Summary
- The article analyses the merger between two firms in Canada that operate in different sectors
- Morneau Shepell is an HR consulting firm. It also offers outsourcing services to other firms (Gibson Para. 2)
- The company provides assistance programs for employees and families as well as pension plans and retirement plans for employees
- Collage Pediatric Therapy is a private firm that specializes in pediatric care
- Morneau’s vice president, Stephen Liptrap, believes that this acquisition will allow Morneau Shepell expand its market in Canada to include children’s services
- The acquisition is expected to absorb some employees from Collage Pediatric Therapy
- Morneau has about 3,000 employees in various offices spread across Canada
Human Resource Function
In this acquisition, the employees of Collage Pediatric Therapy will be absorbed into Morneau Shepell. Therefore, the post-merger integration of employees will affect employees of Collage. These employees can be an asset or a cost to Morneau depending on the merger agreement.
Morneau’s HR manager has to scrutinize the policies and practices in Collage in order to facilitate a smooth transition of employees into Morneau’s human resources. He has to harmonize the benefits, leaves, vacations, compensations, and payroll of the new employees to match those of Morneau. The news item in this article relates to labor relations problems that are consistent with acquisitions.
Labor relations will be affected by new acquisition; new HR responsibilities including arbitration and mediation are likely to emerge. The restructuring and integration of Collage employees into Morneau is an important HR function. HR managers will ensure that all issues concerning labor relations are consistent with labor laws regarding acquisitions.
Thus, this article emphasizes on the ethical responsibilities of organizations, which are related to managerial ethics in employee relations. In this particular acquisition, the unpaid interns attached at Collage Pediatric Therapy will be most affected by the acquisition. The restructuring following acquisition will affect various human resource functions including recruitment and training of interns at Collage.
HR students and professionals would be interested in this news item because ‘unpaid interns’ are usually not considered employees of the company. Thus, following the acquisition, disputes concerning interns would be more difficult to handle than the regular employee-employer disputes.
In addition, assigning roles and responsibilities to the interns in the new company would be a challenge for HR managers. One important question is; what is the best way to deal with employee issues that arise from acquisitions with a point in case being the unpaid interns attached at Collage Pediatric Therapy.
Works Cited
Gibson, Nathan. “Morneau Shepell acquires Collage Pediatric Therapy.” CNW 3 Sept. 2013. Newswire.ca. Web.