not to mention fun challenges and quizzes. 

And thanks to the “My Tools” channel, all of the company’s digital internal tools, like HR and self-service platforms, are available at the click of a button via Single Sign On. Overall, employees have been extremely satisfied with the experience, and in a survey of 200 participants, Sociabble was rated 4 out of 5.

Because of this overall internal communication initiative, the engagement rate has reached an incredible 90%, which in turn has helped to cement the merger and create a shared sense of corporate identity. 

In the end, going digital with a virtual communication platform has allowed the company to face the challenges of insecurity and disconnection presented by the merger and Covid-related remote work scenarios while strengthening engagement and cohesion. Proof that with the right strategy, platform, and mindset, smart Employee Communication can truly bring a company together.

If you’d like to learn more about how Sociabble can help your company  with Employee Communication, schedule a free demo today.