What makes a business attractive to a buyer was created by its people. Most times buyers do not want them to stop when a sale is contemplated or afterwards.  Ironically, 90% of mergers do not deliver the promised synergy largely because of a breakdown in engagement or other people related issues.  Even if a buyer intends to jettison all human assets following a transaction much damage can be done in the process. In any acquisition or merger people are key to its success.

Human Resources is often left out of the transaction planning phase misguidedly because their discipline does not feature in the financials or add meaningful value. As the above statistic confirms this often proves to be a costly assumption.  

“Hard due-diligence”; investigating financial liabilities, is today less important today than “soft due diligence”; assessing the culture, values and roles of the key players to ensure readiness for an effective integration or transition that does not destroy value.

The Human Well has assisted clients, buyers or sellers on many business amalgamations, to identify:

  • Key individuals who it will be critical to retain, not always executives who may possess important knowledge or skills, or who are influencers of employee opinion
  • How to motivate employees who are critical to completing the transaction and integration
  • The likely impact on culture following relocation of headquarters
  • The design of transaction completion and retention incentives
  • The benefits of staging a business for sale
  • Integration of executive and salaried compensation and incentives
  • The organizational model and ways to develop the desired culture following the transaction; and
  • Benefit plan amalgamation and design for the new business