Are you interested in working for a rapidly evolving company?; Want a career where no two days are the same?

 

Who are Azets 

Azets are a leading firm of Accountants and Business Advisers operating across the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, we have over a wide network of employees and an abundance of inspiring opportunities to join one of our many offices!

We are a top ten accountancy firm in the UK and are the number one largest SME practice.

 

The opportunity

 

Reporting to both the Group Head of Merger & Acquisitions and the Human Resources Director, the role of an M&A HR Business Partner Specialist is to conduct thorough and detailed Due Diligence, integration planning and execution on any prospective Merger or Acquisition.

The M&A HR Business Partner Specialist will produce reports for key stakeholders with a full view of the People side of the potential incoming business including risk analysis for consideration and then incorporating these findings into a integration plan to facilitate a smooth integration for the Target business into the Azets Group.

This role will work closely with the wider HR teams teams (e.g. L&D, Reward) and collate their analysis to produce a complete and holistic view of People issues and planning on a transaction and then subsequently ensure a handover post exchange and completion to the BAU HR team.

The post holder will be responsible for the creation & implementation of the HR integration project plan whilst being supported by Regional teams ensuring proper focus is on the incoming business being integrated into Azets’ Culture and Values.

 

**This role will include regular travel across the UK and Ireland. Travel across Europe will also be required at times.**

 

Day to day duties

 

Pre Exchange

 

• HR Due Diligence for all prospective UK Mergers & Acquisitions including but not limited to:

 

o Production of a GAP analysis for areas where we will experience employee contention when integrating with Azets, such as, alignment of Job Titles & terms and conditions, contractual & non-contractual policies and benefit alignment.

o Understanding the make up and structure of the workforce and comparison to Azets ‘model office’ structure

o Trainee qualifications and training programmes

o L&D / CPD for all staff

o Typical career path (progression and pay) across departments and comparison of career path against Azets

o Key HR documentation – best practice assessment

o Utilisation of any third party support and assessment to transition in-house

o Recruitment process

o Health and safety

o Assessment of potential cost synergies

 

• Open channel of communication with the M&A team, highlighting any concerns or risks to be mitigated through legal documentation or integration planning

• Ensuring any cultural differences at all staff levels (Partner/Director/Manager/Staff) are highlighted as part of the Due Diligence and highlighting how we can better align the targets culture with our own

• Understand the flow of succession in the incoming business and developing a plan alongside the Regional HR Director to mitigate short / medium term risk

• Partnering with Recruitment to ensure confidential data is shared to gain risk analysis 

• Partnering with Reward to ensure confidential data is shared to gain a risk analysis

• Partnering with L&D to ensure Student Data is reviewed and gain a risk analysis

• Partnering with the People XD (HR Data) team to ensure People data is populated in the required templates to bring the acquired employees onto our system & sharing this information to our IT teams

• Report Production of Due Diligence Report data to clearly articulate Due Diligence findings and recommended actions required through integration planning

• Prepare communication documents for the Regional HRD & Business Change

• Support in welcome meetings

• Development of a comprehensive HR project plan, ensuring key DD findings are clearly articulated as well as highlighting any risks, issues & dependencies within the plan

• The HR integration plan should encompass all aspects of HR including L&D, Reward and Recruitment and be developed in conjunction with other workstreams such as IT in relation to the implementation of Azets HR software/systems

 

 

Post Completion

 

• Responsible for the successful implementation of the HR project plan ensuring any risks, issues or date slippage are highlighted to the Integration Manager

• Attendance at Workstream Updates to provide up to date progress of the HR Integration to the wider teams

• Partnership with the Regional HRD:

 

o to ensure a smooth transition to BAU, a handover of information once the acquired business is fully integrated into the central HR function

o to ensure any significant changes to the project plan is highlighted to the Integration Manager

o to ensure successful implementation of the project plan

o Provide DD information to all relevant departments, e.g. Reward & Talent Acquisition

 

• Ongoing assessment & reporting of the cultural impacts of the acquired business to ensure a smooth transition to our culture and values

• Works closely with Target Partners to strengthen the Company culture, values and employee experience by improving employee engagement and retention

• Rewards Harmonisation

 

Effective Knowledge Management

 

• Creating and maintaining a standard set of HR Plans, Toolkits and FAQ documentation which is shared in-order to upskill UK HRBP’s

 

 

What are we looking for?

 

Experienced HR generalist / HR Business Partner, ideally experience in a professional services environment.

• Relevant M&A experience
• Effective influencing skills Intellectual curiosity & empathy – a desire to learn all aspects of the business and understand it’s goals
• Strong Project Management experience, with a proven ability to meet deadlines
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Change management skills
• Ability to work with business stakeholders at all levels
• Technically proficient, so that all data is managed in accordance with all legal and Corporate requirements
• Experienced in the use of the Microsoft Office suite 

 

 

What's in it for you?

Our benefits include hybrid & flexible working, birthday leave, professional subscription and much more. You can find out more about how we reward our colleagues - Careers | Rewards And Benefits | Azets UK

Interested in hearing more about Life at Azets

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