Silvia Van Dusen
Executive VP, CHRO
LinQuest
Episode 307
Private Equity's HR Challenge: Agile value creation and constant M&A readiness.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleFebruary 10, 2025 · 14:20
Thesis
“HR executives in private equity-backed companies must be exceptionally agile and business-focused, prioritizing rapid value creation and strategic preparation for potential acquisitions by maintaining compliance, fostering an engaged culture, and optimizing workforce planning to ensure minimal impact during transitions.”
Show notes
Private equity moves fast. When a PE sponsor acquires a company, the clock starts immediately — and HR either accelerates value creation or becomes the obstacle to it. Silvia Van Dusen has learned to be the former, and her framework for doing it is more practical than most CHRO playbooks acknowledge.
Silvia's career began in payroll and has evolved into executive HR leadership in some of the most demanding environments in the business: PE-backed organizations where the mandate isn't just culture building but rapid value creation, compliance hardening, and preparation for the next transaction. Her core conviction: "In a PE setting, when you have a PE sponsor, you really have to be business-focused, very agile." That means strategic workforce planning that builds a leaner, more capable organization — not just headcount management. It means compliance work done proactively, not reactively. And it means keeping an eye on acquisition readiness as a permanent operating condition, not a crisis-mode sprint.
Her perspective on M&A integrations is particularly useful: the technical work — systems, processes, org charts — is rarely where integrations fail. They fail on culture and communication. When organizations merge, employees need to understand what's changing, what's not, and why — and they need to hear it early, clearly, and repeatedly. Silvia describes the HR role during integrations as a transition from operator to consultant: your job shifts from running the function to advising the acquiring company on how to navigate what they're inheriting. That's a different skill set, and one that requires being honest about both the strengths and the vulnerabilities you're handing over.
- HR in private equity — the specific agility, business focus, and value-creation mindset that PE environments demand
- Acquisition readiness as a permanent HR posture — maintaining compliance, culture, and workforce quality as though a deal could close tomorrow
- M&A integration success factors — why culture alignment and communication determine outcomes more than systems integration
- Transitioning from operator to consultant during acquisitions — what HR's role looks like on the other side of the transaction
- Strategic workforce planning in lean environments — building organizations that are "thinner and meaner" without sacrificing capability
- Analytics and performance metrics in PE — demonstrating HR's value through data in environments where everything is measured
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What you'll take away
- 1In PE-backed companies, HR must be business-focused, agile, and capable of rapid value creation, often involving quick revamping of processes with a short-term strategic view.
- 2Preparing for acquisition requires strong compliance, robust processes, a positive culture, engaged workforce, and transparent communication, maintaining business as usual ('cooking dinner every night').
- 3Successful M&A integrations heavily rely on aligning cultures and fostering trust through clear communication and genuinely listening to employee feelings.
- 4Strategic workforce planning in PE environments involves thoughtful staffing to build a 'thinner, meaner organization' to minimize layoff trauma during an exit, balancing growth with exit readiness.
- 5Beyond standard metrics, delve deeper into people analytics (e.g., turnover reasons linked to customer satisfaction) to demonstrate workforce merit and value, which is attractive to acquiring companies.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Sometimes less is more, especially when we're in growth mode... if you make your processes too robust, you're wasting money and time. You need to realize that whoever's going to buy you most likely is going to be a bigger fish.
- •You want to set up your organization to where you have minimal impact to people's layoffs and so forth through this merger. So if you run a little bit of a thinner, meaner organization, you have less trauma on the exit side.
In Silvia's words
“I believe that it's really in a PE setting, when you have a PE sponsor, you really have to be business-focused, very agile, and able to make decisions to create value rapidly.”
This clearly defines the distinct demands and mindset required for HR executives in private equity environments.
“It's almost like living in a house that is a constant open house, right? It's gotta be pristine and ready for that sale, but you still have to cook dinner every night.”
This vivid analogy perfectly illustrates the dual challenge of preparing a company for acquisition while maintaining day-to-day operations and employee focus.
“Most mergers that are very painful is cultural. It's not the product, it's not the operations that fall apart, it's the cultures that fall apart.”
This highlights a critical, often underestimated, factor in M&A success, emphasizing culture over operational or product alignment.
“If you run a little bit of a thinner, meaner organization, you have less trauma on the exit side.”
This is a contrarian take on workforce planning in the context of an impending exit, suggesting that lean operations can mitigate negative impacts.
“I don't think private equity is for everybody. It's not, not everyone likes it. It has some risk, and most of the time executives have a job with an expiration date, right?”
This provides a frank and realistic assessment of the unique challenges and impermanence often associated with executive roles in private equity-backed companies.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Adapting HR strategy from traditional corporate to agile, value-driven private equity settings.
- •Preparing a workforce for potential acquisition while maintaining morale and operational focus ('constant open house').
- •Managing the cultural integration challenges during mergers and acquisitions, which are often the primary cause of failure.
- •Transitioning from a decision-maker to a consultative role post-acquisition, requiring a shift in mindset and ego management.
- •Balancing growth-oriented workforce planning with the need to prepare for an eventual exit to minimize workforce trauma (e.g., layoffs).
- •Moving beyond superficial people analytics to deeply understand performance and employee sentiment in the context of customer satisfaction.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Preparing a company and its workforce for a potential acquisition is critical
Have You Prepared Your Company for an Acquisition?
You transitioned from being an operator to a consultant during the acquisition process
The Transition from Operational HR to Consultant HR
HR leaders should consider minimizing workforce impact during a merger or an acquisition
Employee Impact of Merger and Acquisition
Toby's approach to workforce planning has evolved throughout his career
Employment Planning for Growth and An Exit
Sylvia, I'm curious about some of the analytics you're showcasing
High-Performance Analytics
I don't think private equity is for everybody, not everyone likes it
Private Equity Executives: What They Need to Know
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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