Introduction On May 2, 2011, Southwest Airlines announced that they purchased AirTran. This merge helped Southwest Airlines by moving them into 27 new cities, including Atlanta one of the busiest airports in the country (Bomkam, 2010). When two businesses like Southwest and AirTran merge there are many human resources challenges that will be faced. These challenges include cross border mergers, total rewards, and duplicate employees that may cause layoffs. Prior to a merge of two companies a SWOT analysis needs to occur as well as aligning the HR function of the two businesses. Human resource departments have an important role before, during and after the merger (Zatz, 2011).
SWOT Analysis Mergers can be beneficial for companies or disastrous.…show more content… Many of the problems and morale issues could be prevents by management. Clear communication and transparency in all aspects of the merger will prevent stress and confusion of employees. Management can also speak positively about the merger and what the benefits will be for the current employees. Two companies that merge could also have different cultures. Employees may have a difficult time with adjusting to cultures change. Educating employees on the modifications of the culture and the benefits can help to instill positive attitudes. The role of HR in the integration stage is to ensure that the culture of the merger is strong. (Vazorani,…show more content… Analytics is the process of identifying risks, considerations, options, opportunities and alternatives. Data needs to be converted to analytics to validate HR strategies (Ntreh, 2014). Human Resources can use metrics from the beginning to the very end of a merger. The use of metrics also will increase the likelihood of a successful merger. In the first phase metrics can assist in finding potential company to merge with. By using metrics a company can identify other businesses that share similar goals and values. Once a potential business is identified metrics can pinpoint the risks of a merge. The findings form the metrics can indicate, what to watch for and possibly research further. If the two businesses have differences, these may be able to be overcome by planning and setting goals. In the integration phase, metrics is even more important. Strategic HR metrics can reflect the performance of the company before and after the merger. This will help in identifying if the merger was beneficial or not. The metrics can monitor sales, salary and profits. Some other valuable management HR metrics include functional cost per full time employee. The use of HR metrics will help to identify and capture the worth of the transaction (Kummer,
