The Missing Link in M&A Success: Employee Listening

Why download this eBook?

This eBook is for HR leaders, C-suite executives, M&A teams, and integration managers who want to protect value, retain talent, and accelerate cultural alignment during mergers and acquisitions.

- - Uncovers the silent deal-breaker in M&A: Learn why 70–90% of M&A deals underperform, and how ignoring the employee voice is a root cause.
  - Proves culture isn’t soft, it’s strategic: Backed by data from McKinsey, Mercer, and EY, the eBook shows how cultural misalignment derails value and how listening can prevent it.
  - Reveals 5 high-impact benefits of employee listening:
    - Identify cultural clashes before they blow up
    - Strengthen trust through two-way communication
    - Sustain productivity during uncertainty
    - Enhance leadership credibility and employer brand
    - Retain your top talent post-acquisition

- - Gives you actionable frameworks: Includes example survey questions (Likert and open-text) you can use immediately to gauge sentiment and surface hidden risks.
  - Includes real-world data and benchmarks: See how engagement, wellbeing, and leadership perception typically dip post-M&A, and what high-performing companies do differently.
  - Highlights what employees actually think: Gain insight into employee sentiment through real comments, highlighting gaps in leadership, communication, and culture.
  - Introduces WorkBuzz ACT: Discover how AI-powered summaries and instant action plans turn feedback into impact, fast.
  - Helps you navigate the change curve: Shows how listening accelerates employee buy-in, reducing friction, disengagement, and attrition.

Chapters:

Introduction
Sets the stage for why most M&A deals fail and introduces employee listening as a critical success lever.
Why Listening Matters Now, More Than Ever
Explores the growing complexity of M&A and the human risks that traditional integration planning overlooks.
Five Reasons Why Employee Listening is Critical During M&A
Presents five powerful, data-backed reasons why listening helps mitigate risk and protect deal value.
How WorkBuzz Can Support Through M&A
Describes how WorkBuzz’s platform and expertise enable organisations to track sentiment and act with precision.
Asking the Right Questions
Shares practical example survey questions (quantitative and qualitative) to gather meaningful employee insight.
What the Data is Telling Us
Provides real-world benchmarks and trends from WorkBuzz clients, highlighting typical M&A engagement patterns.
Turning Insight into Action
Shows how listening isn’t just diagnostic, WorkBuzz helps leaders act quickly and meaningfully to close feedback loops.
Conclusion
Reinforces that listening isn’t optional in M&A, it’s the missing link to unlocking long-term value and cultural alignment.

Clarity Without Complexity

Insight you can act on instantly - Manager-ready summaries and guidance to take action faster. and feedback that leads somewhere.

Strategic by Design

From feedback to focused action.

Drive your people plan, inform exec decisions, and empower managers—all from one platform.

Flexible. Built for Change.

Insight in hours. Delivery your way.

Launch in days. Choose your level of service. Scale up or down as your needs evolve.

Human at the Core

You’re not a number - and your people aren’t either.

Every account is supported by real people who know your business and help you move fast.

The Missing Link in M&A Success:

Employee Listening