Meet the Founder Interview

DayoneHR was born through a vision to strengthen and support companies by improving their people processes with HR technology. Recently, I caught up with our founder, Lauren Cowan, and asked her a few questions about starting the business and her main motivations behind her work. Here, Lauren shares some stories about herself and the business and reveals some clues about what’s in store for DayoneHR in the future.

Firstly, can you share a bit about yourself?

From a young age, I have always been interested in politics. So this is what I chose to study as a teenager when I left home for University. Upon graduating in 2009, I found myself working in Human Resources which in reality was not that far removed from politics. As I got to grips with the remit of my first HR role, I soon realised this was not only my calling but also brought forward my desire to support others through change. For 12 years now I have worked in HR; the last 5 as the founder and principal consultant of my company, DayoneHR. I currently live in Oxfordshire, England with my husband Andy and our beloved pug, Mojo. When I’m not working, you can usually find me chatting away to people in the village where I live or out and about searching for delicious gluten and dairy free baked goods :)

What inspired you to start your own consulting business?

I have been lucky enough to work with some great companies during points of real change in their growth journeys. I’ve seen how challenging it is for teams when managing HR processes and operational workload in fast-paced organisations. I was living and breathing the pain points HR teams face every day; buried in emails and trying to complete onerous tasks whilst fighting the clock. I quickly realized that it wasn’t just me who felt this way and that HR professionals throughout the world were facing the same challenges, especially in growing SMBs and startups. Something had to change! During Christmas time of 2016 I decided the best way for me to effect meaningful change was to start my own business. My intention was to support HR teams to adopt cutting edge HR technology and automated process flows to better manage the day-to-day hurdles of running a HR department. There and then, my business idea was born!

‘DayoneHR’ sounds like an interesting name. What’s the story behind it?

By the end of 2016 I had my mission. Next up, I had to decide on a name. I remember sitting at the dinner table with my family and throwing out ideas. At some point in the conversation I started talking about my time with Amazon and how as Amazonians we followed the ‘Day 1’ philosophy. This idea involved holding and maintaining a startup mentality and not being afraid of change; treating every day as though it’s day one and embracing powerful trends quickly. To me, this seemed like the perfect philosophy to carry forward into my new venture as a HR Transformation Consultant. Just like that I had my company name - DayoneHR - and now the business set up could begin.

What motivates you to keep going?

In the back of my mind I always hold that feeling of what it's like being a HR operator trying to support a business with diverse and critical objectives. When I speak to individuals and hear those same challenges I’ve faced myself before, I know how exhausted they are and how I can help to make their job more manageable. When I complete a HR Tech transformation project with a client and I can see how the department has been elevated, the feeling is incredible and it makes everything worthwhile. I have been lucky enough to work with companies of all sizes, HR teams on every continent and leadership teams from an array of industries. The excitement of starting a new client journey and meeting their team members brings me so much joy, each and every time!

Tell us a fascinating fact about the company.

People are always surprised to learn that my husband works in the company with me. Andy has always supported DayoneHR from the sidelines, but at the end of 2019 I knew that I wouldn’t be able to manage the business growth without his knowledge and expertise. So I convinced him to join the journey. Many people have said to us that they couldn’t work with their partner, to which we just laugh. I am very lucky to say we work really well together and complement each other’s skill sets. I couldn’t do what I do without his collaboration and support.

What are DayoneHR’s goals and objectives for the future?

Even with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has grown beyond my expectations. This growth has encouraged me to focus even more on how we stay true to our company mission. As we continue to hire people to join the DayoneHR family and support our wonderful clients, I am acutely aware that globally there is a shortage of HR Tech specialists needed to support businesses through to their next stage of growth. With this in mind, we are currently working on a key business objective which we hope will help to tackle this problem. Look out for this launching in early 2022.

If you would like to speak to our founder directly and learn more about how DayoneHR can support your business needs, reach out to us on our contact page to arrange a free consultation with Lauren.