People in M&A

Deal executives quote ‘people’ and ‘culture’ amongst the top challenges to successful deal execution. Deal value often relies on people being engaged to deliver revenue synergies and/or headcount reduction to deliver cost synergies.

We are a dedicated People in M&A team, focused on de-risking and driving deal value through the human side of the deal. We advise and support clients throughout the deal lifecycle. Typically, we work closely with our clients to execute on all People and change management aspects of large scale, global, complex integrations and separations.

We drive innovation in this space and have launched a unique, market leading Digital Employee Engagement Platform that helps our clients to drive engagement, performance and rapid cultural assimilation.

Chau Woeste

Partner, Deal Advisory, People in M&A

KPMG in the UK

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100bn

combined deal value.

300k

People transitioned.

80+

Number of countries we have worked in.

Organisation Design & Talent

How will you integrate two operating models to deliver synergies? How do you facilitate a carve-out to maximise deal value e.g. sale or initial public offering (IPO)?
We work with you to design and establish the leadership structure to ensure control for Day 1, as well as the pathway towards an end state design which will deliver on the deal aspirations and synergies.
There will be critical talent that you will need to retain in order to protect deal value. We work with you to identify and put in place a talent retention strategy.

Culture & Engagement

How will you engage your target workforce especially in a post COVID-19 world? How do you inspire, onboard and culturally assimilate the new workforce and set them up for success?
We work with you to shape the employee experience and to deploy our M&A specific Digital Engagement Platform to inform, equip, engage and connect employees. Our platform is digital and social by design and is a truly practical one-stop-shop to drive change and engagement in deals.

HR operations

How will you integrate the HR function whilst managing HR synergy targets and a large scale transformation agenda ahead? How do you design and execute the optimal end-to-end HR function in a carve-out that will be credible and maximise deal value?
We work with you to advise and support the execution of the HR function integration including structures, systems and processes. We help you to identify HR related synergies. We also support our clients in rapidly standing up HR operations e.g. standing up a safe and secure, compliant payroll transition, also enabling efficient tax and employee reporting.

Labour Relations

With deals comes impact on the workforce – how would you deal with unions and works councils across multiple countries to make the deal happen? How do you avoid labour relations being the bottle neck or causing financial and reputational costs, which all impact deal value?
We work with you to put in place the LR strategy and processes to execute on the deal and manage inevitable changes. Our team is widely experienced in the area of practical, hands on LR advice and execution. We have built an LR database to help our clients rapidly assess the LR risks and implications when carving out or integrating.

HR Due diligence

Understanding the people risks and opportunities in a deal is critical to driving performance and EBITDA margins, whether this is liabilities on the balance sheet, talent risks, opportunities to reduce cost, or the ability to integrate/ separate and deliver on future business plans.
We will work with you to evaluate the People related opportunities and risks of the target organisation and assess value drivers for you. Providing clients with foresight to implement mitigation strategies to maximise deal value.