Desiree Aprekuma
VP of People
RisePoint
Episode 25
Beyond HR Admin: How Strategic People Leaders Drive Engagement with AI
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features the stories and insights of world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleNovember 12, 2025 · 7:39
Thesis
“Effective HR leadership is rooted in a deep understanding of both people and business metrics, leveraging technology and strategic adaptation to foster engagement and drive organizational success, especially in dynamic environments like remote work.”
Show notes
HR found Desiree Aprekuma before she found it. A mentor pointed her toward the function, she stepped in, and discovered the intersection of people curiosity and problem-solving that's made the work feel natural ever since. As VP of People at RisePoint, she's applying that same curiosity to one of the defining HR challenges of the current era: keeping a fully remote team genuinely connected — not just technically functional, but actually engaged with each other and the mission.
Remote engagement isn't a new problem, but Desiree approaches it with unusual creativity. She's constantly testing new ideas for meaningful, memorable touchpoints — the kind that build rapport rather than just check a box on the engagement calendar. It requires both the people instincts that drew her to HR in the first place and the business acumen to measure what's working and justify the investment. She's direct about this: HR professionals who can't speak the language of metrics don't last long at the leadership table.
Her AI thinking is practical: use it to eliminate the administrative drag — meeting summaries, note-taking, repetitive documentation — so that the time recovered can go toward the strategic conversations and creative problem-solving that actually move the needle. The goal isn't to automate HR. It's to free up the humans in HR to do better human work.
What you'll learn:
- The remote engagement challenge at RisePoint — and the creative approach to building real connection across distributed teams
- How Desiree uses AI to eliminate administrative drag and reclaim time for strategic work
- Why Workday and HRIS strategy require continuous change management — not just implementation
- The dual fluency HR needs: people instincts and business metrics
- What it takes to earn and hold a seat at the leadership table as an HR leader
- How curiosity about people's stories makes HR more effective — and more human
Built by People is presented by Previ — the free tool that helps HR teams boost internal communication engagement.
What you'll take away
- 1HR often 'finds' individuals, leading to fulfilling careers driven by curiosity about people and problem-solving.
- 2The biggest current challenge for HR is maintaining team member engagement, connection, and rapport in a remote work environment.
- 3AI presents a significant opportunity for HR leaders to automate administrative tasks, freeing up time for more strategic conversations and creative engagement initiatives.
- 4A critical HR tool is the HRIS system (e.g., Workday), requiring continuous adaptation and change management to ensure processes serve the entire business, not just HR.
- 5Top HR leaders must understand both the 'people' aspect and the 'numbers' (business acumen) to secure their strategic position at the leadership table.
What most organizations get wrong
In Desiree's words
“HR is where my natural curiosity for people kind of met my ability to solve problems, and I've just been hooked ever since.”
This quote highlights the guest's passion for HR, stemming from an innate drive to understand people and resolve issues.
“working in a remote environment has posed a unique challenge for my current employer. And we are constantly thinking of ways to keep our team members engaged, to find meaningful, memorable ways for them to connect, to build rapport with one another.”
This identifies a core pain point and strategic focus for HR in the current work landscape.
“how can I use this technology as an HR leader to be more effective, whether it's leveraging it for, you know, all the virtual meetings that I have and note-taking or helping to summarize notes, but just ways to cut down a little bit of that admin that we have to do and spend it in more strategic conversations, right?”
This showcases the guest's forward-thinking approach to leveraging AI to enhance HR's strategic value by reducing administrative burden.
“we're looking at not things just from an HR perspective, right? We don't want to build processes that only work for the HR team. They need to work for the business.”
This emphasizes the critical need for HR processes to be business-centric rather than purely HR-centric, ensuring broader organizational benefit.
“the best HR leaders know the people and they know the numbers. So if you can speak the language of both, you'll always have a seat at the table.”
This provides a concise, actionable piece of advice for aspiring and current HR leaders on how to achieve strategic influence.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Keeping remote and hybrid teams consistently engaged and connected to foster rapport.
- •Effectively leveraging new and evolving technologies, particularly AI, to reduce HR administrative tasks and shift focus to strategic initiatives.
- •Managing change associated with implementing new processes or enhancements within HRIS systems (e.g., Workday) across the organization.
- •Ensuring HR processes are designed to benefit the entire business, not just the HR department.
- •Recruiting specialized talent, such as AI engineers and product managers, especially in a competitive nationwide remote hiring landscape.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features the stories and insights of world's top HR leaders
Built by People: The Human Resources Podcast
You say you didn't set out to be in HR
What Led You To Your Career Path
Working in a remote environment has posed a unique challenge for your current employer
What's the Biggest Challenge in HR?
Which tools or partners are most critical for your people function today
HR Tools: Most Critical for the People Function
Desiree says RisePoint will continue to grow and hire great people
What's Change at RisePoint in the Next 12 Months
What parting advice would you share with our community about HR
A message from the
Desiree Johnson joins us on Built by People podcast
Building a Better World
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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