[Yeonlin Leonard Lee]

Is it necessary to have shared service set up after merger? In my previous company after the merger, same department staffs moved to sit together and no headcount is reduced, they are doing the same tasks as before and no economies of scale/cost savings are seen at all. Accounting department for example is already pretty much short of staffs before merger, but due to the direction of management of forming shared service center they are moved together but doing the same thing, it doesn’t seem to be a real shared service and also wonder if there is really a need for it

[Erin]

Hi Yeonlin, this is a great question and one I have been wondering myself. In my current company, we were purchased by a corporate entity a year ago. We are currently in the process of completing integration with 3 of the other corporate subsidiaries as 1 new subsidiary under the corporate umbrella. Many of our administrative staff have been moved over to the corporate shared services. which has been somewhat helpful (they have some insight into the ins and outs of corporate shared services and happenings in general) but it has not been without its challenges (visibility and communication on their roles, responsibilities, even things like email addresses changing) have not been incredibly clear. I think overall, employees seeing that the acquirer is making an effort to save jobs is a big enough benefit in favor of shared services. I think in your situation, synergies should continue to be explored within shared services to continue integrating as much as possible.

[Author]

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