Dear Colleague,
In addition to what our learned Colleague mentioned:
In M&A, the Company Secretariat, Finance, Technical Team and HR has to work jointly in general.
HR use to focus on :
1. Take full stock of Organization's Blue print- Number of employees, Number of Unions
2. Details of Settlements that are prevailing and due for renewal if any
3. List of approvals like Plans approval, Registration, Site Appraisal of the Plant, Local Body approvals, Licenses, Registrations and so on
4. Take stock of Financial Commitment- Contingent Liability from HR Angle for any pending Industrial Disputes, Bonus dues, PF Dues, ESI Dues, Wages dues, Minimum Wages compliance and if gaps what is the commitment for past, Gratuity actuarial for past liability, Increments if any committed but not done and volume of financial commitment involved and such other list of financial impacts
5. Pending Cases, Industrial Disputes, Enquiry notices, litigations pending and the SWOT of those matters
6. Assessment on the Work Place Industrial Relations Climate and action plan
7. Plans on Communication Strategy to employees and how to stream line the Working Class further
8. Terms of employment, Code of Conduct, Standing Orders and how they are implemented now and what is proposed
9. Total Blue Print of SWOT of the Unions, Local Community, Employees and Stake holders
10. An Audit by your Company on the HR Process, IR Process, Compliance status to assess the gaps if any well in advance.
11. Comparison Viz Approvals, Licenses and actuals and process to follow
12. Any past commitments made in writing by the other Management and what are the list and impacts in near future
13. How to rationalize the Manpower to the expected level if there is excess manpower on board
14. Meeting with the Local Authorities under different Acts - Factories Act, Mines Act, PF, ESI, Contract Labour and to assess gaps if any
15. Third Party Risk Assessment Audit on HR/IR /Compliance
These are some of the usual practices we use to adopt in our previous companies which might be useful on few points for you also.