SUMMARY
Purpose. Modern business is increasingly focusing on alternative options for integration among corporate growth stimulation measures, in particular, through the formation of new strategic alliances, collaboration with enterprises and start-ups, as well as through mergers or acquisitions. That is why the research is aimed at solving problems of effective management of personnel in the process of merger of enterprises, in particular, in the machine building industry by merging, takeover or otherwise integrating business, as well as at developing modern approaches to personnel management in business mergers. HR systems should be adapted to the specific conditions of the merger or takeover of business structures, taking into account the relevant phases of the process of enterprise integration. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study consist of general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, comparative study of the economic processes in the management of personnel in the conditions of mergers and takeovers of business structures. The empirical method is used to describe the problem of taking into consideration the management of particular features of individual phases of the process of enterprise integration. This monographic study of a defined problem has given an opportunity to obtain results of practical significance and scientific value. Results. The necessity of taking into account the specifics of the individual phases of the merger of enterprises in the management of integrated business personnel is substantiated. It has been obtained the further development of HR-tools, HR-methods, and HR-practices, the use of which during the business mergers will help to address the shortage of key skills and improve the efficiency of the integrated business. Practical implications. Applied guidance on human resources management can be successfully implemented in the machine-building enterprises of Ukraine in the process of their merger with the aim of creating a more efficient integrated entity. The results of the study provide an opportunity to clearly outline the peculiarities of the phases of the process of business combining, which necessitate the use of appropriate HR-tools, HR-methods, and HR-practices for the integrated business. Originality. The novelty of the results is the conceptual scheme of the personnel decision-making in the conditions of organizational changes in the combination of machine-building enterprises taking into account the three-phase process of their integration. The article focuses on the crucial importance of using HR-practices in accordance with the phases of the merger process to ensure the success of mergers and takeovers, resulting in new business combinations. The article explores HR-practices in the field of mergers and takeovers, which create new business combinations. The expediency of using HR-tools and HR-methods is proved for domestic enterprises operating in the field of machine-building, which are interested parties of integration processes. The developed human resources recommendations make it possible to increase the organizational efficiency of functioning of newly formed and already existing associations of machine-building enterprises.