Private equity services

Mercer works with private equity partners and their portfolio companies throughout the transaction journey. We promote scalability, eliminate barriers to growth, and accelerate value creation through talent optimization.
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Challenges

  • Unrealized value potential due to limitations in human capital strategy.
  • Lack of information on HR readiness going into the close.
  • Not enough attention paid to skill sets and redundancies.
  • No framework for identifying and delivering high-impact quick wins early in the hold.
  • Waiting too long to upgrade HR leadership and develop a roadmap.
  • Not linking HR to the deal journey.
  • Ignoring the people risks and factors that derail deals and interfere with value creation.

We view private equity deals with a different lens

Research and experience show that to maximize a deal’s potential, human resources (HR) must be in a position to unlock and amplify value. Wherever possible, it is in the best interests of a private equity investor to enable HR as a strategic partner.

Mercer’s approach to private equity consulting differs from that of other firms. We focus on exit value and help buyers optimize the value of their deals by advising them which human capital levers to focus on post-close. These levers include: workforce management, culture and governance, attrition and retention, diversity, equity and inclusion, skills matching, operations and systems architecture. All have the ability to significantly swing the pendulum from failure to success.

By intentionally and thoughtfully aligning our clients’ people strategies to their business objectives, we help them improve productivity, reduce disruptive forces, enhance data integrity and accelerate efficiencies. This allows us to unlock the greatest value creation potential. Our approach brings many benefits:

We perform a holistic review of the target’s HR function and assess their readiness to support the deal proposition. We flag up the resource gaps that should be closed and highlight the opportunities that can be created in the first 100 days post deal. This means that, as they go into the close, private equity buyers know what they can do to immediately create value.

We act as a strategic partner to our private equity clients. We therefore stay connected with deal teams, operations teams and portfolio companies post-close, providing ongoing thought leadership and solutions to support them on the value enablement journey.

Each of our private equity clients has a unique set of value propositions, key markets and value creation approaches. They all experience new challenges and are presented with new opportunities. We therefore continually optimize and augment the work we do, and the approaches we take, to ensure our clients stay ahead. We collaborate with you as tides change to innovate our approach and retire irrelevant frameworks.

Evolved private-equity HR support goes beyond due diligence to maximize deal value

Our private-equity advisory services go beyond core diligence to inform, operationalize and continuously refine short- and long-term strategies. We do this by delivering high-impact quick wins designed to unlock value creation potential through the use of human capital.
PE deal transaction lifestyle PE deal transaction lifestyle
The PE deal lifecycle as explained through the evolved support model to show flow of the deal value. Think of a pyramid- at the top we have the deal close Phase 1 pre-close diligence, followed by the acceleration of the phase 2 post-close management readout, lastly comes the optimization Phase 3 ongoing support enabled for growth and optimizing value creation. This is where we get to the foundation of the pyramid to see the exit value.
Outside of raw materials, people are our largest investment … and probably where we have our biggest black holes.
CFO, Private Equity Client Portfolio Company, $1.5B+ Revenue

Delivering the deal by mitigating risks and removing factors that can derail a project

With Mercer’s private equity advisory expertise, you can mitigate risk and deliver on the deal proposition.
47%

of deals fail primarily due to people risks.

44%

of executives report that workforce risks were not quantified or built into the financial model.

21%

report the leadership team as the primary cause the financial targets outlined in the deal model are not met.

20%

increase in sales

21%

greater profitability

Source: Gallup Workplace Study

Mercer’s value proposition

No other advisor (or broker) can match Mercer’s global reach — our ability to execute, or the depth and breadth of our transactional human capital services. We have a unique perspective because our global human capital platform supports our analysis throughout the investment hold period. With 25,000+ subject matter experts in more than 140 countries, we can address any people, HR compliance or technical need.
To have a successful exit, we need to demonstrate that we are more than just a sum of our parts.
CEO, Private Equity Client Portfolio Company, $1.5B+ Revenue

What makes Mercer different?

Our experience is deep and wide:
70+

years of deal experience

1400+

transactions annually

140+

country operations

60%

cross-border transactions

20+

languages

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