M&A Integration & Due Diligence
Identify hidden human capital risk before it kills deal value.
Overview
PE firms and M&A teams face a critical blind spot in nearly every transaction: HR due diligence. While financial and legal review receives exhaustive attention, workforce liabilities — misclassified employees, toxic culture, underfunded benefits, and key-man dependencies — go undetected until they erode post-close value or trigger litigation.
Metis HR brings forensic-level rigor to the human capital dimension of every deal. Our M&A practice spans the full transaction lifecycle from pre-LOI screening through post-close integration, giving deal teams the visibility and confidence to price risk accurately and protect the value they've worked to build.
Deliverables
- HR Due Diligence Report
- Risk Register with severity scoring
- Integration Playbook
- Day 1 Readiness Checklist
- Retention Risk Analysis
- Compensation Benchmarking Summary
Ideal For
Private Equity · M&A Advisory Teams
Our Process
Pre-LOI Screening
Initial workforce risk assessment to flag deal-breaking issues — classification exposure, key-person concentration, culture toxicity indicators — before significant capital is deployed.
Deep HR Due Diligence
Comprehensive review of employment agreements, compensation structures, benefits obligations, compliance posture, and organizational design.
Risk Quantification
Translate all HR findings into dollar-value risk ranges that feed directly into your deal model, purchase price adjustment mechanisms, and negotiation strategy.
Integration Roadmap
Build a Day 1 through 180-day people integration plan covering retention strategy, workforce communications, policy harmonization, and culture integration milestones.
Post-Close Execution Support
Remote advisory support during the critical first 90 days when talent flight risk is highest and cultural friction is most acute, with onsite support available if needed.
Ready to explore a M&A Advisory engagement?
Schedule a no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation and objectives.
Fractional Chief People Officer
Board-level HR leadership at the exact moment your business needs it most.
Overview
High-growth companies and PE portfolio companies almost always outgrow their HR function long before they're operationally or financially ready to hire a full-time CPO. The gap between founder-led HR and professional people operations is where talent strategy breaks down, culture erodes, and scale stalls.
Metis HR embeds directly into your leadership team as your Fractional CPO — attending executive team meetings, advising your board, driving talent strategy, and building the people infrastructure that transforms your organization from founder-dependent to professionally managed and investor-ready.
Deliverables
- People Strategy Document
- Org Design Recommendations
- Compensation Framework
- Leadership Development Plan
- Leadership Training
- Board HR Reporting Dashboard
- Talent Acquisition Strategy
Ideal For
Series A/B Startups · PE Portfolio Companies · High-Growth Organizations
Our Process
Diagnostic Assessment
30-day deep dive into your current HR posture, culture health, org design, compensation architecture, and talent gaps to establish an honest baseline.
People Strategy Design
Build a 12-month HR roadmap fully aligned to your business strategy, headcount plan, fundraising milestones, and board expectations.
Infrastructure Buildout
Design and implement the systems, processes, policies, and programs needed to support your growth trajectory — from HRIS to performance management.
Executive Team Integration
Serve as a full peer to your C-suite and a credible, strategic HR voice in leadership team meetings, investor updates, and board sessions.
Ongoing Advisory & Governance
Monthly strategic advisory sessions, real-time support on critical decisions, and regular board-level HR reporting and KPI dashboards.
Ready to explore a Fractional Leadership engagement?
Schedule a no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation and objectives.
Startup HR Infrastructure
Build the people foundation your business will actually scale on.
Overview
The HR decisions you make in your first 50 hires define your culture, compliance exposure, and operational capacity for the next decade. Most founders and early-stage operators underestimate how quickly informal HR practices become costly liabilities as headcount grows, funding rounds close, and regulatory scrutiny increases.
Metis HR works alongside founders, COOs, and early HR hires to build complete, investor-grade people infrastructure — from your first employment agreement to your 200th structured onboarding — in a timeline that matches your growth velocity, not a slow consultancy's billing cycle.
Deliverables
- Employee Handbook
- HRIS Implementation & Configuration
- Structured Onboarding Program
- Compliance Checklist & Calendar
- Compensation Framework
- Offer Letter & Agreement Templates
Ideal For
Pre-Seed to Series B Founders · COOs · Operations Leaders
Our Process
Current State Audit
Assess your existing HR documents, employment practices, and compliance posture to identify immediate risks and prioritize remediation before they escalate.
System Architecture
Select and implement the right HRIS, payroll, and benefits platform for your current headcount and projected 18-month growth — with clean migration paths as you scale.
Policy & Documentation Build
Draft your employee handbook, offer letter templates, performance review frameworks, termination protocols, and all core HR policy documentation.
Compliance Foundation
Establish state and federal compliance programs — I-9 management, employee classification review, leave policy, and pay equity framework — appropriate for your jurisdiction and industry.
Culture & Onboarding Design
Build a structured, scalable onboarding program and cultural integration experience that sets every new hire up for maximum performance from day one.
Ready to explore a Startup HR engagement?
Schedule a no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation and objectives.
Cultural Health Assessment & Change
Diagnose the health of your culture — then build the one you actually want.
Overview
Culture is not a ping-pong table or a values poster on the wall — it is the lived daily experience of every person in your organization, and it either accelerates or undermines everything else you are trying to build. Organizations with misaligned, toxic, or undefined cultures face higher turnover, declining performance, and mounting leadership friction that no policy can fix.
Metis HR provides structured, evidence-based cultural health assessments that give leadership an honest, clear-eyed view of where their culture actually stands — followed by a practical, phased change roadmap that moves the organization toward the culture it needs to thrive.
Deliverables
- Cultural Health Assessment Report
- Employee & Leadership Survey Analysis
- Culture Gap Analysis
- Culture Change Roadmap
- Leadership Behavior Recommendations
- Communication & Change Messaging Plan
- Progress Measurement Framework
Ideal For
Executive Teams · HR Leaders · Organizations in Transition
Our Process
Discovery & Stakeholder Alignment
Define assessment scope, engage key stakeholders, and establish a shared understanding of the desired future culture state before any data is collected.
Culture Diagnostic
Deploy confidential surveys, structured focus groups, and leadership interviews to gather candid, multi-level insight into the current cultural reality across the organization.
Data Analysis & Gap Mapping
Analyze findings across trust, psychological safety, inclusion, leadership behavior, and organizational alignment to identify the gap between current and desired culture.
Culture Change Roadmap
Design a phased, actionable culture change plan including leadership behavior shifts, structural changes, communication strategies, and reinforcement mechanisms.
Implementation Support
Partner with leadership to execute the roadmap through workshops, coaching, and progress checkpoints — delivered remotely, with onsite support available if needed.
Ready to explore a Culture & Change engagement?
Schedule a no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation and objectives.
Risk & Compliance Audits
Find the exposure before regulators or plaintiffs do.
Overview
Most organizations carry significant HR compliance exposure without knowing it. Wage and hour violations, misclassified workers, I-9 deficiencies, and policy gaps accumulate silently across fast-growing teams until a DOL audit, a class action filing, or an employment claim brings them into sudden, expensive focus.
Metis HR conducts comprehensive HR risk and compliance audits that surface vulnerabilities across every material compliance domain — and delivers not just a report, but a prioritized, actionable remediation roadmap your team can execute immediately to close risk before it becomes a liability.
Deliverables
- Compliance Audit Report
- Risk Register with Severity Scoring
- Classification Review Memo
- Prioritized Remediation Roadmap
- Policy Gap Analysis
- HR Data Cleanup & Remediation
- Ongoing Compliance Monitoring Framework
Ideal For
CFOs · Operations Leaders · Executive Teams · General Counsel
Our Process
Audit Scope Definition
Identify the specific compliance domains under review based on your industry, workforce composition, geographic footprint, and risk profile.
Documentation Review
Examine employment files, I-9 records, compensation records, job descriptions, offer letters, and all HR policies for compliance deficiencies and documentation gaps.
Classification Analysis
Review all employee vs. independent contractor classifications and FLSA exempt/non-exempt designations against current DOL guidance and applicable state law.
Regulatory Mapping
Map current practices against applicable federal, state, and local employment law requirements specific to your workforce size and operating jurisdictions.
Remediation Roadmap
Deliver a prioritized action plan with risk severity rankings, required remediation timelines, cost estimates, and ongoing compliance monitoring recommendations.
Ready to explore a Compliance engagement?
Schedule a no-obligation consultation to discuss your situation and objectives.