“OutsideClinic are flexible about working days, and that means for two days a week I get to drop my son off at school and be there to pick him up. It means I can be Mum and an optometrist at the same time.” Says Kiran Matharu, Super Optometrist. We interviewed Kiran to get her take on working with the company for the last 6 years. Kiran wanted to move away from the high street and try something new, so on the recommendation of a friend, she looked into OutsideClinic – and she has never looked back. “They’re a good company with good ethics,” Kiran explains, “It’s lovely to be out in the fresh air between patients and it’s good to see people who are different every single day. The best part for me is having the privilege to spend time in people’s homes and give them solutions that are going to help them and change their lives, and that’s a great thing to be able to give to people.”
One of the biggest draws for Kiran when looking into OutsideClinic, was that she wouldn’t have to work weekends anymore and would be able to work flexibly around her children’s football matches, swimming and time spent on their allotment. She says she has found the perfect work-life balance, working part-time and being able to spend time with her family and do the things she loves on the days that she is home. Since the pandemic, we saw a 50% increase in demand for at-home services and so launched our biggest recruitment drive to date. We realised the need for a better balance for our optometrists - we wanted to offer a more appealing contract and reward our employees generously for the hard work they are doing in their communities. OutsideClinic optometrists, like Kiran, are now benefitting a great deal from this new way of working – an improved work-life balance but continuing to make a difference to people’s lives.
As a Super Optometrist, Kiran looks after her patients from the eye test right through to the dispense. We ask her how she initially felt about dispensing before starting the role with OutsideClinic, since she hadn’t done this in practice. She says, “High-street optometrists might think that dispensing is a challenge – actually, I think it’s been the opposite. Because I do the glasses, I can make the best recommendations and I can show them the features of the frames and the lenses that are going to help them. Being able to translate what you find in the test and then putting that into the best solution for glasses is a win-win.”
Kiran also relishes the company culture and support at the Swindon-based Head Quarters. She tells us, “It is a great sized company to work for. If you have any good ideas or any suggestions, you can make them and very quickly you’ll see the turnaround and something in the field that you can use every day. You build up great relationships with your support teams, in fact you work really closely with them – there’s always someone at the end of the phone for anything you might need.” Although Super Optometrists work out on the road on their own, they are never truly alone – with a full team of equally passionate and experienced staff. From the Scheduling Department to Clinical Services and the ‘optometrist next door’, Kiran tells us that she feels fully supported throughout her day, “To anybody thinking of working for OutsideClinic, I say give us a chance- you might be surprised!”
Find the next step in your career at www.outsideclinic.co.uk/careers or text 07725 242 687 for an informal chat.
Careers at OutsideClinic
