Unlocking M&A Value: The Critical Role of People & Job Architecture
The Factors Driving M&A Growth Across APAC in 2025 and Beyond
As 2025 gains momentum, challenges around geopolitics, tariff and trade issues, valuations and unpredictability continue to persist, making dealmakers cautious. However, what is certain is that the APAC region would emerge as a key driver of global M&A activity in the near future. Strong economic growth, technological innovation, and a rising middle class make APAC an attractive target for both domestic and international players. Private equity firms and investment banks are increasingly active, advising on deals across various sectors and geographies for deals in APAC.
Another significant trend is the surge in outbound M&A activity from APAC-based companies. With capital available for expansion, Asian firms are pursuing acquisitions worldwide to access advanced technologies and mature markets, particularly in sectors like technology, consumer goods, and healthcare. Simultaneously, companies from Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas are recognizing APAC's potential leading to an increase in joint ventures and strategic partnerships that help international firms navigate local markets. Beyond sheer deal volume, APAC is also a hub of innovation in fintech and artificial intelligence, presenting both challenges and opportunities that drive demand for specialized advisory services.
At Aon, we know that people are the key to M&A success. That's why our dedicated, global People Advisory team support hundreds of organizations every year to manage people issues during a deal. From strategy to execution, our teams provide end-to-end solutions that address the most critical human capital issues during a transaction.
Job Architecture and Organization Design: The Foundation for Post-Merger Integration Success
Significant changes to an organization’s operating model including updates to job architecture and organization design are often essential to achieving strategic objectives and delivering the intended value of a transaction. Merger of two companies with varying operating models, structures, and cultures, is often complex. When integration is not well-planned, the two businesses can remain misaligned, leading to talent attrition and unrealized value.However, when done thoughtfully and systematically it can capture expected value and set up the merged entity for sustainable long-term success.
Despite its importance, studies show that less than half of companies undergoing organizational redesign post-transaction consider the process successful. One major reason? The human factor. M&As bring significant people-related challenges.Limited data, prevailing uncertainty, tight deadlines, varying organizational cultures and evolving employee expectations regarding change management lead to unexpected problems, even with thorough planning.
The Role of Job Architecture in Realizing Deal Synergies
A well-defined job architecture is a critical but often overlooked factor in M&A success. Only an operating model and, by extension, a job architecturethat truly aligns with the deal original thesis can ensure value realization.
A scientific and robust Job Architecture plays a key role in Post Merger Integration planning across the following areas within the merged entity:
- Consistency in defining Job Functions and Families, Sub-functions, Skill Clusters, Job Levels and Titles, Reporting relationships, Spans and Layers optimization
- Strategic Workforce Planning to quantify headcount synergy plans
- Talent selection and managing employee pools across the merging companies for comparative decision-making on role fitment in the new structure
- A well-designed job architecture also helps answer critical post-merger integration questions:How will business units and core functions be organised? By products, clients, geography, or functional areas?
- Should support functions be embedded into business units, centralized in corporate-level departments, or outsourced?
- Will functions be fully integrated, continue operating as-is, or transition to a hybrid model?
- How best will the merging companies integrate, map and manage our talent pool within the merged entity to ensure that the sum is greater than its parts?
How Aon’s Job Architecture Framework Supports M&A Success
Pre-Deal HR Due Diligence: Our comprehensive HR due diligence process goes above and beyond the standard checks on employment law compliance, HR Processes and Systems and valuation of employee benefits for the deal model. Our experts deep dive into target company’s Job Architecture, key roles and skills, workforce demographics, ways of working and overall Employee Value proposition. This assessment not only provides insight into potential integration challenges but also helps identify strategies that can enhance the chances of a successful integration aligned with the investment thesis and intended deal synergies. As the deal begins to finalize, we help the PMO articulate an organizational structure design aligned with the MergedCo Operating Model. This includes analyzing the value chain to identify overlaps, redundancies, complementary strengths, and implications of the transaction on cross-functional co-dependencies and layering within functions.
Post Deal Signing: Once the transaction is finalized, we provide advisory support to develop prototype organization structures aligned with the deal’s objectives. We analyze legacy structures including insourcing vs. outsourcing, departmental restructuring, and span-of-control optimization leveraging our proprietary JobLink methodology, which integrates insights from Aon, Radford, and McLagan frameworks.Post Merger Integration, Harmonization and Change Management: At its core, our Job Architecture methodology helps to align the merging organizations’ people strategy with its business strategy, ensuring greater consistency and transparency in talent management, harmonization and enhanced employee experience. Once aligned on the go-forward operating model and resultant new Job Architecture, we help our clients with contextually tailored approaches for employee fitment, change management and communication strategies.
Case Study: M&A Success in APAC’s Tech Sector
A recent merger of two Southeast Asian tech giants created a powerhouse poised to reshape the region’s digital economy. The deal combined a ride-hailing and delivery platform with an e-commerce marketplace, aiming to integrate services and drive regional expansion.
While the potential synergies were clear, the post-merger integration phase also presented significant challenges. Defining a consistent and efficient operating model and organization structures, integrating distinct corporate cultures, managing a larger and more complex organization, and navigating the competitive landscape were key hurdles. Aon’s People Advisory and Talent Solutions teams were brought in to support the leadership team during this phase to focus on devising actionable plans for realizing the anticipated synergies from the deal.
The Challenge: Articulating the Go-forward operating Model, resultant organization structures and formulating a consistent Job Architecture for the combined entity
During Post Merger Integration, HR teams across the merging entities faced the challenge of creating a unified organizational leveling structure that fostered collaboration and maximized the potential of the combined workforce, even when entities were functioning as independent Business Units within the larger Group.
- Aon’s Approach: We leveraged our JobLink framework to create a standardized job architecture and leveling framework, conducting job evaluations across business units to ensure fair fitment. This process drove significant changes to job and grade structures while enabling careful workforce planning and change management.
The Challenge: Leadership Alignment on ‘Synergy Principles’ and ‘Integration Roadmap’
With the coming together of different leaders, working styles and cultures, there was some initial lack of clarity over values and operational themes that the MergedCo would abide by.
- Aon’s Approach: We facilitated leadership workshops, interviews, and group discussions to define synergy principles guiding integration efforts. Key HR interventions included:
- Job Architecture Design and Strategic Workforce Planning
- Operational Effectiveness and Ways of Working
- Talent Management and Employee Experience
Outcomes: By focusing on a unified job architecture, cultural integration, and streamlined HR processes, the merged company successfully aligned its workforce and positioned itself for long-term growth. Are you planning an M&A? Aon’s People Advisory team specializes in designing job architectures that maximize M&A success. If you are undergoing or planning a transaction, our experts can help ensure that your deal captures its intended synergies and delivers lasting value.
Contact Our Experts
- Maggie You | Partner, Head of People Advisory and Human Capital Mergers & Acquisitions, APAC
- Sagorika Roy | Associate Partner, People Advisory, APAC
- Phaik Thien Poh | Director, People Advisory, APAC
- Nilansh Verma | Associate Director, People Advisory, APAC