Chief People Officer Debbie Lawrence shares how Integris is leveraging technology to strategically streamline the employee lifecycle and foster a culture of agility.

By Maggie Mancini

It’s no secret that a great employee experience drives morale, productivity, retention, and engagement. But when should that experience start? For many HR and talent leaders, supporting team members through the entire employee lifecycle—from attraction to separation—is key to enhancing these metrics, maintaining an engaged talent pipeline, and cultivating an environment focused on growth and agility.  

Recently, HRO Today spoke with Debbie Lawrence, chief people officer at Integris, an IT support and managed services provider, to discuss how she has led her organization’s efforts to reshape the employee lifecycle.  

HRO Today: What strategic changes has Integris made to enable longevity in the employee lifecycle? 

Debbie Lawrence: I joined Integris just a little over two years ago with a goal to transform HR from a traditional approach to a proactive, talent-fueled approach. To do that, my path was focused on:  

• preparing an organization that hasn’t even seen a graphic of an employee lifecycle to grasp the concept; 
• restructuring and upskilling the team to support the phases of the lifecycle in the business; and 
• providing a digital experience that enables our leaders to connect with and grow their team members.  

The past 18 months have been spent building out the talent motions of the organization beginning with a strong talent acquisition program and moving to talent development programs that provide a hire-to-retire career and skills progression plan for our team members. This was enabled by learning content from both external sources and internal subject matter experts.    

Another strategic change for the organization and within the HR department specifically was the creation of the HR business partner function. Our HRBPs are heavily integrated into the day-to-day of our functional teams, providing on-demand coaching and support.  

In turn, this support helps interweave our approach to people with our company strategy.  The “ribbon” on the package has been the build-out of our internal communications team. This team works across the business and the people and culture team to ensure that our employees are informed from a companywide and team-based perspective. With a strong sense of transparency, we’ve created a culture built on trust which furthers our vision to  strengthen the employee life cycle. 

HROT: How has the organization leveraged technology to reach this goal and reinvigorate the employee lifecycle? 

Lawrence: Integris is knee-deep in a robust digital transformation that leverages integrated systems and tools, automation, and AI. We are excited to focus our people and culture team on the more strategic initiatives while equipping leadership and team members with the ability to manage their own employee lifecycle.  

By consolidating the entire talent journey into an automated platform we’re streamlining recruiting, onboarding, and ongoing development. Features like interactive development plans, embedded learning content, one-on-one meeting collaborations, and feedback hubs marry our upskilling and retention strategy to the day-to-day experience.    

Our road map includes the use of Agentic AI to ensure the “one and done” needs of our employees are met seamlessly with resources at their fingertips, forgoing unnecessary layers of support to wade through. In short, we are automating the “blocking and tackling” to ensure that we spend time on the care and feeding of our team members. 

HROT: What are the results of this strategic change? How have these changes impacted the company’s learning and development programs? 

Lawrence: We are currently still in the build-out phase of most of our transformation; however, early indicators show strong momentum and excitement across the organization. Phase one of our pilot will launch in the coming weeks, including career maps, training journeys, curated content, and automation items. The pilot phase will also include feedback from end-users to ensure that the experience is dynamic, intuitive, and aligned with our future-ready MSP strategy. The full rollout is scheduled for January 2026.  

From the people and culture perspective, we have extremely high satisfaction among our team members. The last 18 months have come with stretch goals, promotional opportunities, increased training and development, and compensation alignment. These changes have allowed our people to lean into their strengths and grow in meaningful ways, setting the tone for a more empowered and agile workforce. 

HROT: What should other HR leaders take away from this experience? 

Lawrence: Don’t be afraid to shake things up or eat the frog. You won’t ever have enough time and resources, so there will never be a “right time” to start transforming your team or the organization. I do guarantee if you don’t start soon, your organization will be left behind.  

Use these questions as a state to determine your course of action. 

• What is the ideal future “people and skillsets” state for your HR team and organization? 
• What skillsets currently reside in-house? 
• What is your timeline? 
• Do you have the infrastructure to support the future need? 
• Are your leaders equipped to accurately assess, coach, develop, and manage performance appropriately? 
• What can be automated? 
• What outcomes are you driving to? 
• How will you measure effectiveness? 

Strive for progress, not perfection. Every program you put in place can evolve.