Perkbox: Company All-Hands
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Make 450 people from two merged businesses feel like one company, the first time they were ever in a room together.
That was the brief, weeks after two of the UK's leading employee benefits businesses became one.
A merger does not combine two workforces. It puts them in one room still carrying old loyalties, old cultures and old reasons to be cautious about the people on the other side. The brief was to remove the "us and them" dynamic, introduce the newly unified business to employees and partner organisations, and end the day as a genuine celebration. None of that lands from a stage in five minutes.
The day also had to do more than one job. Leadership needed to communicate the direction of the merged business. Partner organisations needed their own visible moment. The evening had to move from conference to celebration without losing the energy built earlier. And with attendees travelling from across the UK and internationally, any operational friction would work against the atmosphere the day was trying to create.
We did not start with a programme. We started with the problem: how do you get two cultures to stop being two cultures in a single day.
That set the venue first. We recommended the Atrium Hotel at Heathrow because of its central position for remote, London-based and international guests. Removing travel as a source of friction before the day began was the first structural decision, not an afterthought.
The networking was built to break down unfamiliarity through low-stakes competition, not forced introductions. The Enboarder app turned meeting new colleagues into a points-based game. People scanned QR codes on their lanyards to discover facts about colleagues, answer questions and compete for prizes, so meeting someone from the other legacy business felt like a reason to explore the room rather than a duty.
The day ran with production weight behind it. A fully branded stage, large screens and dynamic lighting gave leadership presentations the platform they needed. A compere who specialises in employee wellness ran the full programme, steering sessions, managing energy and hosting the CEO Q&A, so the day was directed by someone whose skill was matched to keeping a large, mixed audience genuinely engaged. An exhibition area featuring ten partner organisations, including Currys, John Lewis and Tusker, sat alongside racing simulators and electric car showcases, giving the day a second active layer and giving partners dedicated time with the combined workforce for the first time. A graduation ceremony recognised achievements across both legacy businesses, before the evening reception opened into welcome drinks, a buffet dinner, a branded photo booth, a live six-piece band and a DJ.
They arrived as two companies. They stayed, together, into the night.
450 people moved through the full programme, the morning conference, an interactive panel, the partner exhibition, a graduation ceremony and the evening reception, without a hard stop between them. The Enboarder game ran all day and produced genuine cross-company introductions. People who had never spoken left with names, context and a shared experience to point back to.
The partner exhibition drew consistent footfall, with ten exhibitors reaching the full combined workforce in one session for the first time. The on-site crew captured the day in photography and video, including updated leadership headshots, so the moment carried past the room. On a day built to close the gap between two workforces, the clearest sign it worked was that the room stayed one room.
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This was a post-merger alignment moment. See how we design internal conferences and post-merger events.
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