mergers and acquisitions

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Case Study: Turning Time & Attendance into a Strategic Asset

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What You Need to Know Mergers and acquisitions are a powerful growth strategy, particularly from a workforce perspective. Acquiring an established business allows a parent company to inherit an experienced workforce in a new territory rather than building one from scratch. Yet acquisitions also introduce significant complexity. Policies differ. Pay structures vary. Benefits and scheduling practices may conflict. Long-tenured employees who have earned preferred schedules or enhanced vacation accruals can suddenly feel penalized for circumstances outside their control, putting retention and morale at risk during a critical transition period. Many organizations approach this challenge by rapidly standardizing policies across locations. While consistency can support fairness and compliance, moving too quickly can erode trust and disrupt the employee experience. The organization featured in this case study […]

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Research Agenda: Bridging Leadership and Labor – 3Sixty Insights’ 2026 Combined Workforce Agenda

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The future of work is no longer a theoretical concept touching artificial intelligence, remote work or skills transformation. Instead, it has become an operational reality at a time when managers are stretched beyond capacity, employee engagement is declining, compliance complexity is growing, labor markets are leaning toward employers even as companies struggle to find talent, and technology systems are expanding faster than organizations can implement governance. Across industries, leaders recognize that their primary challenge is not adopting new tools, but learning how to operate differently. The next phase of workforce transformation is defined less by innovation itself than by execution—how organizations translate technology, strategy and people practices into measurable outcomes. Research emerging from 3Sixty Insights, informed by the work of analysts Nicole Roberts and Dylan […]

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Monthly Research Recap | February 2026

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Recent Research: Research Agenda: Workforce Strategy, HR Enablement & HR Technology in an AI-Augmented World Nicole Roberts’ research agenda examines how workforce strategy, HR enablement, and HR technology are evolving as AI and automation reshape how work is performed and managed. The research focuses on enabling managers to lead effectively at scale, connecting skills and leadership capability to measurable business outcomes, designing HR–IT technology ecosystems that support AI-augmented work, navigating workforce transitions such as M&A and restructuring, and improving how organizations measure workforce performance to inform executive decision making. Grounded in practitioner experience and real-world case examples, the agenda emphasizes translating workforce data, technology investments, and workflow design into clearer decisions, stronger execution, and sustainable organizational capacity. Analyst Insight: Beyond Contact Data – How Apollo.io […]

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Research Agenda: Workforce Strategy, HR Enablement & HR Technology in an AI-Augmented World

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Analyst Overview Nicole brings more than 20 years of senior HR leadership experience, including serving as Chief People Officer and the first HR executive at several high-growth, private-equity–backed, and multi-site organizations. She has built HR functions from the ground up, led organizations through Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and rapid scaling, and evaluated, selected, and implemented a wide range of HR technologies as a buyer. She specializes in helping HR leaders translate workforce data into clear, executive-ready narratives that resonate with CEOs, CFOs, and private-equity stakeholders. In addition to her executive experience, Nicole serves as faculty with the Human Capital Institute, where she teaches courses in strategic workforce planning, talent acquisition, HR business partnering, change management, and leadership development. This work provides deep insight into the […]

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Research Agenda: Changing Workplace Dynamics & The Future of Work in 2026

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“The old system is gone. The new one has not yet formed,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the 2025 ASEAN Summit. While this is truer than ever for geopolitics, it’s also true for how we work. For the second (or even third) time this decade, the concept of “work” is changing, and AI is a big reason for it. Layoffs have begun at major tech companies driven by automation and a shift towards AI-driven work models, and within HR technology, there’s been significant consolidation and acquisition as vendors make investments that only the big players can handle. Offerings, messaging, pricing, and AI use are in flux, and we’ve yet to see how things will land. My research aims to help HR leaders make […]

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Case Study: HRIS Challenges in Global Growth and Mergers

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As companies expand their operations across the globe, managing HR systems becomes increasingly complex. HRIS solutions often struggle to adapt to the diverse legal, cultural, and operational challenges of global growth. The situation becomes even more complicated during mergers and acquisitions, where disparate HCM systems must be integrated into a cohesive framework. A seamless and efficient system is essential, but finding one that works globally and meets the specific needs of diverse locations can be daunting. Merging HR Systems for Two Mining Giants Consider the merger of two major mining companies: one with 18,000 employees and the other with 5,000. The larger company relied on SAP for its HCM system, while the smaller organization used a combination of Cornerstone and Oracle solutions. Despite their differences, […]

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Maximizing Private Equity Performance: The Role of PEOs in Strategic Human Capital Management

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Private equity (PE) firms face several challenges in their quest for high-potential investments, including rising capital costs, extended holding periods, and economic unpredictability. However, an often-overlooked factor in their evaluations of their portfolio companies is the importance of effective human capital management. The success of most companies is intricately tied to the presence of skilled and talented employees. In 2024, this is becoming more crucial than ever, especially as the best employees look towards companies that value employee well-being. A study by FTSE Russell found that companies focusing on effectively managing their human capital have significantly higher productivity, revenue, and profitability, with revenue-per-employee growth nearly double the average rate. These can be untapped gains for a new acquisition, especially given the higher attrition rates during […]

Analyzing M&A: OneSource Virtual’s Workday Deployment Business Acquired by Cognizant

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For as many as 1,300 OneSource Virtual (OSV) customers, the announcement that Cognizant will buy its Workday professional services and consulting business is easily missed. Timing-wise, the acquisition was announced immediately following OSV quarter-end sales (Halloween) and just before politically charged mid-term elections. Moreover, Cognizant is still not a widely recognized brand in HR circles or within the Workday ecosystem despite its 2020 acquisition of long-standing Workday partner, Collaborative Solutions. What just happened? Press releases tell us that Cognizant has entered an agreement to acquire the professional services and application management practices of OneSource Virtual. In layperson’s terms, this is the technical deployment business that requires certified Workday professionals to configure and integrate Workday customers to go-live. It also includes the application management solutions (AMS) […]

iCIMS Understands: Talent Acquisition Is Now Inside and Outside

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The linear, one-to-many and many-to-one journey of the job seeker is fast becoming a quaint relic of the past. So is its counterpart, the conventional approach to talent acquisition for hiring organizations — also at once one-to-many and many-to-one. This extinction is good, not bad. It would be great if this extinction picked up the pace. Many remain trapped in the old binary, a ledger of job seekers on one side and hiring organizations on the other as both apply an anachronistic model to their search. Their collective lives can be frustrating. In bad economies, the odds of this model working in favor of job seekers are exceedingly low as an influx of applications flood the hiring organization’s zone. In bad and good economies alike, […]