Starting out at the foothills of HR

Lawrence explains that she was one of those 18 year olds that had it all mapped out from the get-go. She wanted a mortgage, a job, and to move out of home as soon as she could pass through the exit of the school gates on her final year. With a father in the armed forces, she admits that she craved a ‘sense of belonging’ - that a childhood within the remits of the services doesn’t ordinarily afford.

It wasn’t long after full time education ended that Lawrence delivered on her dream and enrolled in a business and finance vocational course. One of the topics was personnel. “I am one of those annoying people that knew quite early on what I wanted to do, and it was HR. I was just 18.” She did just that, completing her course and enrolled in a further qualification, The Certificate in People Practice (CPP). Requiring a steady income, she worked by day in administration for a timeshare business while undertaking her course in the evening.

It was 2002, the festivities of the millennium were a distant memory, and the young Lawrence, imbued with box-fresh qualifications landed a job as a personnel and training administrator at Hampshire County Council. As with many first jobs, Lawrence vividly recalls the moment that she felt she had joined the workforce, “I remember the badge I used to have to wear that had my name on it,” she laughs.

After about a year, Lawrence, now married, relocated to Nottinghamshire for her husband’s job. Here, she became HR Assistant for NHS Sherwood Forest Hospitals. The role landed her knee-deep in doctor’s rotas, sourcing locum staff and what she dubs, ‘a lot of running around the hospital.’ Yet, Lawrence always had one eye on ‘what’s next’ and was lured by Hays recruitment consultancy in 2003. One for knowing her own mind, she quickly realised the role wasn’t for her and moved on. She joined West Nottinghamshire College in 2003 and stayed there for two years before joining Experian and that’s when Lawrence says her career really began. Starting out as an internal recruitment consultant she moved up the ranks to run the recruitment consultancy team before being promoted into a talent management role.

“It was a career defining moment for me. I was 28 and heavily pregnant with my second daughter. I received a phone call from the Director of Talent and Development who asked me to apply for a senior HR Business Partner role. I was absolutely blown away by it,” she explains. She accepted, went on maternity leave, and returned to the role five months later. Exposure to the ‘grittier’ side of employee relations gave her valuable experience and having garnered vital new skills she was ready for her next move, this time to Boots. It was the year before London hosted the Olympics and Lawrence joined the business with four other colleagues as senior HR business partner. “All of us have since gone on to become CPOs,” she says proudly.

In 2013, Lawrence was appointed, Head of Boots Optician HR. She performed in that role for two and half years. Then Equifax beckoned. “They were looking for an HR Director to join a company called TDX, which was an acquisition of Equifax to work on an integration. I was very excited about making the job title shift,” she says. The role was centred upon the project taking 18 months – in reality it took Lawrence just six.

“Meanwhile I got approached to join Costcutter Supermarket Group as their HR Director in York. I was there for four years, and it was an immense learning experience, the business was in quite a lot of distress,” she remarks. It was eventually sold, and Lawrence gained valuable exposure to the processes involved.

Moving to cardfactory mid lockdown

“It was lockdown, and I remember thinking that I had made this move from an essential to a non-essential retailer and really wondering if it was wise!” The gamble paid off and Lawrence remembers the stark contrast between keeping front line staff at Costcutter engaged while moving employees onto furlough at cardfactory. Since the Covid false start, Lawrence has notched up four years with the business. Her initial role as Chief People Officer has moved to include Transformation in the title.

“The CEO knew that we didn’t need another seat around the table because we already had a good sized executive committee, and we were looking for someone that had both the capacity and the capability to take on additional responsibility as an executive member. I was delighted to take up the opportunity.” That was two years ago.