HR M&A Associate Director in Manchester

Fantastic opportunity to join us as a HR M&A Consultant in our market-leading Integrated and Global Solutions (IGS) line of business. This role is based out of either our London or Manchester office working hybrid. The successful candidate must have experience in an M&A role with a Human Resource Focus.

Our Global M&A Consulting Team, which is part of the IGS business, is an enterprise-wide team of experienced practitioners. This team provides human resource subject matter expertise, project leadership and service delivery support throughout the life cycle of a client’s deal, including due diligence and integration phases. The team works across geography on deals of all sizes, coordinating multi-country and cross-discipline projects bringing in WTW local Retirement and Reward colleagues as needed to provide subject matter expertise for the client’s service delivery team.

The M&A team is a collaborative group who meet regularly to share best practices with ample opportunity to learn on the job and create your own niche in the space. We are passionate about helping our clients through M&A deals, are entrepreneurial in spirit and enjoy new ideas and sharing interesting projects client opportunities. We honour flexible working and appreciate work / life balance.

This role will entail supporting relationships with, and providing strategic advice and consulting to, our M&A clients. M&A can be varied and fast paced, involving project management and subject matter expertise across a variety of disciplines. We help clients with all people issues (including Talent, Reward and Benefits) during due diligence or integration phases of a merger, acquisition, divestiture, carve out, joint venture or other corporate transaction.

Core aspects of the role include the following activities:

• Supporting client engagements with Corporate HR and Finance, assessing their needs, developing and delivering on scopes of work for M&A support and strategy.
• Team member leading complex multi-country M&A projects such as HR due diligence, complex carve out requiring support with stand-alone benefit programmes across multiple countries, design and delivery M&A HR readiness training for client team members, develop M&A playbooks and other aspects of M&A readiness for clients.
• Leading diverse client teams to deliver post-merger integration advice on people matters around the world, including global grading, compensation and benefit design, provider selection and benefit delivery, communications and change management.

Due to the dynamic nature of your role, you will have a broad and collaborative mindset and be expected to:

• Support marketing activity, new business endeavours, participate in conferences, speaking engagements and other external intellectual capital development to help drive best practice and continual process improvement for our global M&A Practice.
• Work closely with the global Lead Relationship Managers (LRMs)/key local Solution Advisors and local colleagues to identify opportunities, raise WTW brand awareness and grow client revenue including expansion sales looking for connections across our service lines.
• Support the use of WTW technology to help clients to maximise the value from the information collected.
• Deal with client delivery issues that arise and escalate as appropriate.

What you’ll bring:

• M&A experience across a variety of projects with a background in either retirement, reward or health & Benefits.
• Experience of working within financial services within M&A with a consulting background.
• Experience in building relationships with and support selling work to large organisations at the headquarters and local country level across a range of international benefits topic areas.
• Strong project management skills and good organisational abilities.
• The ability to deal positively with change and ambiguity.
• Comfort in working in a global environment. Understand the nuances of working across borders, with different cultures and with multinational organizations.
• Self-motivation and the ability to effectively lead and work in teams, including remotely with clients and colleagues in other countries.
• Ability to build a network with client contacts and WTW colleagues around the world.
• A positive and friendly approach to work.
• A keen desire to learn.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• An aptitude for managing multiple stakeholder groups.
• Strong desire to deliver to clients’ high-quality results, consistently and a proactive approach to working with clients.

What we offer:

Enjoy a benefits package designed to help you thrive, both professionally and personally. You will receive 25 days of annual leave plus an extra WTW day to relax and recharge. Our comprehensive health and wellbeing offering includes private healthcare, life insurance, group income protection, and regular health assessments, all giving you peace of mind. Secure your future with our defined contribution pension scheme, featuring matched contributions up to 10% from the company.

We support your growth and balance with hybrid working options, access to an employee assistance programme, and a fully paid volunteer day to make a difference in your community. On top of these, you can opt into a variety of additional perks including an electric vehicle car scheme, share scheme, cycle-to-work programme, dental and optical cover, critical illness protection, and much more. Start making the most of your career and wellbeing with a range of benefits tailored for you.

We’re committed to equal employment opportunity and provide application, interview and workplace adjustments and accommodations to all applicants. If you foresee any barriers, from the application process through to joining WTW, please email candidate.helpdesk@wtwco.com.