Attention: HR Professionals who work in Mergers & Acquisitions...
Make the Complex Due Diligence Process Easier
Equip Yourself With The Done-For-You “Due Diligence Toolkit”
So you can effectively assess the people, leadership, and culture risks in a deal and present your findings to key decision-makers!
Why is THIS Toolkit the Only Thing You’ll Ever Need to EXCEL at Due Diligence for Mergers & Acquisitions?
The toolkit consists of 12 items and leverages the methodology shared in The HR Practitioner’s Guide to Mergers & Acquisitions Due Diligence. These tools have been used over the course of nearly 100 merger & acquisition transactions, representing billions of dollars and affecting thousands of employees.
Feel Confident
Knowing the items included in the toolkit will allow you to boldly tackle the challenges that naturally arise during the due diligence process.
Anticipate Challenges
You’ll be able to identify, assess, and mitigate the most vexing people, leadership, and culture issues that arise during business sales and acquisitions.
Designed by experienced HR M&A practitioners to be user-friendly and intuitive.
Each tool is aligned with the best HR Merger & Acquisitions book in the industry.
Watch the video with each tool to understand how it fits into the due diligence process.
The toolkit is organized chronologically, so you can jump immediately to the items you need.
All of this means you’re ready to jump into the due diligence process!
Do I really need the Due Diligence Toolkit?
When organizations invest in a merger or acquisition, they go in hoping to beat the odds since 80% of all M&A deals fail to meet their financial objectives.
The question is...
"Why do most M&A deals fail?"
It's because they don’t have proven procedures to assess the viability of the deal and the ease of integration. And that causes them to make mistakes or bypass critical information that shapes the outcome of the deal.
This toolkit was created by Dr. Klint Kendrick, who has spent the last decade helping companies overcome this staggering failure rate by focusing on how people, leadership, and culture drive M&A deal value.
When you have it, you’ll know exactly what to do to help your company get in front of the people, leadership, and culture issues that will make or break your next deal.
Introducing:
An all-inclusive Toolkit that gives you everything you’ll ever need to do due diligence
The M&A process can feel confusing and complicated with a lot of different concepts and terms thrown around when a firm chooses to invest millions of dollars in an acquisition.
Instead of spending hours creating your own tools and templates, this toolkit does all the heavy lifting for you and allows you to identify, assess, and mitigate the people, leadership, and culture risks in the deal.
What's Included
Let's Break Down Everything
This toolkit contains a dozen items focusing on the first two steps of this process - target screening and formal due diligence.
Word Document
1. Target Screening Tool
The Target Screening Tool will help you find public information about the potential target company’s people, leadership, and culture.
It’s most effective when used during the target screening phase (prior to LOI)…but if the HR team is not brought into the deal until diligence, this work can be done after the LOI is signed.
This tool is quite helpful as it will help you check each information source, so you can have as much advanced information about the target as possible.
The toolkit will help you more quickly and effectively screen the target company’s people, leadership, and culture.
PowerPoint Slides
2. Target Screening Brief Template
Once you’ve worked through the Target Screening Tool, you’ll need a way to share your findings.
We’ve found that most organizations communicate their findings using a slide deck, so we’ve provided an editable PowerPoint template.
You just need to edit the doc and fill it with relevant information you’ve gathered on people, leadership, and culture.
Once you’ve filled it out, you’ll be able to share with business leaders, making it easier for them to understand how people, leadership, and culture issues will affect deal value.
PDF Sample
3. Sample Letter of Intent (LOI)
If HR provides input into the LOI, there is an opportunity to influence key leader retention and general employment matters.
To ensure HR’s suggestions are meaningful and persuasive, it’s imperative for HR to understand the broader context represented in the LOI.
For this reason, we’ve included a sample LOI in your toolkit with tips provided by Klint Kendrick, Chair of the HR M&A Roundtable.
These tips will help you understand what the LOI is and what it does for people, leadership, and culture in your deal.
Excel Spreadsheet
4. HR Due Diligence Checklist
The HR Due Diligence Checklist includes 43 questions that will help you dive into the six major risk areas that arise in an M&A transaction.
This checklist is the only one built by and for HR professionals.
And since every deal is different, the checklist can be customized to meet the needs of the specific industry, target company, and integration plan contemplated for your deal.
However, intelligently using these questions scrubs out ambiguity and brings clarity, making it easier to understand how HR matters will make or break the deal.
Word Document
5. Due Diligence Interview Agenda
Organizations usually set up formal interviews between the buyer’s HR leader and the seller’s HR leader or another executive.
To allow the seller time to prepare for the conversation, the buyer will often provide the questions in advance of the meeting.
This tool quickly provides a detailed list of questions you need answers to.
Word Document
6. Site Visit Agenda
Site visits are a powerful opportunity to learn more about the target company. Careful observation can provide deep insight into the target company’s people, leadership, and culture.
The included site visit agenda can help you successfully assess the target company on their home turf.
Excel Spreadsheet
7. Employee Census File
Question 5 in the Due Diligence Checklist is a request for an employee census file.
This file is designed to provide detailed information on the target’s employee population, including compensation and benefits details.
The toolkit includes a comprehensive, editable spreadsheet you can use to gather the employee information that’s most imperative for understanding the target’s workforce
Excel Spreadsheet
8. Total Rewards side-by-side Analysis
A total rewards side-by-side allows you to see how the target company’s current compensation, benefits, and perks will align with the post-integration total rewards structure.
HR may need to create several side-by-sides if the target company has multiple operating units with different total rewards schemes, collective bargaining agreements with specific benefits provisions, subsidiaries that they haven’t fully integrated, or international locations.
The template we’ve included focuses on integrating two US-based operating units. However, this tool is easily customizable for multiple scenarios, helping you speak the language of the business – dollars and cents.
Word Document
9. Post-Diligence Huddle Agenda
When working through the formal due diligence process, it’s common for the buyer to have multiple groups involved with identifying, assessing, and mitigating deal risks.
The post-diligence huddle is designed to ensure the entire deal team is sharing information that could affect the people, leadership, and culture side of the transaction.
The agenda included in this toolkit provides a simple way to lead the post-diligence huddle, deepening your understanding of the target company.
Excel Spreadsheet
10. Due Diligence Log
The Due Diligence Log helps you organize the information you have gathered during your Target Screening and Formal Due Diligence stages.
The log represents the culmination of all the due diligence work you’ve done on your project and lays the foundation for the due diligence report you'll submit at the end of the process.
In other words, it makes it easy for you to present your due diligence findings and earn a place at the M&A table.
PowerPoint Slides
11. Risk Assessment Matrix
The risk assessment matrix is a project management tool that provides a quick view of a risk's probability and impact.
We’ve provided an editable tool that will allow you to visualize the risks you’ve found during due diligence.
This tool enables you to use the matrix to prioritize your findings and right-size your risk mitigation proposals.
PowerPoint Slides
12. Due Diligence Report
The due diligence report is where you share all of the hard work you’ve done during due diligence.
It’s a multi-page document that provides critical information on people, leadership, and culture. Use this template to share your findings with business sponsors, corporate development, and the integration leader.
We’ve found that most organizations communicate their due diligence findings using a slide deck, so we’ve provided a PowerPoint template for your use.
Simply edit the PowerPoint template, and you’re ready to show HR’s contribution to making the deal successful!
Think of it as an investment that will allow you to tackle your next transaction with a toolkit that will make HR a more valuable resource to the company, and help you ace your next acquisition.
WHAT'S INSIDE
Due Diligence Tool Kit
Target Screening Tool (Value $99)
Target Screening Brief Template (Value $199)
Sample Letter of Intent (Value $49)
HR Due Diligence Checklist (Value $299)
Due Diligence Interview Agenda (Value $149)
Site Visit Agenda (Value $149)
Employee Census File (Value $199)
Total Rewards Side-by-Side Analysis (Value $99)
Post-Diligence Huddle Agenda (Value $49)
Due Diligence Log (Value $199)
Risk Assessment Matrix (Value $149)
Due Diligence Report (Value $199)
Total Value = $1838