Why do most mergers or acquisitions fail? Experts now believe that the key to success in you new venture is whether the human resources fit together as well as the financial and physical assets. Our consultants have decades of experience assisting leadership teams with assessments, placement, strategy and communications to help make this process the key to your success, and not the beginning of your problems. Read more…
When you are buying a business, selecting a site or hiring a new workforce, Yessin & Associates can help.
Site Selection
If you are opening a new facility, you don’t want surprises. What is the union density in the area. Have their been layoffs in the region? What is the unemployment rate? What contracts do other employers have with their unions? Who is organizing there – is there anything going on in the industrial park you are getting ready to move into? What about local strikes – are those applicants coming through your doors the same people that just put your neighbor out of business?
Our Research company, RMI has a unique licensing agreement with the Bureau of National Affairs – the most respected name in labor relations research. Using BNA data, and local and industry contacts, our consultants can help evaluate your sites, and even provide interviewing and hiring expertise and strategies to maximize you chances of success in your new locations.
Due Diligence Support
Experts measure and evaluate the engineering, pension liability, value of accounts receivable, risks of toxic tort liability…everything it seems but the ability of the workforce and the management team to adapt to the changes that you will need to make your investment a success.
Using tools from electronic surveys to facilitated assessments, our consultants can measure the employment relations climate, the likelihood of acceptance of a contract or risk of a strike. Our partners can evaluate the savings needed and identify where those savings can be achieved using industry benchmarks and proven analytical tools. For examples of good deals gone very, very bad for want of such analysis and support, contact us…and avoid the pitfalls that can cost you profits, damage debt ratings and reduce market capitalization.
Hiring and Selection
Our consultants have hired and screened as many as 1500 people a month to ensure that you get the kind of workforce that will make your venture successful…and to avoid surprises that could cost you millions. We can conduct and run the management assessment centers that select your leaders, or simply design a hiring process to enhance your likelihood of success.
Past engagements have included hiring an entire workforce following an asset purchase from hospitality businesses to logistics firms. We have ensured workplace continuity during a strike – from healthcare to transportation to manufacturing. For more information, contact us…
Union Vulnerability Assessments
Electronic surveys or one on one interviews between the consultant and management team are used to identify extent of organizing, employee alienation or vulnerability. This process helps allocate resources more efficiently and creates a trip wire so you can address problems before they become issues – and while they can still legally be addressed.
Employee Opinion Surveys
Measure employee alienation, predicts labor problems, and identifies areas of convergence of opinion to help target communications and efforts more effectively and efficiently. Also used to benchmark acceptable levels and measure performance, or to identify outliers for recognition or remedial assistance.
Employee Relations (“Environmental”) Audits
One on one interviews between the consultant and management team to identify employee relations issues, and intensity or energy around those respective issues. Helps identify extent of organizing, employee alienation or vulnerability, and can be used in conjunction with electronic tools to drill down beyond the electronic feedback and begin looking for anecdotal examples, solutions and differentiation so that solutions really match problems. This process helps allocate resources more efficiently and creates a trip wire so you can address problems before they become campaign issues – and while they can still legally be addressed.
Integrated employee relations and business strategies
What happens in another unit, another division, or another facility does affect what happens in yours. International unions have begun to coordinate negotiating and organizing strategies across industries and international boundaries – you must do the same. Understanding that relationship, and making the linkage work to effect the desired outcome, is the goal of our strategic team. Frequently this involves coordinating labor relations, public relations, governmental relations, investor relations and legal resources – understanding the objectives and concerns of each and working together for a common goal calibrated to your bottom line business objectives.
Establishment of effective employee-management teams
In coordination with your legal counsel, we can help unlock the creativity, insight and skills of your workforce. American employers do have more legal restrictions on working directly with employees than in almost any other industrialized nation – it isn't easy, but it is possible, and it sure can make a difference. Call us to find out how.
Collective bargaining support – communicating for success at the bargaining table
Does the old contract work for you? Getting a good first contract can be the key to your success. Bargaining never gets any easier, and establishing a good baseline to work from – as well as avoiding the surprise of undocumented “past practices” that cost you time and money -- may be the difference in success or failure of your new business. Ask our clients who failed to assess this and found $20 million in poor work practices embedded in the old contract’s unwritten past practices.
Our clients have secured contracts that allowed them to compete by taking their case to the employees. Isn't that illegal? Not if you do it properly. If employees of the old company are unwilling to change to meet the expectations of the new company, you need to know that up front. Our consultants are experienced at getting employees to sign onto the new work culture, and designing exit strategies, or soft landings, for those who prefer to take their talents elsewhere.
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