How EVERSANA masters M&A with an agile workforce OS
Why AI and employee-first strategies are critical for successful integration
As EVERSANA grows through acquisitions, its VP of People Development & Learning breaks down the role its AI-powered platform plays in integrating talent and skills.
Post M&A, HR leaders play a critical role in retaining and deploying critical skills and talent. Rather than relying on manual systems that fail to provide updated insights into workforce skills, savvy organizations are harnessing an agile workforce OS to strategically tap into all of their peoples’ capabilities post-deal.
While many organizations struggle to unify and engage their employees in the aftermath of M&A activity, EVERSANA exemplifies a future-ready integration strategy. After the global services provider in the life sciences industry launched their agile workforce OS, VP of People Development & Learning Heidi Brokes explores the platform’s game-changing impact.
“It breaks down the siloes,” she says in reference to EVERSANA’s agile workforce OS. “We have project managers across our business, so what’s to keep someone from moving from one business as a project manager to another? But they would never even know that was there. So our platform breaks down those siloes and helps people explore new opportunities.”
In addition to cultivating a sense of connectivity that spans the entire workforce, the organization’s platform has become a gateway for more impactful employee development conversations. In Brookes’ words, “Part of what I love about the system is that we’re now giving managers better tools so they can have more in-depth conversations. When we hire people, we might not always remember all of the cool things they’ve done in their careers. So it’s a reminder that we can start to tap into people differently if we just know what they’ve done and what opportunities they’ve had instead of just what they were hired for.” She also notes that their platform has helped the organization make strides towards improving employee retention, potentially saving EVERSANA up to $3 million in annual turnover and replacement fees.
Learn how launching an agile workforce OS transforms M&A outcomes
Now that we’re living in a world hallmarked by disruption, HR’s role in navigating the M&A landscape is becoming more complex. Download this guide to learn how leaders can leverage an agile workforce OS to unite and inspire their organization post-deal.
‣ Top takeaways
“We really focused on building a business case around retention. We were losing a high number of people in their first year of employment with EVERSANA, almost 50%, because they just couldn’t see their career path with EVRESANA. And we had engagement data about managers not making development a priority. And the last thing was more anecdotal but it kept coming up. People were asking ‘How do I find people across the business to thought partner with and to tap into for projects where they don’t have enough capacity?’”
“Probably the most important thing for me is that instead of an employee interacting with a system to update their profile all of the time, it’s the employee interacting with the platform to gain new experiences and gain learning in relationship to what they want to build with their skills and their development. And so they don’t have to go in and update their profile because the platform does it for them.”
“As you can imagine any business wants to know the money we’re going to be saving them. Many of the things we talk about are all connected. Employee development drives employee engagement and employee engagement drives client delight. This was a way for us to start helping them understand that by addressing skills visibility, retention, employee development, and employee engagement we are going to raise the bar on client delight but then there was also a financial impact to that.”
“We’re actually doing an onboarding project to improve our employee experience for new hires. We had 20 people apply and we just launched. I think as organizations we forget sometimes that people are willing to do extra if that means they can grow and develop and get involved in something that’s not their normal day-to-day job. And so we’re giving them that opportunity. They get to meet people that they haven’t met across the organization and they get to do and think about something differently. And they‘re actually impacting what we do at EVERSANA overall.”