Specsavers was founded in 1984 by optometrists Doug and Dame Mary Perkins with the aim of making eye care accessible and affordable to all. Since then, Specsavers has expanded to 11 countries, launching down under in 2008 and quickly becoming the leading eye care provider in Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, the addition of audiology services in 2017 has strengthened Specsavers’ healthcare offering, providing eye and hearing care to more Aussies and Kiwis.
Its pioneering joint venture partnership model means each local Specsavers practice is owned and run by partners, expert optometry, audiology and retail professionals caring for their own community.
“Great businesses are built with great people,” says Karen Clancy, People Director of Specsavers ANZ.
With more than 400 stores and approximately 9,500 employees across both countries all working towards the same vision to change lives through better sight and hearing, Specsavers prioritises listening to their people and partnering with them in building a great workplace.
“In a partnership business, it’s important not to just yell from the top, it’s about engaging and showing the value of building great teams. Specsavers is known for delivering excellent customer experiences, and that’s all down to our people,” shares Karen. “By listening and acting on feedback, we create opportunities and environments where our people feel valued. For our store partners, when their people feel cared for, they in turn go the extra mile to care for customers.”
As a purpose-led business, a focus on engaging and inspiring every partner and team member to be a guardian of the business’ culture is what sets Specsavers apart. This people-first approach and commitment to culture have earned Specsavers recognition as one of the Best Workplaces™ in Australia 2025 List in the Large category.
Karen highlights how Great Place To Work CertificationTM is critical to ensuring that they keep attracting and retaining the best talent, maintaining Specsaver’s strong reputation and brand. “It’s vital we listen to our people, hear what they’ve got to say and importantly act on their feedback. Everybody knows about Specsavers, but people might not necessarily think of Specsavers as a place for a long career. Being certified and recognised externally meant we could shout about our unique culture,” she explains.
For Group CEO John Perkins being a great workplace is something the company aims to make a reality for their colleagues and partners every day, wherever they work. “We’re delighted this has been acknowledged with our certification, and our focus continues to be on creating an exceptional experience for our people and our customers,” he says.
Specsavers made the Best Workplaces ListTM in Australia two years in a row from 2023 to 2024. Beyond its Australian and New Zealand operations, its global commitment to culture consistency show when it was certified across all their businesses in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Canada, Hungary, Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, and Norway in 2023.
Karen shares that the data has shaped its people plans across three major strategies: Communication, Reward & Recognition for stores, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
For instance, the survey highlighted to senior leaders that team members didn’t necessarily have knowledge of information that the leaders thought they did – this led to a change in Specsavers’ communication strategy.
“While listening to feedback is important, it’s even more important to act on it, explains Karen. “We make sure to communicate what action and changes we’re making based on the feedback, so everyone knows it’s from them. People are much more open and accepting to action because it is from their feedback. It helps with the change curve.”
Store partners have witnessed an increase in business metrics, including customer experience, especially when team members who feel informed, engaged, and valued go the extra mile for customers. When the business listens to and addresses areas of improvement, performance naturally improves, as team members become more connected to Specsavers’ vision to change lives through better sight and hearing.
Another positive outcome has been more team members feeling empowered to add their voices to create a shared culture. This aligns with recent research on high-performance work systems: When employees are involved, they are more likely to see speaking up as an inherent part of their roles because they are given the autonomy to exercise their voices with the means to influence decisions1. Having higher trust in their supervisors enhances this effect.
“After running Great Place To Work, probably the biggest thing we’ve seen is a greater sense of ownership being guardians of the culture,” Karen shares. “We’ve seen more and more engagement from leaders to team members feeling really empowered to suggest new initiatives: how they work, efficiencies, projects, and so on. More people feel they can contribute. It’s the power of listening and acting on feedback. The survey validates how much our culture is lived and breathed every day.”
More than 6600 employees responded to Specsavers’ 2024 survey. It begs the question: How do you get 6600 people to do a survey within 2 weeks?
It’s all about communication that begins approximately two months before the survey launch date. Store partners are involved early, letting their teams know what’s coming and that time will be protected for them to complete the survey. In the Support Office, the survey launch date is communicated widely. After launching, team members have access to the survey on multiple platforms:
Time is allocated for shift workers in stores and distribution teams to complete the survey during work hours. “Emprising helps us get a participation rate which gives us comfort that the insights we get are a good representative of our people,” says Karen.
Being a great place to work is more than just something we say, it’s something we aim to make a reality for our colleagues and partners every day, wherever they work.
– John Perkins, Group CEO
Leaders in Specsavers from the Executive Board to the store partners set the foundation. Creating a great workplace isn’t just a ‘tick-in-the-box, standalone initiative’. Every senior leader at Specsavers unanimously agreed to engage with Great Place To Work to enhance the employee experience. Many team members gave glowing appreciation to specific frontline leaders across Specsavers stores, evidence of the leaders’ dedication to nurture a great workplace.
A powerful global insight from Great Place To Work shows that direct managers play a crucial role in employee satisfaction and engagement2. Recognising that different managers shape employee experience differently across stores, Specsavers shares a Great Place To Work toolkit with every store as resources for recruitment, onboarding, culture building, and well-being. Managers (partners) retain their independence through a self-audit process to maintain the culture in their stores, and can work with regional managers to achieve Great Place To Work goals.
Apart from the leaders, many team members point to their teams as what makes Specsavers a great place to work. Teams serve as the microcosm in which employees interact on a daily basis, and camaraderie among team members boosts employee engagement and builds strong bonds within teams3. Other studies have also shown that perceived team support impacts engagement and even job performance4.
Among all large companies (more than 1000 employees) Great Place To Work surveyed in Australia in 2024, being treated as a full member in the workplace correlates quite strongly with Trust Index scores. Specsavers has a dedicated global DEI steering group made of regional and local DEI representatives that meet every three weeks for strategy discussions.
According to Karen, Specsavers’ global long-term strategy puts inclusion right at the heart of their goals, where everyone feels welcome, valued and proud to belong. She also adds, “D&I is supported by our founding owners, Doug and Dame Mary, executives, and our regional boards throughout the business. There is strong buy-in and support at a leadership and strategic level, which I think is critical to support change throughout the space.”
While DEI is supported by senior leaders, it is led primarily by employees in Specsavers. Its diversity and inclusion working group consists of a mix of colleagues across all support teams, field teams, and stores.
Employee resource groups are empowered to influence Specsavers’ policies in supporting diverse needs and wants. Feedback from Parent-Hood – a network that supports parents in managing the challenges of raising families along with having a great career – led to the conversion of a meeting room into a dedicated ‘parent room’. Any parent may use it for anything they need at any time of the day. Specsavers is also taking proactive steps to improve gender diversity this year, particularly during recruitment by using a tool VidCruiter to eliminate unconscious bias.
Specsavers has also partnered with The Fred Hollows Foundation to enhance access to the First Nations communities since 2012, and encourages its employees to volunteer for groups and causes that matter to them.
How does Specsavers scale its culture across hundreds of stores with thousands of employees? Being supported with resources is strongly related to employee engagement among large Australian companies, based on Great Place To Work data.
“We have a Great Place To Work advisory group, made up of partners from stores who have a passion for people, helping to land people initiatives, tell us what’s working and what’s not, what the gaps are, and help validate and develop people plans together. They’re the change agents working in stores and engaging with their teams,” Karen shares.
Besides the Great Place To Work toolkit for managers (partners) for onboarding, development, and inclusive practices, the Partner Pay It Forward program enables them to share best practices and learn from the stores that are doing well.
“We have a focus on developing consistent employee experiences across all our stores. In our partnership model, it’s all about influencing and working in together. We have an initiative called Best Place to Work at All Stores to support stores and ensure all their people experiences are positive,” explains Karen.
This year, 85% of Specsavers employees say that it is a great place to work. By actively partnering with its people and acting on their feedback, Specsavers continues to build a great workplace that lasts.
Discover what employees value about working at your company, and how you can boost retention rates and increase productivity and performance with Great Place To Work CertificationTM.
