How do you onboard employees during a pandemic?

Digesting an acquisition during the best of times is a challenge. But during a pandemic, there’s an extra layer of complexity to an already tricky process. 

Diligent has completed three acquisitions this year, said president and COO Lisa Edwards during a Fortune Most Powerful Women virtual panel discussion on September 30. At the session, top executives talked about what the future of work will look like post-COVID and the implications for workplace culture.

Diligent’s software allows board members to analyze their company’s metrics on one dashboard. Leading with empathy and the use of technology is important to get everyone on the same page in an acquisition process, Edwards said.

“Currently, there’s a radical fast forward in digital capabilities and digital transformation,” she said. “We did a complete rethinking of our employee onboarding.” The company now has a five-day onboarding process for all new employees globally; it’s part live video and part recorded, she said. Diligent started its revamped onboarding process prior to acquiring Galvanize, a governance, risk, and compliance company in Vancouver, she said. The acquisition was completed in April. Diligent has also acquired Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc., an ethics and compliance software company, and Accuvio, an ESG software company.  

Employees who became part of the company through acquisitions participated in the new onboarding, Edwards explained. Also, in the works is “a massive re-onboarding for the entire company,” all 1,800 employees, she said. This will provide alignment on values, the ROI for customers, as well as team-building activities, Edwards said. 

“We acquired four companies this year,” said Mala Singh, chief people officer at Electronic Arts, a video game company that trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker EA. “And who does that in a pandemic, right?” Singh quipped. “You can’t even meet these people that you’re acquiring. Sometimes, I’m just stunned at what we’ve been able to do during this time.”

She continued, “In terms of integrating these new companies, our employee resource groups have been really tremendous partners in this. The groups have been terrific in bringing together underrepresented talent in these new companies and helping them understand and feel a sense of connection to communities.” There’s also a “keys to the cupboard strategy,” she said. “We open up the cupboard and say, whatever you want that will help you in your company be more effective and realize the potential of your products, you can have it.”

Amid a war for talent, acquisitions do provide access to new pools of employees, Singh said. But “our strategy for a while has been de-concentration on the West Coast of North America,” she explained. “It’s been a ridiculously competitive talent market. And we have been extending ourselves into newer geographies. The pandemic has really opened the aperture on where talent can be based.” Electronic Arts previously conducted studies to locate “greenfield” and expansion opportunities, Singh said. “In North America, we’re loving Toronto, Atlanta, Chicago, areas where we have not historically had major tech markets,” she said. 

See you tomorrow.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

A new report released by FlexJobs, a job search website, discusses the experiences of working mothers during the pandemic. Respondents noted the biggest mistakes by companies include lack of understanding about work-life conflicts causing stress during quarantine (34%) and poor communication by leadership (33%). And, amid a war for talent, 40% of respondents said they're actively looking for a new job because they want to work remotely. Meanwhile, 49% said they know at least one person who has already quit or plans to because they're being required to return to the office. About 84% of respondents said a low salary would keep them from applying for a job or would make them want to quit. The data is based on a survey of more than 700 working mothers in the U.S. between July and August 2021.

Going deeper

In late September, California became the first state to implement a law, taking effect in the new year, regarding working conditions for warehouse employees at major companies like Amazon. The purpose of the legislation is to address the impact of production quotas on employee health. In a new interview with Wharton Business Daily, Lindsey Cameron, a Wharton management professor, said she thinks other states will consider similar legislation. “When you have an algorithm as a boss, it’s a hard, and at times even unforgiving, supervisor,” Cameron said. “That’s what’s really exciting about this new legislation [in California] because it can put some stopgaps around that.”

Leaderboard

Dan Durn was named EVP and CFO at Adobe, effective October 18. Durn will assume the CFO role from John Murphy, who is retiring. Durn joins Adobe from Applied Materials, where he has been CFO since 2017. Durn was previously EVP and CFO at NXP Semiconductors N.V. following its merger with Freescale Semiconductor. He was previously CFO and EVP of finance and administration at GlobalFoundries, and served as managing director, head of mergers and acquisitions and strategy at Mubadala Technology Fund. Durn also served as VP of mergers and acquisitions in the technology practice at Goldman Sachs & Company.

Blake Jorgensen, COO and CFO at Electronic Arts (EA), will depart the company next summer, EA announced on September 30. The internal and external search for a new CFO will begin immediately, and Blake will assist with onboarding when a new CFO is appointed. Laura Miele will become the COO.

Overheard

"We need a coalition that ushers in a new era."

—Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing on Germany needing "courageous structural reforms" to bolster its economic competitiveness, as reported by Fortune.