What are perks and other benefits like at Specsavers?

Some good benefits and pay, Good ethos and culture

the family policies could be improved

Good benefits, Great place is you are an optometry student or looking to become in the health industry

Sales based but if you can overlook it, it is fine

The following review is aimed to be as objective and fair as possible, focusing on the key pros and cons of working at this company. As a male and the primary bred winner of my family, certain aspects of employment take priority for me, more so than likely your standard audiologist (being a female who isn't the primary bred winner and a mother). This should be taken into consideration, as "fair pay" and "acceptable standard of operations" may not be as important for many people who choose to work here as they are for myself. The good 1. Company culture and treatment from middle management: compared to competitors, Specsavers has a generally healthy culture, co workers are friendly and middle management has a tendency to leave you alone if you're making money (reaching targets). They have regular dinners, catch ups and have a generally more relaxed approach to employment than many of the other companies I've worked at. 2. Freedom for decision making/management of diary: Specsavers allow you to manage your own diary, or take leave whenever you want (within reason). They also give you a good amount of freedom in deciding how you'll run your own store. For example, if you want to implement a new communication system between retail and audio, you can. Alternatively, if you need to urgently take leave with short notice, this will generally be no problem for them. I've personally really enjoyed this side of employment, as it empowers you to create the working environment that works for you best. Effectively, you can bring your creative /business initiatives to the business and if they work, they will generally always be accepted. Another example include if you needed longer times for certain appointments, or wished to start your day a bit earlier than most and then leave earlier. A general relaxed tone is felt here around these areas.

1. Relationship between optics/retail and audio: Specsavers operate a model by which optics clients who have eye tests performed before appointments with optometrists, will be offered a free hearing screening. This screening process is smart in the sense that it piggy backs off optic clients for a revenue/client stream. In essence, it serves as a "capture" system for clients whether they are ready to begin their hearing aid journey or not - the seed is planted for audiology services. However, Specsavers have grossly stuffed up this model. And I can't stress the term grossly enough here. Why? Because the retail/optics staff who perform these procedures, are in no way accountable to you. They do not report to you. And they damn well know it and take advantage of it. They routinely will not screen, and if training interventions are implemented, they often have a hostile and non compliance attitude. Audio management will pretend to care but when push comes to shove, they will never do anything. This means your potential revenue stream often under performs, and Specsavers has no solution to fixing this. Actually even worse, according to them, it's not even an issue. This decision /stance is very poor and feels like a virus that's infected the entire operation. Moreover, the managers in optics are not invested in the audio - optics model, in the sense that they rarely have your back or assist in the relationship between optics and audio. They are so busy in their roles, they don't have time to understand the potential benefits of the revenue audio pays them, and how coming into their business as an "excess cash" amount, with no core costs associated with it (ie revenue from an Optometrists with a wage attached) actually is highly profitable for them. Which begs the question, why did they sign on audiology to be shared in their stores in the first place? 2. Very poor pay and commission / dividends structure: Specsavers, being a franchise model, obviously take the "cream from the top" when it comes to money being generated. They sell very well in the employment ads that you'll get $100-110,000, but leave out the fact that this is based on your store performance. They say in advertising jobs "there is no kpis" but this is utter bs - if you don't sell well, you are in trouble. And even when you do sell well, the dividend structure is extremely one sided and bias to Specsavers. It's dependant on your store loan, monthly variations, and Specsavers heafty cut that they always take. In fact, at my previous place of employment, I was just out of my graduate period and was effectively earning the same as I am now. But now I run a team, work 45hr weeks, and have far more stress. Furthermore, I haven't seen a single pay rise in 3 years. Instead, Specsavers would prefer to keep the hearing aid prices low and make us suffer, for their true aim of market domination. 3. Excessive priority on having a volume-sales based business model over a service based model, degrades our professional integrity and value: Specsavers have chosen to focus on high volume over service, and do so by providing our services/time at an extremely cheap price to clients. For example, a full 45mins hearing assessment is billed at $49. We effectively cannot charge for maintenance appointments whatsoever (privates of course) and hearing aid prices remain extremely low when compared to the competition. There hasn't even been an adjustment for CPI in the 3 years I've been here, meaning us, the Partners, wear the extra costs associated, not Specsavers themselves. By focusing on high volume, they have under-priced our services and devalued our profession. A balance here was required, but they really didn't think this though much at all. So in summary, Specsavers has a reasonably good culture and your general day-to-day operation can be designed in a way to suit your working style. However, this will come at a cost. You'll be a worked hard with low pay, and you'll want to tear your eyes out over the Optics-Audio business structure. Furthermore, Specsavers will ALWAYS put your welfare and benefits last, in the 3 groups that sit in this business model - being the client, Specsavers and youself. I'm not saying don't work here. But if it's for the money or to run a successful clinic, think really hard about that choice - with the cost of living is going through the roof, and Specsavers always having the final say, your potential for success is always going to be greatly reduced by poor choices made by top management.

Great team, good benefits and good environment

Favouritism from higher ups, hard to find time for training

Great benefits from insurance and free eye care

Low pay, inconsistent schedules, lots of pressure

The team members were pretty friendly. Great culture and values. The salary and benefits were also good. My Managers were also pretty supportive in the circumstances. They seem to be a great company to work for if you find the right role.

I thought I'd found my dream job but sadly it was a really horrible experience. Although my head was turned by the great salary, benefits and flexible working approach, within a few days, it became very clear that I'd made a huge mistake. The job title did not in any way reflect the responsibilities of the job itself. It didn't involve any of the creative aspects of a communications manager and consisted only of either proofreading the product specialists' writing for grammar and spelling mistakings, scheduling their articles for the weekly newsletter or providing comms advice for their huge projects portfolio. It was a combination of a content scheduler and proofreader - not a Comms Manager. The Manager reassured me one day that they weren't expecting me to take on any big projects for the first twelve weeks and would only be shadowing members of the team whilst I got my head around the structure of business, and that I should take this time to just absorb the information I was being given, but the very next day, she asked to speak to me and said I was being given three large projects to own because someone on the team needed to focus on other things. In that moment I took a huge gamble and resigned the next day without having a role to go to because I was so unhappy, and it turned out to be the best thing I've ever done. It took me four months but I'm now in my dream job and couldn't be happier. My advice - don't stay in a role that makes you unhappy. It's just not worth it.

Benefits are good including glasses allowance, birthday off and standard annual leave time. The company model is good and patients make the job ok.

Career path isn’t that great. If your into optical, audiology or retail then there’s a pathway for you but if you want to branch into corporate there’s no bridges opportunities. Poor and rude management, frustration within the team due to constant lack of staff, Rotas are not released promptly, so you can’t really plan your life ahead (unless you work in an organised store) and the store gets really busy and it’s physically and mentally exhausting. The pay is minimum wage and for what you have to deal with the compensation package should be better.

pays a lot of holidays and a good balance of experience in healthcare and retail.

part-time work will not get any benefits like insurance and very limited career growth.

Most of the coworkers are genuinely great to work with and the team gets along very well overall. The doctors I worked with are incredibly kind, patient, and approachable. They were always willing to answer questions, walk staff through processes, and provide support when needed, which made the learning experience much easier and more enjoyable. The workplace also offers three weeks of paid vacation, which is a nice benefit.

The location of the store is probably the biggest downside. Being directly beside a children’s play area creates an extremely loud and overstimulating environment throughout the day, which can become exhausting very quickly. Management can also be frustrating at times. While approachable and generally friendly, there were many situations where employee support felt secondary to avoiding customer complaints or protecting online reviews. Policies and expectations were often inconsistently enforced depending on the situation, which would leave staff feeling undermined or unsupported in difficult interactions with customers. There was also a very noticeable focus on cutting costs wherever possible, which at times negatively impacted employee morale. Some decisions felt more driven by saving money than anything else.

The salary offer is acceptable, same the benefits. The work environment is not that promising. It will vary from each branch and how the retail partners run the business and scheduling. Can’t say much positive about the experience except for the salary, but if you are looking for growth not unless you want to be a retail partner then this is for you.

The quality of the lenses are not as good as other brands that I used to work with. It’s a cheaper lens so customers get what they pay for. Since it’s cheap, customers would normally buy multiple pairs and that makes a location busy but expect more complaints and lab redos which result to longer wait time.