Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

Successfully achieving your deal objectives requires proactively identifying workforce issues with the same rigor as all other strategic elements. This includes evaluating the skills and behaviors required to make the deal work.

People expertise. Sustained performance.

In a world characterized by business model disruption, inorganic growth strategies are increasingly critical to success. With investor pressure coming from all sides, the current dynamic deal environment requires a combination of knowhow and effective execution to deliver sustainable value today, tomorrow and well into the future. It also demands a dynamic mergers and acquisitions strategy.

Thanks to our global scale and local footprint, Mercer has the business acumen, deal experience and people expertise to solve your toughest people challenges — we can work anywhere in the world and act at a moment’s notice. We aim to help you maximize value, mitigate risk and moderate costs to capture the full value of your deal.

The diversity of our clients — in terms of size, maturity, industry sector and geographic location — means we can collaborate with all types of organizations to tackle a broad range of issues. Simply put, we know what needs to be done — when, how, why and by whom. We can work with you to manage the most complex deals, streamlining every step of the process to drive growth and help your business soar to new heights.

What makes Mercer different?

70+

years of deal experience

1400+

transactions annually

140+

country operations

60%

cross-border transactions

28+

languages

Our focus

Heightened competition means buyers often have to commit without performing adequate due diligence, mitigating risk, determining compliance issues or fully developing post-merger integration plans. Mercer’s project management operations (PMO) approach combines world-class process management with real-time consulting. The result is the rapid identification and mitigation of risk.
  • Workforce strategy

    Determine critical roles and the talent needed to drive success. Formulate workforce strategies to address any gaps.
  • Operating model

    Develop your future strategy and operating model, including organization design, governance and decision rights.
  • Talent assessment, retention and onboarding

    Maximize deal success by assessing talent, identifying and selecting leaders, and retaining critical skill sets.
  • Change management and communication

    Conduct change management planning and integration focused on moving key stakeholders from both entities.
  • Culture

    Identify cultural risks to deal objectives, and build a comprehensive integration strategy and operating environment.
  • Talent insights

    Implement an AI-based approach to understand skills, identify risks and retention implications pre-close, and develop post-close talent strategies.
  • HR technologies

    Create the HR delivery platform required to support strategic objectives.
  • Global benefits and policies

    Understand, align and optimize benefits programs. We do this in more than 150 countries and for organizations of all sizes.
  • Rewards

    Determine whether executive, sales and general incentives help achieve synergies between organizations.
  • Retirement

    Understand, align and optimize pension plans, and mitigate associated risk globally.

Related insights

  • Maximizing human value in SPACs and IPOs

    By: Jeff Black, Global, US and Canada M&A Advisory Services Leader
    The process of taking a company public is complicated, whether you’re announcing an initial public offering (IPO) or merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Know the people risks.
  • Mercer’s ALM Pacesetter designation award

    By: Jeff Black, Global, US and Canada M&A Advisory Services Leader
    ALM Intelligence Pacesetter Research identified Mercer as a “2022 M&A Innovator and Pacesetter” for going above and beyond in servicing clients during M&A deals.
  • Culture risk in M and A

    Better manage uncertainty and people risks in M&A transactions. After studying the data and considering our experience supporting clients on over 1,400 deals annually, we see a clear pattern. In this report, we offer an in-depth view of culture-related deal risks and provide strategies and practical solutions to predict and proactively plan for change.

Get in touch with our team