How to Prepare Your Post-Merger Checklist (Example Included)

If you are going through a merger and acquisition (M&A), the post-merger integration process can be complicated and stressful. That’s why it’s essential to have a proper post-merger integration plan to ensure you have all of your bases covered every step of the way. One of the most important parts of this integration plan is your post-merger checklist. In this article, we will review an example post-merger checklist and discuss the important elements you need to include in your own version for your next M&A event.

A post-merger integration checklist is an outline of all the essential steps you will need to smoothly and successfully complete the integration process of merging two organizations into one. This should be created in advance to make sure you are properly prepared and won’t miss anything important in the delicate integration process.

Let’s start with a sample post-merger checklist to give you an idea of what your post-merger integration plan template should include. Below is an example post-merger integration checklist that you can copy and customize for your own organization.

COPYABLE EXAMPLE:

[Organization Name]

Post-Merger Integration Checklist

Effective: [Date]

I. Pre-Merger Planning

• Establish an integration management office with representatives from both companies to oversee the entire integration process.
• Determine integration goals and priorities, including which systems and processes to be integrated first and over the next 3-12 months.
• Create joint integration roadmaps outlining all activities, milestones, and deadlines required to fully integrate each functional workstream (e.g., HR, legal, finance, IT, marketing).
• HR: Assess full staff lists, org structures, cultures, policies, and payroll processes at both companies and develop a comprehensive plan to integrate all peoples and policies.
• Legal: Assess and design an interim integrated legal structure, including all regulatory obligations, compliance, and impact on customer and vendor contracts.
• Finance: Finalize merger transaction details, including closing schedules and statements, reorganization of capital, and interim financial processes.
• IT: Design a plan for merging both companies’ technology stacks without compromising support or security.
• Marketing: Prepare external communications to share with customers, partners, regulators, and the press.
• Outline the integration communication plan to share regular updates with employees, board members, and other internal stakeholders to communicate progress, address questions, and reinforce the goals and benefits of the integration.

II. Day 1 Post-Merger Integration

• Upon closing the deal, communicate the merger integration vision, rationale, key priorities, benefits, and high-level timeline to all employees. 
• Marketing: Distribute initial external messaging, such as press releases and customer announcements.
• HR: Work with key personnel to ensure a smooth exchange of personnel data and HR systems.
• IT: Ensure smooth transition of key access data for all technology and IT systems, and continued access to all existing tools and support services.
• Ensure continuity of daily business functions as the post-merger integration begins, including ongoing communications to reiterate integration priorities and address any issues that arise.

III. First 30 to 90 Days Post-Merger

• Track and support the integration process through the integration management office with minimal disruptions across all functional workstreams.
• Legal: Ensure support for implementing any necessary legal changes (e.g., new compliance policies, contract templates).
• Finance: Ensure a smooth financial integration with no disruption to cash cycles, interim reporting, and updated budgets and forecasts for the coming periods.
• Marketing & Sales: Ensure a smooth integration of both companies’ customer lists, product offerings and pricing, brand and marketing materials, and ongoing client communications as needed.
• Operations: Ensure a smooth integration of all inventory systems and processes, supply chain streamlining, vendor contracts, and research and development projects.
• IT: Ensure all staff have access to the systems, tools, and support they need, and essential systems continue to work frictionlessly. Conduct security audits of the newly integrated IT systems and address any gaps.
• HR: Onboard all staff onto new merged HR systems and ensure a frictionless payroll integration with no disruption to employee compensation or benefits.
• HR: Design a new integrated organizational chart and ensure it is clearly communicated to all internal staff and stakeholders. 
• HR: Develop new company policies and processes (e.g., hiring, compensation and benefits, vacation and leave, termination).
• HR: Facilitate a smooth cultural integration with the help of initiatives (e.g., cross-functional teams, social events, diversity training).
• HR: Monitor key people metrics such as job performance, employee satisfaction, and attrition. Determine any additional hiring needs or redundancies that require workforce reductions, and conduct any necessary downsizing events.
• Continue post-merger communication with staff at a regular cadence to address concerns, including executive leadership messaging on strategy, priorities, expectations, and goals for the new merged company.
• Regularly survey employees on concerns, priorities, and satisfaction levels to monitor morale and guide key personnel decisions and retention strategies.

IV. Longer-Term Post-Merger

• Ensure continued internal communication from leadership about the shared vision, mission, and results of the merger.
• Continue to assess all functional workstreams to monitor risks and identify areas for improvement, and take any corrective actions in a timely manner.
• Ensure all staff are fully informed and trained on any additional systems or programs, and encourage long-term sharing of knowledge and best practices.

*This copyable example is provided for illustrative purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice. Please seek legal counsel when crafting your own post-merger checklist.

Feel free to customize this post-merger integration checklist pdf as you craft your own post-merger integration plan. Of course, remember to review all of your M&A plans and documents with your legal team before releasing internally to ensure that you comply with all applicable laws.

If you’re preparing for a merger or acquisition and are unsure how to get started, you can click below to download our complete mergers and acquisitions guide for HR professionals and learn how to successfully navigate the M&A process from start to finish.

Let’s break down this post-merger integration checklist PDF template into its key components and what you’ll need to include as you craft your own post-merger checklist. The best way to do this is to break it down into sections based on the key phases of the M&A timeline.

The first part of the post-merger checklist is all about the pre-merger phase, when planning begins in preparation for the integration. The most crucial task in this phase is establishing the integration management office with representatives from both companies to conduct due diligence, determine the integration goals and priorities, and oversee the entire process. This merger integration team is responsible for creating joint roadmaps outlining all activities, milestones, and deadlines required to fully integrate each functional workstream, including HR, legal, finance, operations, marketing, sales, and IT.

On the HR side, this means assessing the full staff lists, organizational structures, cultures, policies (e.g., compensation, benefits, hiring, termination), and payroll processes at both companies, as well as any union contracts or labor relations. You will want to meet with the leaders in both organizations to understand their goals and what needs to be done. Then you can develop a comprehensive plan to integrate HR, payroll, benefits administration, and other people policies, as well as identify any potential conflicts with integrating the two company cultures.

This also means assisting other departments in formulating their integration plans. For example, work with Legal to assess the current legal structure and design an interim integrated structure, including all regulatory obligations required for the integration, and its impact on customer and vendor contracts. You should also review all active contracts, as well as regulations that differ between the two companies (e.g., privacy laws, licensing requirements) to ensure compliance throughout the integration.

Assist Finance with finalizing the merger transaction details, including closing schedules and financial statements, reorganization of capital, and interim processes for billing and collections. You should also work with IT to design a plan for frictionless integration of both companies’ technology stacks without compromising support or security.

This will culminate in the creation of an integration communication plan—such as emails, team meetings, and/or preparations for a joint town hall—to share important updates with employees, board members, and other internal stakeholders and communicate progress throughout the integration process, as well as address questions and reinforce the goals and benefits of the merger. At the same time, you should also work with Marketing to prepare external messaging that can be shared with customers, partners, regulators, and the press.

On day one post-merger, after the deal is closed, you and the rest of the integration management office will have a new set of tasks to complete. The first important step is to send out your prepared internal communications to all employees about the integration decision, vision, key priorities, and benefits, along with a high-level timeline of what they can expect in the coming days and weeks.

Once you’ve done this, you can also distribute your external messaging, such as press releases and client announcement letters. This is also a good time to hold an employee town hall for both companies to share these announcements, distribute welcome materials, and address any initial questions in person.

In this phase, you will also want to meet with any other key staff in all functional workstreams who’ve not yet been involved in the integration process to ensure a smooth exchange. This includes personnel data and systems such as HRIS and payroll, as well as key IT systems, data, and tech support services.

The ultimate goal during this phase is to ensure continuity of daily business functions as the post-merger integration begins and address any issues that arise. In particular, you will want to clearly communicate the integration priorities, goals, and desired company culture frequently and consistently.

The next one to three months is also a crucial time to ensure the post-merger integration continues smoothly and successfully with minimal disruptions. So you and the integration management office need to continue tracking and supporting the transition across all functional workstreams.

This includes implementing any necessary Legal changes, such as new compliance policies or contract templates. Also oversee a smooth Finance integration with no disruption to cash cycles, interim reporting, and updated budget and financial forecasts for the coming periods. Marketing and Sales will be tasked with seamlessly integrating both companies’ customer lists, product offerings and pricing, brand and marketing materials, and ongoing client communications to minimize disruption to existing revenue streams and service levels.

Operations will need to merge all inventory systems and processes, supply chain, and vendor contracts, as well as any research and development projects planned or underway. You will want to work with IT to ensure that all staff have access to the systems, tools, and support they’ll need in the new, post-merger organization, and that essential systems (e.g., email, data sharing and storage, video conferencing, CRM, network connectivity) continue to work frictionlessly. This includes conducting security audits of the newly integrated IT systems, and implementing necessary upgrades to fix any technology gaps.

In terms of HR and people workstreams, your checklist tasks will involve onboarding all staff with welcome materials—such as new-hire packets and benefits overviews—and ensuring a smooth payroll integration with no disruption to employee compensation or benefits. This is also the time to finalize and communicate the new, integrated org chart—with hierarchy, reporting structure, roles, and responsibilities—to keep the business lean and ensure a clear chain of command. This should be accompanied by finalized new company HR policies and processes, including hiring, compensation and benefits, vacation and leave, and termination policy. Lastly, this all hinges on a smooth integration of both company cultures with the help of initiatives such as cross-functional teams, social events, and diversity training. 

This is all meant to ensure that those joining your newly integrated teams will be ready and able to perform their jobs without any friction. That includes monitoring key people metrics such as job performance, employee satisfaction, and attrition, as well as determining any additional staffing needs or any redundancies that might require workforce reductions. You may then need to conduct a downsizing event or manage any turnover, including providing severance packages and outplacement support to preserve company brand and morale.

Of course, throughout this whole phase should be ongoing post-merger communications with staff (e.g., regular town halls, newsletters, one-on-ones), including messaging from the executive leadership team on strategy, priorities, expectations, and goals for the newly merged organization. This should coincide with regular employee surveys to monitor morale and guide personnel retention strategies. The goal here is to retain top talent from both sides while removing any duplication as your post-merger integration progresses.

Over the longer-term, it remains important to manage and monitor your post-merger integration progress. Once again, this means ensuring continued internal communications from leadership about the shared vision, mission, and strategic rationale of the merger, and how the results are measuring up with those aligned goals.

There will also be a few lingering tasks with each functional workstream to continue implementing and assessing. This will help you identify areas of duplication or inefficiency, and then take timely corrective actions to save costs, improve performance, or increase revenue. In addition, there may be new systems or programs (e.g., career development, mentoring, cross-training, job rotations) that you’ll need to ensure all staff are fully informed and trained on. The ultimate goal here is to encourage ongoing sharing of knowledge and best practices to further integrate and strengthen groups in all functions and levels of the organization, and ensure the long-term success of the merger.

It is essential to use a post-merger integration checklist to keep yourself on track throughout the post-merger integration process, from the pre-merger preparation phase, on day one of the integration, through the crucial first 30 to 90 days, and ongoing in the longer-term. Each of these phases entails several key steps that you will need to include on your post-merger checklist to ensure a smooth integration.

The example post-merger integration checklist shared above is a good starting point, but you will want to make sure you customize it to fit your M&A deal specifics and post-merger needs to facilitate a smooth integration of all key personnel, workstreams, systems, and policies from both merging companies into one cohesive organization and get your new, integrated organization working at full capacity in no time.

At Careerminds, we believe that you can never be too prepared for your next merger or acquisition, especially one that might result in workforce reductions. Our arsenal of resources, templates, guides, and industry-leading outplacement services can help you navigate the delicate post-merger integration or reduction process. Click below to speak with one of our experts and see if we are the right partner for your organization.

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Rebecca Ahn

Rebecca is a writer, editor, and business consultant with over 10 years of experience launching, managing, and coaching small to midsize companies on their business, marketing, and HR operations. She is a passionate people advocate who believes in building strong people, teams, and companies with empowering culture, content, and communication that facilitates meaningful results at every level and touchpoint. In her spare time, Rebecca is an avid traveler and nomad who also enjoys writing about travel safety and savvy. Learn more on her LinkedIn page.