This month, we speak to ABW Member, Laura Rennie on winning her award for “Ayrshire Business Woman of the Year” in 2019 (Written by ABW Secretary, Jane Mack)
At the Annual General Meeting in 2019, we were very proud to announce that Laura Rennie of Arena HR was selected as 'Ayrshire Business Woman of the Year'. Now two years later, we followed up with Laura to find out whether winning this Award has made any positive changes to her business and her career.
Laura has over 20 years of HR experience, working in various roles including the Public Sector, Hospitality, voluntary and private organisations. She made the decision to set up her own business, Arena HR in February 2016 to provide Human Resources support and services to businesses throughout Ayrshire and beyond. Arena HR specialise in Employment law, Recruitment and Business Re-structuring. Laura created the movement #doingHRright, with the goal of creating a better culture in businesses by supporting and enhancing positive working environments.
Laura started her business with the help of the Ayrshire Entrepreneurial Spark Accelerator programme, based in Sir Tom Hunter’s Marathon House in Dundonald. This helped her grow her business and she now has a team of three ladies that work alongside her in providing HR support to companies throughout the UK including Kilmarnock Football Club, Peacock Salt, Scottish Government and KMPG.
In additional to running her own successful business in Kilmarnock Town Centre, she also lectures part-time in HR at the City of Glasgow College and at the University of West of Scotland.
Winning the Esteemed Award in 2019, Laura felt it was so rewarding, having been a finalist in the previous years. She stated “that the profile of her business has grown, turnover has increased, she is now VAT-registered and is on a professional growth path”.
The Award has not only had positive outcomes for Laura’s business, but has boosted her confidence and PR skills, and she feels quite humbled by her win, considering the high calibre of people that she was competing with for the accolade that year.
We are delighted she shared her Success story with us!
The next season of the 'Ayrshire Business Women Awards' will be commencing in March 2021.
To contact Laura Rennie at Arena HR, Telephone: 07805332236 or Email: laura@arenahr.co.uk.
For further information about ABW, Email president@abw.org.uk or visit www.abw.org.uk.