1. Who are you, what is your role, and how long have you worked for Scrivens?
“My name is Rachel Lay, I am the Optical Training Manager and have worked for the company for 4 years.”
2. What’s it like working at Scrivens?
“Working for Scrivens is like a breath of fresh air.”
3. What makes the team here different?
“I really enjoy the culture and family feel. You’re valued as a person, not just a number.
4. What do you enjoy most about your role?
“What I enjoy most about my role, is that it is not just what it says on the tin. I am involved in multiple facets of the company. So, every day is varied and challenging. I’m never bored!”
5. What made you choose this career?
“When I was 14 years old, I completed my school work experience at a local opticians and they offered me a job. I found Optics so fascinating (I still do) and when it came to making choices about my education, I decided to expand on my knowledge and became a Dispensing Optician. What I enjoyed most about working in practice was sharing what I had learnt with others and helping them advance in their careers and that led me to my current role.”
6. What does a typical day look like?
“A typical day in my role is difficult to describe. I work out of head office in Birmingham and spend a lot of time on the computer or the phone. However, I could also be training groups of 6-200 face to face or virtually, driving around the country visiting branches or collaborating with our manufacturers.”
7. What’s one common misconception about your role?
“The common misconception is that as a Training Manager is that I just manage my team of fabulous regional trainers and sit at a computer all day. The reality is that is probably only 20% of what I do.”
8. How has your role changed since you started?
“The training department is forever making advancements to both improve our onboarding process and the educate our existing team members. That now involves me liaising with external course providers and our manufacturers on a regular basis, not just relying on our internal training team. We now offer more training opportunities for our teams than ever before!”
9. What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in Training?
“To work in training, you need to be adaptable, self-motivated and a team player. But above all you will work with a wide array of people from different backgrounds and with varying levels of experience, so being a people person and having good communication skills is key.”
10. What kind of projects have you worked on that you’re especially proud of?
“I am proud of many things that I have achieved whilst at Scrivens. I am particularly proud of being involved in the implementation of an overhaul of our spectacle dispensing system to make it simpler for our branch teams to use day to day. Allowing the teams to spend more time with our customers ensuring they get a tailored customer experience.”
