Who We Serve — HR for PE-Backed Companies
Every add-on brings its own people risk.
We standardize it before it costs you.
HR for PE-backed companies is a different problem than HR for a single business. Building Force Solutions delivers fractional HR leadership for private equity portfolio and holding companies, 5 to 150 employees per entity, standardizing HR practices across platforms and add-ons so people risk stops being a surprise in diligence, an integration, or an exit.
One relationship. Standardized playbooks across every portfolio company.
Employees per entity. Too small to justify a full HR department at each portfolio company, too much exposure to leave unmanaged.
HR for PE-backed companies deployed consistently across a platform and its add-ons, not reinvented at every acquisition.
A named senior HR professional operating partners and portfolio CEOs can call directly, across every entity in the relationship.
The Problem
People risk doesn’t show up on the cap table
Fractional CFOs and controllers are already standard practice in the lower middle market. HR for PE-backed companies is usually the gap, and it’s the one that surfaces at the worst possible moment.
Diligence finds it late
Misclassification, unpaid overtime, and undocumented terminations are common diligence findings. Found late, they move price, get held back in escrow, or kill momentum.
Every add-on is different
Each acquired company arrives with its own handbook, its own pay practices, its own way of handling a termination. Nobody owns making them consistent.
No HR leader at the portfolio level
A 40-person portfolio company doesn’t justify a full-time HR head, but it’s carrying full-time HR exposure. That gap sits with the CEO or the ops partner, unmanaged.
Exit readiness is an afterthought
Clean personnel files and defensible pay practices protect valuation at exit. Most companies start fixing this only once a banker is already in the deal.
What You Get
HR for PE-backed companies, sized to the platform and standardized across the portfolio
The same four pillars as our core Fractional HR Leadership engagement, deployed consistently across as many entities as the relationship requires.
Diligence & integration support
Pre-close HR risk review and post-close standardization, so an acquired entity’s classification, pay practices, and documentation match the platform’s standard fast.
Standardized policy playbook
One handbook framework and documentation system, adapted per entity, so every portfolio company runs a defensible, consistent HR practice.
Value-creation-plan support
Hiring systems, retention, and comp structure improvements that operating partners can point to as a documented lever in the value creation plan.
The hard conversations
Portfolio-company terminations, leadership transitions, and employee disputes handled with the documentation rigor a future buyer’s counsel will expect to see.
Where We Fit
Firms and companies we work with
HR for PE-backed companies looks different depending on where you sit in the structure. These are the four positions we most often work from.
Lower middle market PE funds
Operating partners who want one HR relationship across several portfolio companies instead of reinventing HR at each one.
Independent sponsors & search funds
Single-asset owners who just closed and need HR standardized fast, without hiring a full-time head of people for one company.
Holding companies running roll-ups
Multiple acquired entities under one roof, each with its own legacy HR habits that need to become one consistent standard.
Portfolio company management teams
CEOs and GMs inside a platform who need a real HR leader on call, without the full-time headcount.
Fit Check
Built for some companies. Not for all.
HR for PE-backed companies is not a fit for every fund or every entity. Here is where we work best, and where we do not.
Strong fit
- Portfolio or holding company entity with 5 to 150 employees
- Recent, pending, or planned acquisition activity
- No dedicated HR leadership at the entity or platform level
- Preparing for an exit and want clean HR diligence files
Probably not a fit
- Fund already runs shared HR services across the portfolio
- Single entity with a mature, staffed HR department
- Wants payroll processing or benefits administration only
- Large-cap platform with existing People leadership in place
Common Questions
HR for PE-backed companies: straight answers
Can one fractional HR leader support multiple portfolio companies?
Yes. That is one of the more common ways operating partners use us: one relationship, standardized playbooks, and a consistent point of contact across two, three, or more portfolio companies, each sized to its own headcount and risk.
How does fractional HR help with an acquisition or a roll-up?
Post-close, an acquired company usually brings its own handbook, pay practices, and classification habits, some of them non-compliant. We standardize the acquired entity onto defensible policy fast, integrate it into the platform’s HR playbook, and flag exposure before it becomes a post-close surprise.
Does HR exposure actually affect a deal or a valuation?
Yes. Worker misclassification, wage and hour violations, and undocumented terminations are standard findings in HR due diligence, and they get priced into a deal or held back in escrow. Clean personnel files and defensible pay practices protect purchase price on the way in and on the way out.
Who You Work With
One named HR leader, not a rotating bench
HR for PE-backed companies only works when the same person knows every entity in the portfolio. Trevor Burns leads every engagement personally, so operating partners and portfolio CEOs call one number, not a service desk.
That continuity is the point. The person who reviewed classification at the platform is the person who standardizes the next add-on, and the person who has the documentation ready when a buyer’s counsel asks for it.
Ready to standardize HR across the portfolio?
One call. We’ll tell you where the exposure sits across your platform and whether fractional HR for PE-backed companies is the right structure for you.