Celebrating 20 years at Specsavers

Celebrating 20 years at Specsavers

My name’s Louise Furby and I’m a Senior Events and Communications Manager for Specsavers working in the UK Partnership team.

A bit about Louise

I’d never really found a role that defined me before Specsavers. I’d worked in administration mostly with my final role as a CPD Presenter for a carpet company. This involved visiting local architectural practices to deliver sessions on the benefits of 80/20 carpet! Sounds very dull, but compared to similar presentations on things like bricks and concrete, the carpet session was light relief for most architects and designers and a popular choice to achieve their CPD points!

20 years at Specsavers

I joined Specsavers as a Lab Training Coordinator in Kidderminster in 2004. Our team led the first Lab Training roadshows across the UK & Ireland and this might have been where my flair for events first developed. I moved into a Communications role after a year or so and shortly after this, I was one of the original members of the UK Product team as their Communications Manager. In 2009, I relocated from Kidderminster to Nottingham for the team that by now, was predominantly positioned in our Nottingham offices and I stayed in that team for 14+ years before moving to retail communications and finally into my events role 3 years ago. The main reason for staying in the product team for so long was the progression and growth of the team which led to a vastly variant role for me. I also had great managers and mentors who helped me evolve and develop to broaden my knowledge of the business, aid relationship management and grow my capabilities.

Development opportunities

Specsavers is a creative, structured and flexible organisation, so development and support goes way beyond your day job. Aside from my vocational roles, I’ve also been a chair for the Nottingham Sports and Social community. More recently, I co-founded Specsavers colleague network group, MenoTalk. MenoTalk provides menopause in the workplace support for our UK & Irish stores and support offices. The network enabled Specsavers to achieve ‘Menopause in the Workplace’ accreditation in 2023. I receive a great deal of support and guidance from a wealth of leaders when it comes to development. Along with this, I have access to training, financial support to attend conferences and direction to deliver initiatives and projects associated with the network group and my events role.

Pride in the workplace

For me, our annual seminar is the pinnacle of our partner events. The pride I take from our small team having executed the biggest annual event in the Specsavers calendar is immeasurable. Every year when we start planning this event, I wonder how we’ll achieve it and every year we do –bigger and better than the last. The incredibly positive feedback we receive from our colleagues and partnership gives me immense pleasure and pride. As a team, we put our heart and soul into all our events. The positive praise and recognition from our audience feeds my ambition and desire to raise the bar every day.

Lessons learnt

There’s so much I’ve learnt at Specsavers! Through our behaviours, I have learned to be courageous, compassionate, collaborative, commercial and curious. These are the 5 values that underpin everything and everyone at Specsavers.

To those thinking of applying

Specsavers is special. Our core values are all about care, so anyone who is part of this big green team benefits from an incredible health and benefits package, wellbeing support as well as personal and professional development. We have a great culture and we embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. We see opportunity and we offer development. We provide a safe working environment, we’re passionate, skilled and committed to giving customers the best possible experience..

Love for Specsavers

This business is my family. My husband works in our technology team and my son works in the Nottingham store, so it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like home! I have contributed to so many different projects and initiatives in the 20 years that I have worked here. I have developed some incredibly strong, reliable and powerful relationships with so many people. Combined, this makes being at work a safe and enjoyable experience. It helps balance my work and personal life. I believe that this business brings out the best in me and helps me be the best person I can be. Specsavers culture summarised in one word Passionate! Everyone in this business is passionate about what they do and how they contribute.

Finally, a bit more about Louise

It’ no surprise that having been in communications so long, I’m passionate about writing. One of my favourite pastimes is also family time with our 6-year-old miniature schnauzer. So, I have the joy of combing these two interests. Since 2019 I have been writing venue reviews for Dog Friendly magazine. We visit lots of different places in the UK exploring the area with our pooch to craft a thorough overview of the area and help dog families have a great trip away. The visits are always great fun and afterwards, I get the pleasure of seeing my words and photo’s feature in the magazine. My biggest ambition is to get our dog on the front page which I have yet to achieve!