Internal communications

Mergers and acquisitions promise growth, efficiency and new capability. But the real challenge begins after day one, when people and cultures need to come together. How do you help people understand how to operate in a new organisation?

When two businesses combine, they bring different cultures, expectations and ways of working. Leaders are often ready to move forward, having spent months shaping the deal. Employees, on the other hand, are still working through what the change means for their role, their team and their future. Uncertainty builds, assumptions fill the gaps and behaviours don’t shift in the way the organisation expects.

The challenge is not simply to communicate what is changing. It is to help people understand how the new organisation works, what is expected of them and how they fit within it.

Our proprietary THRIVE methodology provides a practical way to focus that effort, helping organisations build fairer, healthier and happier workplaces by elevating how they communicate with their people. Working through the six interconnected pillars – Talent, Human, Roadmap, Inclusion, Values and Experience – enables communication to act as the golden thread after a merger or acquisition.

Talent: recognising that the deal has changed for employees

A merger changes the psychological contract, whether it is acknowledged or not. While leadership may be focused on future opportunities, employees are often reassessing what they are part of and whether it still works for them. Career paths may feel less certain, expectations may shift and what once felt stable can quickly become unclear. If that shift is not addressed directly, people will draw their own conclusions about what the change means for them.

Communication needs to:

• Clearly acknowledge what has changed, not just what is staying the same
• Set realistic expectations about what employees can expect going forward
• Reduce ambiguity before people fill the gaps themselves

Human: understanding how people are experiencing the merger

Mergers are often communicated as structured, logical processes. In reality, employees experience them as uncertainty, ambiguity and, at times, loss of control.

While communication may focus on sharing updates, it can miss the underlying concerns people are working through day to day. The questions that matter most are often the ones not being asked openly.

Communication should:

• Surface the real concerns and questions people may not be raising openly
• Create opportunities for two-way dialogue, not just top-down messaging
• Reflect the reality of what people are experiencing, not just the intended narrative

How well are you tuning in to your workforce? Check where a more human approach to communication could make a difference with this diagnostic.

Roadmap: making the integration feel navigable

One of the most common frustrations for employees after a merger is not knowing what is happening next. Day one communications can create momentum and excitement, but they rarely provide enough detail for employees to understand how the change will unfold over time. In the absence of that clarity, people fill the gaps themselves, often with assumptions that don’t align with reality.

Communication needs to:

• Be explicit about what is known, what is not yet clear and what is still evolving
• Break the journey into stages so people can see what changes now and what comes next
• Reinforce progress regularly so the integration feels active, not static

Inclusion: recognising that not everyone experiences the change in the same way

Communication during a merger does not land evenly across the organisation. While some employees feel informed and included, others may hear later, receive partial information or rely on second-hand updates. This is often more pronounced for frontline teams, part-time colleagues, night workers or those temporarily away from the business. Over time, these gaps can lead to very different levels of understanding and trust.

Communication should:

• Reach different audiences in ways that work for how they access information
• Close gaps where some groups are hearing later or less clearly than others
• Create space for questions and feedback across all parts of the workforce

Values: making sure shared values are understood the same way

It is common to identify shared values early in a merger, and on the surface they often appear aligned. However, the way those values are interpreted and applied in practice can differ significantly. Without exploring those differences, organisations risk assuming alignment where it does not fully exist. This can show up later in decision-making, behaviours and expectations.

Communication needs to:

• Translate values into clear, observable behaviours
• Highlight where interpretations may differ across legacy organisations
• Reinforce what “good” looks like in the new organisation through real examples

Experience: aligning what people hear with what they feel

Culture is shaped less by what is said and more by what people experience day to day. In a merged organisation, there are often many signals that still reflect the previous identity. Team structures, ways of working and informal practices can all reinforce a sense that little has changed, even when communication suggests otherwise.

Paying attention to these everyday moments, and ensuring they align with the intended direction, helps communication feel credible and supports integration in practice.

Communication should:

• Align messaging with what employees actually experience day to day
• Call out inconsistencies between what is said and what is happening
• Make the new organisation visible through practical, everyday moments

Where communication turns alignment into action

Mergers do not succeed because leadership is aligned at the top. They succeed when that alignment is clearly communicated and understood across the organisation.

This is where HR and internal communication teams play a defining role. Not just sharing updates, but translating the deal into everyday reality. Helping people understand what has changed, what is expected and how to operate within the new organisation.

If you are preparing for a merger or working through integration, we specialise in strategic people and culture communications, helping organisations translate the deal into something that works in practice for their people.

You can explore the THRIVE methodology here or get in touch to talk through how we can support your integration.

Before the pandemic, the average employee experienced around two major organisational changes a year. Whether it’s new strategic priorities, changes in leadership or different ways of working, research from McKinsey suggests that number is closer to ten today.

And yet, most change communications programmes still start from the same place: “Here’s the strategy, here’s the plan, here’s why this matters.” But narratives alone won’t change behaviour.

If organisations are launching new strategies, transforming technology and expecting multiple generations to work harmoniously side-by-side, then we need to design and communicate change around how humans actually behave, not how we wish they behaved.

McKinsey has also reported for years that around 70% of change programmes don’t fully achieve their intended outcomes. Right now, employees are tired and worn down by constant adjustment. On the surface they might seem compliant and engaged, but as a communicator or business leader, you might be wondering why their habits don’t shift day-to-day.

Which raises an interesting question: how do we design communication that shifts behaviour at work?

Here are seven psychological principles we draw on when helping organisations design change communications that shift behaviour:

1. Show me people like me

We are far more influenced by what our peers are doing than by what senior leaders tell us to do. If you want adoption of an AI tool or a new way of working, don’t just showcase the executive sponsor. Show the operations manager who’s using it weekly. The frontline team who’ve found a smarter way of working or the sceptic who changed their mind.

Research consistently shows that peer influence is one of the strongest drivers of behaviour change. When people see “people like me” already doing something, they are much more likely to adapt their own behaviours.

2. Make the new behaviour easier than the old one

We often tend to view hesitation as resistance. Sometimes it is, but often the new way simply feels harder.

Behavioural science has shown repeatedly how effective defaults are. From pension enrolment to software settings, as humans, we tend to go with what’s already pre-selected. Not because we’ve evaluated all the options, but simply because we’re busy.

In organisations going through big changes, the cognitive load on employees is already high, so if a new process requires extra steps, new logins or additional admin, people will naturally revert to what they know.

3. Reduce cognitive overload

When employees are navigating so much change, overwhelm may be a genuine barrier to anything new.  Chunking – the concept of breaking change down into clear, manageable steps – is well known to reduce cognitive strain and overwhelm.

Instead of launching a five-year strategy as one narrative, think about communicating what changes this quarter, what changes this month and what changes tomorrow.

That way people can see where they are in the journey, what they can expect in the near term and their confidence in the change improves. Without that, even the most exciting changes can feel too big to take on.

4. Communicate what’s at stake

Understandably it’s easy for organisations to lean into the opportunity of change and underplay the risk. The upside of AI. The growth potential of a new market. The efficiencies of a restructure.

Of course, those things still matter, but emotionally, humans are naturally more sensitive to loss than gain. The discomfort of losing something familiar often far outweighs the appeal of something new.

Handled thoughtfully, it can be powerful to acknowledge what’s genuinely at stake. Not in a dramatic, scaremongering way, but in an honest one. What happens if we don’t adapt? What might we fall behind on? What could become harder for our customers?

Being clear about what’s genuinely at stake helps people understand the trade-offs and adds some urgency to why behaviour change is needed.

5. Language shapes reaction more than we realise

Is AI replacing roles? Or is it removing repetitive tasks so people can focus on higher-value work? Is a restructure a cost-cutting exercise? Or is it an investment in long-term capability?

The underlying message may not change, but our inbuilt emotional responses mean the message can land very differently. Particularly when employees are fatigued, the nuance of tone becomes even more important. Remember that people aren’t just taking on board a message, but also looking for reassurance, safety and stability in a volatile world.

These small shifts in language can significantly alter how a new programme or initiative lands.

6. Choice matters

Another insight that is consistently true is that people are more likely to support a change when they feel some level of ownership over it.

But that’s not crowdsourcing opinion and strategy, it’s about helping employees understand that change isn’t always happening to them. Even modest degrees of perceived choice can increase engagement. For example – options around how training is accessed, opportunities to feed into local implementation, or being part of a pilot group can all help employees feel involved in the shift.  People are much more likely to commit when they feel part of it.

7. Is progress tangible enough?

One of the biggest reasons change or transformation loses energy is that progress is hard to see or track. Our brains naturally seek reward and the dopamine that comes with it, which is why elements of gamification in the context of change can be so effective.

Immediate feedback, visible progress and a little healthy competition can make even the most mundane tasks feel more engaging. Time-bound initiatives, recognition for experimentation, team challenges or leaderboards that show how teams are moving forward can all help. Used thoughtfully, these kinds of initiatives help create momentum and encourage employees to adopt new habits.

What role does communication play?

The most important thing we’ve learned supporting organisations through change is this: communication cannot carry behaviour change alone. But there are things we can build into communication programmes that make behaviour change far more likely.

Our role isn’t just to craft compelling narratives. It’s to think about the human response – how people feel when they read a message, what they hear from their leaders and what a new change might genuinely mean for their day-to-day work.

It may sound obvious, but when employees are navigating constant transformation, AI acceleration and some of the challenges that come with multiple generations working side by side, logic alone rarely shifts behaviour.

Instead, we need to think about change with the lens of how people actually operate:

• how we compare ourselves to others
• how we respond to potential loss
• how we process complexity
• and how much autonomy we feel we have

That’s where thoughtful, creative people and culture communication – grounded in human psychology – becomes a necessity.

We specialise in Strategic People & Culture Communications, helping organisations connect strategy, culture and everyday behaviour. By combining behavioural insight with brand-level creativity, we turn messages into momentum and help change take hold in the reality of everyday work. If you’d like to explore how these ideas might apply in your organisation, we’d love to talk.

Whether you’re leading or part of these conversations or not, your workforce is having them. The challenge is that when organisations stay silent, employees fill the gaps – and increasingly, they’re doing that loudly and publicly.

If you want to know what your workforce is talking about, you need to lean in.

1. The transaction of work

Over the last few years, the topic of balancing productivity with pay has surfaced in different ways. Remember Quiet Quitting? This conversation will not only continue to rumble into 2026 – it’s likely to get louder and bolder. But not all communication uses words. Actions and behaviours communicate just as clearly.

This is about the increasingly blurry lines of the work transaction – what an employer “gets” from an employee in return for the pay they offer. In theory, this should be simple. Employment contracts, policies and working hours exist to make it clear. In reality, it’s becoming harder to pin down.

Pre-pandemic, in most organisations, being on the premises implied you were working (rest breaks aside). Leaders could see who was “working harder” – the first-in, last-out brigade. Presenteeism aside, hybrid working has blurred those lines. Some leaders felt productivity took a hit with working from home and mandated a return to the office to re-establish clearer boundaries. Others recognised they were “up on the deal” – removing long commutes and enabling flexibility led to more discretionary effort, not less.

Raised in an uncertain world of permanent crisis, Gen Z are strong boundary protectors. Look at social media conversations around #ActYourWage and #BareMinimumMonday and you’ll see their clarity on the work transaction. Over-delivering today for the promise of career progression tomorrow isn’t their priority. Being paid fairly for the work they do is.

Organisations may feel backed into a corner, with limited scope for pay increases or bonuses. But this conversation isn’t going away. In fact, if organisations don’t lead it, they will lose control of it.

This is no longer just about productivity or pay. It’s about clearly defining the modern work transaction: what’s expected, what’s optional, where flexibility ends and additional responsibility begins, and when “going the extra mile” quietly becomes a role change that should be recognised and paid for. At its heart, this is culture.

Managers sit at the sharp end of this, yet they’re often left to interpret the rules themselves. That creates inconsistency, resentment and risk. Coaching managers on what’s acceptable, what’s sustainable and how to have honest conversations about boundaries and workload isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s critical to maintaining a healthy, happy workforce.

The killer takeaway: If you don’t define the deal, your workforce will.

2. Workforce whiplash

The second conversation likely to dominate workplaces is change. Change itself isn’t new, it’s always been part of working life. The arrival of computers in the late 1970s wasn’t just about new technology; it dismantled entire typing pools, reshaped administrative work and fundamentally shifted workplace communication. It took years to retrain people, redefine roles and rebalance expectations.

Today, we’re facing a similar scale of disruption – and we won’t win overnight. Yet the race is on. Many organisations feel intense pressure to adopt and embed AI faster than competitors simply to survive. That urgency is leading to billions being poured into technology projects before they’re ready. Success or failure still hinges largely on the people leading, driving and delivering them.

“Gartner has warned that a large share of AI projects will be scrapped post proof-of-concept, estimating that around 40% of agentic AI initiatives could be cancelled before delivering results. Meanwhile, an MIT study found that up to 95% of generative AI pilots are failing to deliver measurable business value. Forbes reports that despite $30–$40bn invested in generative AI in 2025, most corporate AI efforts aren’t moving the needle.”

While change isn’t new, its volume, complexity and speed are – and that’s what the workforce is reacting to. Exhausted by relentless initiatives and transformation programmes, change fatigue has set in. What leaders sometimes label as resistance is often saturation.

From pandemics to cyber-attacks to the rapid arrival of AI, disruptions feel constant and unpredictable. There’s little time to recover before the next shock hits, creating real whiplash.

The answer isn’t to try to slow change, but to acknowledge its human impact. Organisations can mandate change, but they can’t mandate adoption or commitment. Making change stick requires clear, consistent narratives and compelling stories that build trust and rhythm.

The killer takeaway: Change moves at human speed.

3. The commercial imperative of DEI

Another conversation quietly gathering momentum into 2026 is the quiet return of DEI. After years of growing traction, progress stalled for many organisations in 2025. High-profile roll-back rhetoric – from Trump’s calls to dismantle DEI to Musk’s “DEI must DIE” comments – created confusion about its role.

But as headlines moved on, a more grounded recognition emerged. What needed to be rolled back wasn’t inclusion itself, but performative tokenism. Bias, exclusion and discrimination are bad for business – damaging culture and constraining growth.

The beauty industry faced backlash for foundation ranges that failed to reflect real skin tones. Tech platforms like LinkedIn were challenged for amplifying male voices over female ones, driving some creators towards competitors like Substack. Meanwhile, organisations such as the Diversity Standards Collective have helped major consumer brands ensure advertising lands authentically – after missteps from brands like Heinz, Nivea and Dove showed the cost of getting it wrong.

What was always true is becoming more explicit: inclusive cultures think and innovate more broadly. That leads to better products, stronger brands, improved customer experiences and more sustainable growth.

As we head into 2026, acronyms matter less. What does matter is intent, consistent investment and meaningful action.

The killer takeaway: Inclusion is an often untapped growth strategy.

4. The cost of futility

At a time of constant disruption, one of the quietest workplace crises isn’t about pay or AI – it’s futility.

When work feels endless, transactional and disconnected, it drains energy, motivation and engagement. This came through clearly in engagement data throughout the year.

One statistic in particular should give organisations pause: just 18% of workers say their role aligns with a purpose they personally believe in. That’s the cost of futility. By contrast, employees who believe their work contributes to something meaningful are 5.6 times more likely to be engaged (Gallup).

When people feel they’re working harder simply to grow company profit, motivation suffers. But when they can connect daily work to genuine impact they believe in, pride and commitment grow.

Organisations need to invest more effort in bringing purpose to life – connecting the big picture to everyday tasks and telling better stories about the impact they’re making. Purpose isn’t reserved for businesses like B Corps. Every organisation needs to be clear why it exists and the difference it makes.

The killer takeaway: Just like pay, purpose is a critical motivator.

5. Closing the culture atrophy

Culture hasn’t disappeared over the last few years, but in many organisations it has quietly atrophied – it has wasted away, losing its vigour.

Gartner used this exact term when urging CHROs to prioritise closing culture gaps. Whether deliberate or not, many organisations shifted focus from people to technology. Yet success with technology still depends on human leadership, judgement and adoption. Running a human workforce with a machine mindset has real limitations.

What worked for creating lean manufacturing processes doesn’t translate to today’s skills landscape, where innovation, creativity and independent thinking are critical.

Progress-driven cultures must feel safe – allowing people to speak up, experiment and fail without fear of career-limiting consequences. Workforces are human systems, and cultures need to reflect that.

Closing the gap starts with being honest about culture reality – how they shape up against the theory of culture written in employee handbooks and EVPs. That requires genuinely listening to employees, and sometimes bringing in external perspective, before doubling down on change.

The killer takeaway: When everyone has access to technology, humans are the advantage.

6. Multi-generational: power and conflict

No, it’s not a bestselling novel, though it could be. This conversation centres on five generations working side by side.

From Gen Z entering the workforce to Baby Boomers staying on longer, today’s organisations carry an unprecedented mix of expectations, communication styles and values. In theory, a strength. In practice, often a source of friction.

Different generations hold different assumptions about commitment, professionalism, boundaries, pace and authority. Layered on top are unhelpful stereotypes that deepen divides.

Left unchecked, this creates misunderstanding, friction and miscommunication. On the other hand, when we lead proactive and positive conversations, it becomes a powerful source of learning. Experience and deep expertise meets fresh perspectives, improving decision-making, digital fluency and workplace dynamics.

The killer takeaway: Generational diversity is a powerful engine for growth.

7. From feedback to dialogue

Employee voice isn’t a new idea, but expectations around it have changed. For years, organisations relied on annual surveys, pulse checks and suggestion schemes. Implicitly, the message was: you can speak up, but we’ll listen and act on our terms.

That approach no longer works. Employees expect to feel safe speaking up consistently, and to be heard by leaders in real time. This is driven both by younger generations and by wider societal expectations around transparency and the chance to influence in others parts of our lives.

Recent survey results have been uncomfortable for many organisations: declining trust in leadership, demands for clearer direction and expectations for stronger stances on big topics like climate, wellbeing and social issues. This isn’t the same feedback as a few years ago.

Leaders now need to invest not just in listening, but in responding – acting where possible and openly acknowledging where they can’t. But most importantly, having honest conversations.

The killer takeaway: Listening to employees is a trust-building strategy.

8. Reimagining flexibility

The return-to-office debate has become exhausting for everyone. As we look ahead, it’s time to accept that the new norm is more flexible than pre-pandemic, with working patterns designed around human needs.

Organisations that want to make flexibility work must lead the conversation – creating a cadence that supports motivation and productivity while ensuring inclusion and fairness.

From an employee perspective, the direction is clear. Groups such as Pregnant Then Screwed, Flex Appeal and Workstyle are gaining momentum in pushing for stronger flexible working rights because it’s what employees are demanding.

The opportunity here lies in collaboration. From creating shift-swap options to altering shift timings and empowering manager-led flexibility within clear guardrails, this goes beyond policies and into trust-building. The critical success factor is dialogue – co-creating solutions rather than imposing them in isolation.

The killer takeaway: Flexibility rewards organisations that dial down control and dial up trust.

9. Reframing performance

Wellbeing has often been treated as a standalone conversation – awareness days, workshops and specific issues like stress or menopause. All are important. But the bigger question is often avoided: how does the organisation enable people to perform at their best? In the year ahead, organisations need to look beyond webinars and workshops and instead at how they are genuinely improving workplace performance.

High performance and wellbeing aren’t in tension, they’re connected. People do their best work when they have energy, clarity and psychological safety. When they feel trusted, not monitored. Enabled, not undermined. Stretched, not overloaded. Valued, not forgotten.

Wellbeing is a culture conversation with a performance outcome. Organisations need to rethink how they’re talking about wellbeing – recognising their responsibility to create environments where people can deliver their best work, while employees focus on bringing their best selves to work.

The killer takeaway: Wellbeing isn’t a benefit. It’s a performance driver.

10. The emotional elephant in the room

Leadership is being reshaped, and it’s time to talk seriously about human leadership.

We’ve heard the language: leaders need to be more empathetic, authentic, vulnerable. But the reality is harder. Since the pandemic, uncertainty has become the default. Topics like AI and climate are too complex for any leader to have all the answers.

Every initiative and transformation hides an emotional iceberg that leaders can’t ignore – fear, anxiety, fatigue, cynicism and frustration. These emotions don’t stay outside work. They come to work with employees.

The real conversation is how we give leaders permission to handle this complexity without pretending they have all the answers.

The killer takeaway: Human leadership is about guidance, not answers.

You don’t choose the conversations – but you can choose to lead them

The question for organisations isn’t which of these conversations to have. They’re all happening, everywhere.

The real question is this: which ones are you brave enough to lead?

If you want to start having these conversations or lead them with confidence rather than react to them, we’re here to support you.

Because these conversations are happening anyway. The only choice is whether you’re part of them.