People Force has agreed to be acquired by Big Four consultancy PwC. The deal, which takes place for an undisclosed fee, is expected to reach completion by April 2023.
Founded in 2013, People Force is headquartered in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. Operating in the areas of people technology selection and implementation, it supports clients through their transformational journey when introducing sophisticated people technology. It’s 50 professionals particularly specialise in services for Ceridian Dayforce – a cloud human capital management platform that provides human resources, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management functionality.
Pritul Khagram, CEO at People Force, commented, “We are thrilled to be joining an international professional services brand, which prides itself in developing a great culture for its people and delivering a first-class service to clients around the world. I am excited about the career opportunities this acquisition will offer to our colleagues. I am also very excited to be involved in supporting the firm with its growth strategy in the HR technology arena.”
PwC’s acquisition of People Force is part of the professional services giant’s technology alliance strategy, sees all its employees join PwC’s people and organisation team. This includes People Force’s senior leadership team which has been led by Khagram, who will play a leading role in the Ceridian Dayforce practice.
Looking ahead, Laura Hinton, Partner and UK Tax Leader at PwC, noted, “People Force has a strong reputation in the market for delivering Ceridian’s Dayforce platform for HR functions. This acquisition is critical to achieving significant growth in our HR technology offering where we are seeing high demand from our clients, and it is also in line with our global strategy, the New Equation, which looks to invest in skills, new capabilities and technology.”
Pandemic-era shifts in the labour market are still seeing employers struggling to attract talent. Throughout the last year, large numbers of mid-market firms in particular failed to fill roles for extended periods. In this environment, employers are increasingly seeking technological support from companies like People Force, which can help streamline and enhance their sourcing and management of talent.
As such, the value of M&A involving HRTech was already pushing $11 billion going into 2023. As firms like PwC look to meet the increasing demand for digital HR solutions, the HRTech market is expected to further buck wider M&A trends, by booming further in the following 12 months.