Situation
A leading Private Equity investor had conducted limited due diligence with advisors and concluded that the target company, a market leading UK software business employing approximately 500 in the UK and a further 150 in India, required significant support ahead of the deal close as there was only 1 HR professional included in the carveout organisation, and she had given her resignation.
Tony Bainbridge started work immediately after the deal was signed and then addressed the following urgent issues:
- set up a new DC pension plan
- study the DB plan and entitlement
- replace all employee benefits in UK and India
- work with the company MD and senior management, along with PE house management, to coordinate internal communications through the change of ownership.
An additional complexity was that the parent company declined to provide any detailed employee information to enable benefits provider quotes until 16th January
Approach
By deal close 5 weeks later Tony had set up and communicated replacement contractual benefits and pensions, successfully consulted with DB participants on alternative pension arrangements, and recruited a small interim HR and recruitment team to support the hiring of over 70 roles in the first 12 weeks of new ownership.
In the following three months Tony built the standalone organisation in UK and India, replaced all elective benefits in UK and India, and engaged employees through improved internal communications including Town Halls, meet the Chair breakfasts, an all hands survey and regular communications via a new sharepoint site.
He introduced a standalone benefits portal, implemented an Applicant Tracking system and launched the roadmap for setting up new payroll and HRIS system, along with recruiting a high quality core HR team before handing over to a full time HRD whose comment was ‘Where you got this organisation to in such a short space of time is phenomenal’
Analysis
Feedback from the PE Operating Partner was:
‘Tony is a great person to work with – open and honest, people oriented, driven and results focused. He combines deep HR functional experience with a commercial mindset and an inclusive style. He successfully delivered on a fast-paced, complex carve-out situation, achieving both organisation change and some significant cost avoidance’.
