What Does Onboarding and Training Look Like After Being Acquired by Evergreen

At Evergreen we are constantly on the lookout for outstanding businesses to add to our growing portfolio, so we wanted to go in-depth and discuss what happens once a business has been acquired.

We pride ourselves on allowing businesses to maintain their identity and continue to operate independently after an acquisition. So, everything within our onboarding and training process is centered around how best a business can continue its normal day-to-day while also utilizing its new Evergreen resources.

Because of this philosophy you may be wondering, ‘What does onboarding look like after a company joins the Evergreen team?’

That is exactly what we are going to be answering today. The process of getting onboarded to continue operating independently under the Evergreen umbrella is a smooth and simple process that can be broken down into three key sectors: admin, financial and strategy.

Admin

Evergreen champions a people first strategy and to uphold this core value, Evergreen has many admin resources and support systems for businesses to utilize to make sure that they thrive both on the business level and the personal level.  

·        Compliance tasks: Regarding insurance policies or cybersecurity practices, Evergreen is diligent to ensure that all acquired businesses are compliant with Evergreen's controls and reporting requirements.

·        Monthly Board Calls: After acquisition, Evergreen’s CEOs have monthly board calls with a group CEO, who oversees a group of peer companies and is accountable for group performance. Board calls are an opportunity to get an additional perspective on the challenges facing an acquired business.

·        Employee Engagement Surveys: As part of our people first operating rhythm, we ask all of our companies to regularly survey their employees to gauge employee satisfaction. This is the metric that guides our vision of being the best home for talent.

 Financial

A business can’t achieve its full potential without clear financial visibility. With Evergreen, we ensure that everything pertaining to a business’s finances runs smoothly as we integrate them into Evergreen’s processes and assist in creating budgets that will help guide these businesses to success for years to come.

·        Accounting Standards: A major component of our onboarding process is transitioning to Evergreen's accounting standards, systems, and procedures. This includes things like getting onboarded to Evergreen’s ERP system, payroll allocation, GAAP compliance review, and sales tax and EIN review processes. Our finance and accounting teams are experts on these topics and ready to support new companies joining Evergreen, having done this work for over 80 acquisitions.

·        Budgeting: We partner with our companies on putting together a budget for the year, which serves as an operating plan for our CEOs and guides resource allocation decisions.

·        Financial Reporting: We report our monthly financial results to our capital providers, using a standard reporting package. During onboarding, we work with our companies to transition their financials to this new reporting template, which is designed to provide a snapshot of company performance and provide comparisons to previous years and budgets.

 Strategy

We empower our leaders and teammates to take ownership of their domain, but we still work together with our newly acquired companies to put together a business strategy that will best prepare the business for success as we go forward in forging this partnership.

·        Alignment on strategic priorities: We follow-through on discussion topics raised during the diligence process, including investments in talent, growth, and adding more infrastructure to the business.

·        Communications Plan: We are happy to provide support on communicating the change in ownership with employees and other stakeholders as needed. We often join for an employee town hall to introduce members of the Evergreen team and share more about how our philosophy behind ownership is different, especially around decentralization and empowerment.

After all of this has been said and done, congratulations! You have officially been onboarded and are a part of the Evergreen family.

We view each acquisition as a shared opportunity, not just a financial transaction. That is why we have been able to acquire over 80 businesses and retain all of them. This mentality is what has shaped our onboarding processes. We believe that by connecting teams with the right resources and support, everyone can learn and grow together. And at Evergreen we only win when our companies grow for the long term.

If your business is looking for a permanent home, contact us today!