Post Completion

We know that once the ink is dry following the completion of a merger or acquisition, this is when the real work starts.

People are critical to the success or failure of the deal. As a result, one of the most critical aspects of a merger or acquisition is effectively combining and integrating organisations, not just focusing on the practical steps such as the transition of payroll or benefit plans. A strategic and tailored approach to integration will maximise the value of the transaction, whilst reducing any risks and ensure that the business that you have just acquired reaches its full potential.

What We Do

We can work with you throughout the due diligence process to ensure that you fully understand the employees that you will be inheriting, the culture of the organisation that you are acquiring and the key employees that you will want to retain.

Then, through our Post Completion we can help you to identify the priorities and challenges of the merger or acquisition at an early stage and determine the resources and expertise that you may require in order to ensure that the deal succeeds.

Create a Strategy for Integration

You may intend for the newly acquired company to relinquish its identity and become integrated into your existing business, or you may wish to retain the newly acquired organisation as a standalone subsidiary. Alternatively, different parts of the acquired company may be acquired at different levels, for example you may require minimal integration of an existing sales function but full integration of back
office support functions.

Alternatively, your priorities might include identifying and retaining key talent or creating a “one firm” culture. Whatever the level of integration, we can assist with preparing a strategy to ensure its success.

Post Completion Integration and Employee Communication

Next, we can help you plan how to communicate with your existing staff and those that you are acquiring before, during and post completion. It is a real challenge to keep employees engaged, motivated and productive both prior to completion and afterwards and so this is one of the most critical aspects to get right and is in alignment with the business wide strategy. Decisions that are made and the way that things are communicated at these critical stages can have a significant impact on employee behaviour, performance and retention. Critically, the information that needs to be provided by law to existing and prospective employees varies depending on the type of transaction, namely whether you are purchasing the assets or the shares of a business. We can ensure that you are not only acting in compliance with the law, but in the best interests of your business and that which you are acquiring by providing you with practical and commercial advice and assistance.

Employees need to understand the impact of the merger/acquisition both on themselves and the
organisation so they can integrate and work effectively. We can support you with onboarding new staff or re-boarding existing staff to help prepare them for the integration and assist with their orientation. This may include, for example, preparing bespoke documentation with key information relating to your business so that staff feel part of the new organisation which means that they will settle more quickly and be more productive at an early stage.

We can also develop and draft employment documentation for existing staff and new starters to
be used following completion that complies with the complex TUPE transfer rules.

You may find it useful to undertake a pay and benefits benchmarking exercise to review the current offering for existing and integrated staff to ensure that there is consistency across the old and new organisations. This can be particularly useful where there are duplicated roles or large numbers of employees coming together as there is a greater risk that there will not be parity in the salary levels and benefit offering, which risks creating bad feelings amongst staff who may be working side by side with one another, but rewarded in very different ways.

Cultural Transformation

We can assist you with preparing a framework for your senior management team to understand the people priorities and help you to create a culture that motivates, excites and most importantly retains employees. Often as the acquiring organisation you may expect the target business to change, but there may also need to be changes needed within your existing business as well, which may not always be expected or as easy for you to spot.

We can help provide objective suggestions and insights, support you to set up a staff forum/ employee resource group who can feedback on any questions relating to the merger or acquisition and identify common queries or concerns at an early stage, and respond to these.

Similarly, we can design and deliver staff engagement surveys to ‘take the pulse’ of your new and
existing teams pre transfer, at transfer, post transfer to identify issues/concerns and ensure that
your communications effectively address these.

You may also find it useful for us to undertake a detailed and objective infrastructure review and assessment report, utilising our experience on where it is common for issues to arise post completion and identify talent shortages or duplications and provide you with our recommendations.

We can undertake psychometric assessments or an analysis of leadership styles to help your new
teams quickly get to know one another and identify the best ways of working together to ensure
a swift and successful integration.

We can also prepare and deliver bespoke training to ensure that your line managers are fully
equipped to support your staff and ensure that they are delivering your strategic organisational
needs.

Outsourced HR and Legal Support

We know that your HR and senior leadership teams will be very busy post completion and it can be difficult to know where to start with implementing your integration strategy. It is also labour intensive and ties up important resources in planning and execution and if not implemented properly can hinder the success of the deal that you have worked so hard to secure.

Whatever the support that you need, we can provide additional outsourced HR and legal assistance to ensure that your merger or acquisition is a success.