Former Carnival UK Senior Vice President, People Services Heidi Skirrow has launched the Dorset franchise of Absolute Works, specialising in outsourced HR and Employment Law for local based SMEs.
Prior to Absolute Works, Skirrow enjoyed a high flying career with Carnival, the world’s largest cruise-ship company with a world-famous portfolio of cruise brands including Cunard, P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises.
As Senior Vice President, People Services, she was responsible for all aspects of operational HR in an organisation with 17,500 employees across more than 60 labour markets, overseeing a multi-disciplinary HR team. In this role, Skirrow also led the delivery of a new people services strategy and delivered many high-profile projects, including ensuring that new cruise ships were ready for service.
“My role at Carnival UK was due to be merged with another which would have involved a lot more travel. My family, and especially my children – Freddie, eight, and Zara, five – are my priority and I just didn’t want to be away from them on a regular basis so I applied for voluntary redundancy,” said Skirrow.
Prior to Carnival, Skirrow also held senior HR roles with Weymouth College, Phillips Medical Systems, MRS Environmental Services Ltd and Transport for London.
Absolute Works Dorset will offer a range of outsourced services to businesses across a wide range of sectors. Services include employment law, HR and health and safety. Absolute Works also provides payroll, E-Learning and are an approved apprenticeship provider.
With a master’s degree in Employment Law and a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development, Heidi is now looking forward to sharing her HR and Employment Law expertise with Dorset’s business community and growing the Absolute Works Dorset client base, in addition to employing a team of HR and legal professionals, to be based in Poole.
“I departed Carnival earlier this year to fulfil my long-held ambition of establishing a Dorset based business and building a specialist team in an area, HR and Employment Law, that I am absolutely passionate about. I now hope to bring my skills and knowledge, built up over the last 25 years, to local based SMEs,” said Skirrow. “Partnering with Absolute Works, to launch and own the first Dorset based franchise, seemed like a great fit for me given their Company values, commercial thinking and approach to delivering great customer service, which perfectly reflects that of my own.”
Skirrow added “Employment law is changing all the time so it can often be difficult for businesses to ensure their people and management practices are within the scope of the law. Our services are absolutely ideal for any SME with employees’ as they can have all the HR expertise they need without the higher cost of employing someone within their team.”
Joy May, Founder & CEO, Absolute Works, added, “We are thrilled to have Heidi on board. Heidi is approachable, commercial and has a wealth of expertise working with SMEs and large UK and international businesses. Her commercial approach to people solutions is exactly what businesses are looking for.”