Celebrating 25 years at Specsavers! | Meet Sadie

Tell us a little bit about your Specsavers journey

My Specsavers Journey started in June 1998, I was a young mum looking to get back into a large company. I came for an interview and was offered the choice of working in payroll or in one of the accounts teams, that existed at the time, I had never worked in payroll and thought it sounded interesting and was keen to accept that role.

My manager at the time, Heather, who still works for Specsavers in payroll but in Australia (the best boss ever by the way!) was so welcoming and I learnt so much from her. I started looking after the Meridian regions payroll, where we use to send out spreadsheets in the post, partners would fill them in with any changes to payroll and fax them back. We would then manually enter all the data into the payroll system, post out salary reports and manually fold payslips to also be posted to the stores. I have very happy memories from this time and we went through a lot of highlighter pens!

I was quite quickly lucky enough to receive a promotion within the payroll team, thanks to the support of Heather and Jacquie Mancini at the time. I took my payroll qualification in 2003 and am also an Institute of Customers Services qualified coach, thanks to Specsavers.

Covid was a challenging time in my career as I’m sure it was for payrollers across the country. I will forever be in awe of how we all coped as a team. In the most challenging days we were grateful for John Perkins’ home-made sausage rolls in the dark, cold office where only a handful of us were allowed to be during that time.

Today I have an amazing team around me, both here in Guernsey and in Nottingham. I couldn’t be more grateful for their hard work and dedication that keeps the daily payroll wheel turning and ensures each and every one of us are paid each month.

What has been a career highlight for you?

In October 2007 the team were nominated for Payroll team of the year and we were all shipped off to The Grosvenor hotel in London for a wonderful award ceremony. It was so amazing to think that a little Guernsey team could be short listed from the whole country.

What gives you pride in your role?

I’m actually very proud of my team, they work so hard, payroll is a challenging and intense role to be in and if I can be the reason they feel, seen, heard, valued, supported, and loved then I am proud of the manager and coach I continuously intend to be.

What is one word you would use to describe Specsavers culture?

Ohh I have so many…..this is a hard one! If I had to narrow it down to one it would be innovative.