HR Due Diligence

The interaction between individual personalities in tight-knit management teams often takes on a life of its own. The Management Team Audit is designed to understand these dynamics and to generate essential data for improved teamwork and for ensuring the optimal development of personnel in the management team.

If companies are planning a merger or change in ownership, the following questions will appear on the agenda:

What is the value of the new company?
Which synergies or economies of scale can be used?
How should the tangible and intangible assets be valued?

This is the mandatory part. The free section is about focusing on soft factors. Studies that focus on M&A transactions will once and again conclude that intensive due diligence tests in the "strategic", "commercial", "financial", "tax", "legal" etc. fields were performed, but "cultural", "organizational" or even "human" due diligence checks were handled superficially at best. That way, a good opportunity for a M&A transaction would turn into an expensive adventure, for example where the management is not up to par, the culture cannot be integrated, structures are ineffective, important performance carriers have left the company, an unfavorable age pyramid, or if the bonus and pension commitments bear high risks.

The personnel area plays a central role in M&As. The expected personnel and organizational potentials and risks need to be assessed in an intensive HR due diligence test. The following issues should be taken into account:

Is the value system compatible?	Does the company culture fit the takeover company?
Is the management team 'ready' for new goals?	A takeover usually means new strategies, goals and tasks. Can management meet the changed requirements?
Where are the unknown risks?	Where are the behavioral risks that could damage the integration process?
Who has which development profile?	Are there leadership potentials that could be unearthed? What needs to be done to master the challenges of the future?
Which risks do the existing HR systems bear?	What are the target control tools in the organization? How appropriate are the compensation systems? How is employee potential developed?

Steinbach & Partner will support companies in the M&A phases through "HR Due Diligence Reviews" and "HR Post Merger Integration". On the one hand, we will perform a "closing" management and HR system audit; on the other hand, we will evaluate the leadership qualities of managers (360° technique) during the integration phase and point out development needsv.