Supporting Mergers and Acquisitions

Bringing together two companies successfully is fundamental to accelerating growth and creating extra shareholder value.  You may have, or will certainly need to consider, such difficulties as:

• A merger or acquisition that covers the legal and the financial but not the people side of the business
• Managers in the new world finding themselves unprepared or unskilled for the challenges that they face
• The merging parties having differing expectations that remain unresolved or unmet
• Instantaneous grapevines cropping up and sending the wrong message
• Clear cultural differences that create tension
• Poor processes that stifle creativity, decision making and problem escalation
• Loss of customers through lack of service provided to them after the merger

A merger or acquisition means changing the way people work, but also critically depends on blending the cultures and processes of both businesses.

We are experienced in identifying what motivates management and staff from both sides of a merger to work together towards new common targets. 

 Our services include

• Pre-merger HR due diligence
• Joint integration planning
• Delivering post-merger support

All companies considering a merger or acquisition will benefit from an informed pre and post merger action plan to lessen disruption, increase performance and meet shareholder expectations.

Connor works with our clients to

Check target acquisitions work within statutory HR requirements.
Uncover hidden HR risks that may impact the success of the combined enterprise.
Recommend practical actions to mitigate the risks and remove any blockages to success.
Accelerate the success of the new enterprise.

This is what we deliver

A pre-merger HR due diligence toolkit that quickly identifies potential M&A showstoppers, hidden HR risks as well as other sources of value, many of which are frequently locked in:

• Employment contracts and statutory HR requirements
• Business processes
• Key person dependencies
• Core skills and human capital
• Management capability
• Existing partner and channel relationships
• Culture 
• Customer loyalty
• Employee satisfaction

HR due diligence audits result in clear actions that will integrate the two businesses once the merger has taken place.

Joint Integration Planning

Joint integration planning that brings together, possibly for the first time, key players from both businesses to build a joint way forward that will:

• Establish new ground rules
• Raise cultural issues and develop a common approach
• Migrate customers and maintain their loyalty
• Preserve partner and channel relationships
• Uncover new business and cross-selling opportunities
• Ensure key staff and their know-how is retained
• Accelerate the transition to the new order

Joint integration planning delivers a blueprint for success.

Post-merger support

We offer support that is pragmatic and commercially focussed and includes:

• Recruitment and employee fast-tracking
• Training and development that wins hearts, minds, changes attitudes and delivers results
• Performance management and reward to attract and retain people who are key to success
• Employment law advice that is practical, actions based and jargon-free
• On-call outplacement and support that is available on demand
• Outsourced HR and interim support on tap when needed
• Post-merger assessment to uncover blockages to success

Post merger support preserves agility, speed and delivers results - faster.  Please contact a member of our team on 01491 414 010 or tccinfo@connor.co.uk if we can be of assistance.