Key takeaways
- Delivered enterprise-wide change management in a Canadian financial institution across 25+ initiatives, enabling the integration to be completed within the one-year target timeline
- Helped unify two organizations into one operating model, with aligned systems, policies, processes, and ways of working
- Executed significant change while maintaining business continuity, minimizing disruption, and supporting positive employee adoption throughout the integration
The situation
A Canadian financial institution was undertaking a large-scale post-merger integration with another major Canadian financial services organization, with the goal of fully integrating and unifying operations within the year. This was a complex enterprise-wide transformation affecting nearly every part of the business, including organizational structure, ways of working, culture, digital tools, corporate systems (e.g. HRIS, ERP), corporate processes (e.g. payroll, benefits, compensation and rewards), HR policies, and employee experience. The organization needed to unify two distinct cultures and operating models while keeping employees informed, aligned, and productive throughout a fast-moving integration timeline.
This challenge carried significant risk. Without a structured approach to change, the client faced the potential for employee confusion, inconsistent adoption of new processes and systems, reduced engagement, disruption to day-to-day operations, and delays in achieving integration milestones. To meet its goals, the financial institution engaged Burnie Group to support the end-to-end integration over 11 months, providing IMO (Integration Management Office) leadership and support paired with enterprise-wide change management to help the organization successfully transition to a unified and integrated future state.
The solution and approach
Burnie Group supported the full change lifecycle, from leadership alignment and culture assessment through to execution and reinforcement. At the outset, we conducted a culture survey with key leaders across both legacy organizations to better understand the defining characteristics, strengths, and differences in each organization’s existing culture. These insights helped inform leadership alignment discussions and shape the target culture for the combined organization. Throughout the engagement, we provided hands-on change support across HR, technology, and enterprise initiatives, including HR policy unification, HRIS implementation, tenant migration, and benefits and retirement plan alignment. Our team also worked directly with each workstream to identify stakeholder impacts, embed change management into delivery plans, and ensure communications, training, coaching, and readiness activities were built into each initiative from the outset.
A key differentiator in our approach was the degree of coordination, customization, and visibility we brought across the integration. We facilitated multiple leadership alignment workshops to help leaders interpret employee survey results, align on a target culture, define role-model behaviours, and identify actions to reinforce the organization’s new values and ways of working. We also partnered closely with business owners to tailor communications and training to impacted audiences, draft and approve change materials, and monitor progress through employee sentiment surveys conducted throughout the integration. Using Burnie Group’s proprietary “Change Management Planning” approach, we maintained a consolidated view of change activity across workstreams, helping the organization understand cumulative impacts, coordinate interventions, and ensure change considerations were embedded into every major initiative.
The results
Over the course of the engagement, Burnie Group supported the successful execution of more than 25 change initiatives, helping the organization complete its integration within the targeted timeline while minimizing disruption to business-as-usual operations. Employees were enabled to operate as one organization through a unified digital environment, shared collaboration tools, aligned pay practices, consistent people data, and clear guidance on new processes and expectations. Leadership aligned around a shared future direction, values, and culture, creating a strong foundation for sustained adoption and performance post-integration. The result was a more efficient and aligned organization, operating on a unified technology and people platform, with positive employee sentiment regarding integration progress, communication, and pace, maintained throughout the transformation.