Client Situation
Our client is one of the large commercial banks in Oman providing best-in-class consumer and commercial banking services for its retail, corporate and institutional clients. The bank embarked on its strategic growth journey by acquiring an international bank in Oman. The bank engaged Cedar to facilitate the process of people integration.
Cedar’s Approach
In this program, Cedar was mandated to assist the client in designing an end-to-end people integration process. Cedar conducted a thorough review and designed the integration, training, and organization structure:
- Reviewed the program charter across 7 key elements to provide key observations, impact, and recommendations.
- Reviewed more than 60 benefits in detail to harmonize best practices and align with industry best practices.
- Reviewed more than 45 policies in detail and aligned with industry best practices.
- Outlined methodology to design organization structures based on 7 key principles.
- Designed interim & final organization structures for the merged entity.
- Conducted workshops with CEO & CHRO to discuss & finalize organization structures of the merged entity.
- Designed a high-level integration plan across 10 focus areas along with defined timelines and key milestones.
- Designed a 3-step methodology to facilitate grading & titling of incoming employees.
- Prepared training methodology, dependencies & training completion criteria across 7 types of training and 50 trainings.
- Designed a 4-step redeployment methodology to facilitate the redeployment of all incoming employees.
- Designed culture integration plan along with key activities across 3 phases: Pre-LD1, LD1 and Post LD1.
- Conducted 20+ leadership conversations and surveys for employees of both organizations to ensure culture alignment.
- Prepared detailed communication plan across 3 phases: Pre-LD1, LD1 and Post-LD1
- Designed communication tools & templates, CXO scripts, email to employees & Central Bank, transfer letters, town hall invitations, typical FAQs, redeployment communication, etc.
- Created a culture integration report to provide recommendations to ensure culture integration in the merged entity.
Outcome
The program resulted in successful people integration for the bank post-merger. Cedar assisted the bank by:
- Successfully delivering a planned process across 10 identified focus areas and proposed a way forward for each focus area.
- Accomplished efficient merging of the entity policies and benefits designed to ensure alignment post-LD1.
- Designing organization structures across 15 departments for the merged entity based on industry best practices.
- Ensuring effective redeployment of ~700 incoming employees.
- Categorizing ~12 key initiatives for culture integration as: Quick wins, medium term, and long-term initiatives.