If you’re like many B2B companies, you are likely part of a team that’s been acquihired. You now have team members with a variety of hard and soft skills—all of which are unfamiliar to you.
Your new colleagues are likely coming from an entrepreneurial company culture. They are highly creative, and accustomed to autonomy and quick decision making.
Now, they are part of a slow-moving, large corporate team with processes and systems that feel foreign. They are expected to work with people who may or may not be collaborative. This can leave them disheartened and looking for other opportunities. In fact, an MIT research study found that 20% of acquihired employees left within six months of acquisition. By the end of their first year, one-third of the acquihired team has resigned in contrast to only 12 percent of traditional hires.
This comes at a significant cost to the corporation. These marketing team members are experts with their target audiences. They know the pain points and what incentivizes their audience to respond. There is a lot of tribal industry knowledge that is lost when these employees leave.
So, how are you going to keep this talent around for the long run?
Here’s a thought: Ask them, listen to them, and then act on their insights.
Showing you care and then actually acting on it is a powerful first impression and increases employee engagement. As a leader, be curious about your new team members’ talents, dreams, skills, and accomplishments.
Then, harness the creativity of your acquihired talent to better their professional career and benefit the larger company by designating employees who embody an entrepreneurial spirit as “intrapreneurs” in your company.
Intrapreneur: An employee who creates a product, service, or department within their current workplace.
Having intrapreneurs on your team allows them to put their talent toward:
- positively impacting growth
- preventing marketing tactics from becoming stale
- constantly generating new ideas
Plus, they get to flex their creative muscles which increases retention rates.
Leveraging and directing the entrepreneurial spirit of acquihires takes intentionality and commitment in the early stages but pays dividends in the long run.