Five Minutes with Jess Lawson

Jess truly believes in the power of a good conversation! She is passionate about helping people have better conversations, connections and experiences at work. Based in Auckland, Jess has been in people-focused HR managerial roles across the private and public sectors for 15 years, working on people strategy development down to HR operations. Thanks to her Psychology degree, she brings a depth of human understanding and empathy (as well as some solid problem-solving skills) to any HR situation. Read: you want her in the room when any challenge arises. Here’s five minutes with Jess. 

How would you describe the culture at PeopleEX?

The culture at PeopleEX is fun, supportive, trusting and innovative. We are output focused and have high levels of autonomy while encouraged to be flexible in how we work to be present for the moments that matter in our lives. Despite working remotely, we're well connected and meet regularly - I love the amount of idea generation and sharing we do every week to keep each other up to date and deliver great results for our clients.

What are your predictions for the future of HR?

HR has been and always will be an essential connector - connecting talent and skills to roles, supporting better connections and conversations across organisations, or linking business purpose to the people within an organisation to drive engagement.

Yet the pace of change at the moment is fast, and the next few years will be no different. HR can play a really important role in supporting organisations to manage change with a people-first approach.

It's been a huge few years for HR professionals, with the world of work changing dramatically over such a short time. I think this evolution will continue, and HR teams will have more opportunities to lead the conversation around the future of work and talent strategies. Linked to this will be the continued need for upskilling and reskilling to enable people to develop the capabilities that will be demanded in the future.

What are your outside interests?

We have two young girls and a puppy, so a lot of my time outside work is spent at one of the many beaches and parks near home. I love spending time with friends and family, camping holidays by the beach, and in a previous life, international travel. I also love a good concert or festival!