A GROUNDBREAKING product aiming to save UK businesses millions of pounds every year has been launched by a Scottish company.
Begins a spokesperson: “Bad management and people problems cost UK companies in excess of £19bn every year, but ‘People Due Diligence’ has been created to solve the problem.
“An unique product, People Due Diligence will help businesses looking to acquire, merge or float address the extra elements of the diligence process usually missed by the lawyers and accountants.
“The brainchild of Duncan Bury and Jane Buick of Miascape, People Due Diligence has already saved businesses hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“According to Bury, carrying out due diligence on the workforce and senior team is at least equal to other elements of due diligence.
“Conventional due diligence establishes the veracity of the facts presented by the organisation, but if there is one or many individuals within an organisation whose thinking, and therefore subsequent behaviours, negatively or disproportionately positively impacts the performance of an organisation then an investor needs to know about it.”
Says Bury: “Mitigating people risk is as important as mitigating financial, IT, operations or sales because all these functions are people-led.
“Companies understand the need for legal, financial and commercial due diligence, but not so much the need for people due diligence.”
PDD models organisations at a thinking level. It works out the unwritten rules of the organisation, the way things really are.
A policy and procedure audit determines that you have policies and procedures.
A people due diligence audit tells you what is really going on despite governance, policy and procedure.
PDD also identifies links between people issues throughout the organisation that impact the performance of the organisation.
The Miascape MD says: “The need to assess PDD has been recognised but there was not a methodology to deal with it other than checking CVs.
“Investors with the best intention had to rely on their wits to uncover major boardroom tensions or deep-seated people issues.
“Until now, they have not had the tools to do true people due diligence, unlike IT or financial due diligence.”
The spokesperson adds: “The Miascape team insist that if due diligence on people is not done properly then you are taking a huge risk on the ongoing performance of the organisation.
“This could involve major rectifying actions involving recruitment, development, grievance, severance and engagement.
“Knowing about the issue means it can be dealt with rapidly prior to it impacting your investment detrimentally. Sometimes, the smallest issues could have the potential to impact in a massive way.
“Bury can cite numerous examples of PDD at its best: a key client-facing employee in a company looking to raise capital was significantly impacting the organisation internally.
The estimated costs of their behaviour were 120 per cent of the revenue they were bringing in to the business. The company had not made this connection.
“And another – a family-owned and run business – wanted to sell the business but they could never get to a conclusion with investors.
“PDD showed that that the internal vision of the family was changeable and not in line with the consensus view being told to investors.”
Continues Bury: “Selling, merging or floating your business is a crucial time, and you need to be able to reflect the value of your people in the overall valuation.
“But if you are buying that business, moving into that business you need to know how the people think, work, perform. It’s essential for both parties.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
Background statistics -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/hr-news/8879895/Bad-management-costs-UK-19bn-a-year.html#.Tt98sqITHJY.mailto
http://www.miascape.com
For further information, or to arrange interviews or photographs, please contact: Duncan Bury, Miascape 08700 421340 or email hello@miascape.com
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Contact: Duncan Bury
Phone: 08700 421340
Email: hello@miascape.com
Website: http://www.miascape.com
