Two new Krys stores: Recruitments on the horizon in the Grand Est region

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For over 50 years, the groupe Krys has put its experience and know-how at the service of its customers in order to keep its promise: To offer beauty and visual comfort accessible to all.

The quality of products made in France, the competitiveness of offerings, the professionalism and the sense of service of Krys opticians, have enabled the 4-letter brand to be Favorite Optical Brand of the French.

A group of n°1 optical chains in France, and the leading employer in the optical sector, the Krys is present in France and Belgium and boasts no fewer than 900 stores (915 to be exact).

Among them, Matthieu Olivier, Optician since 1999 and entrepreneur at heart, has to his credit the creation and takeover of 8 stores from the Krys group. The last two opened recently: on August 16, 2021 in Beaune and on August 23, 2021 in Héricourt, with the recruitment of several opticians. Other positions remain to be filled: an optician and an audio-prosthetist.

In a radius stretching from Beaune to Strasbourg, Matthieu Olivier's Krys stores, which oversee some fifty employees, are part of a cooperative group:

"We all own our stores and are all associates. I'm also a director of the group."

A versatile profession

The optician profession is one of the so-called in-tension trades, for which recruitment is proving complicated. Matthieu Olivier, for his part, has forged partnerships with certain schools to take on work-study students (Morez, Dijon), but some of them only offer a few places.

Also, once trained in the trade, some students change career paths, or continue their studies. "90% of our work-study students stay with us. We try to get them to graduate, and we keep them if they're suitable, because they're already trained and operational quickly," comments Matthieu Olivier.

While the industry suffers from a lack of attractiveness, the optician's profession is nonetheless very polyvalent and allows you to touch on different fields. "We can work around the technique in the workshop, the relationship with customers and their visual health. All this makes the job very interesting and gives meaning to the work."

The Krys vision

"We want our employees to share our values. We strive for excellence and put the customer first. We are forerunners in many areas, particularly in terms of thetechnologies and tools we use," says Matthieu Olivier.

Opticians, for example, use augmented reality to help customers choose the right pair of glasses for them. Working with state-of-the-art tools also promotes quality and well-being at work. This demand for quality is reflected in the well-established integration process that new employees follow.

In parallel, everyone goes through the Krys group academy to be trained, according to an individual training plan, is drawn up upon recruitment. "We assess the sales level and the technical level of each new employee to help them develop in their profession. We're always looking to promote our talents."

For the 8th year running, the Krys Group has in fact been rewarded in the Great Place to Work. With 73% of employees saying it's a really good place to work at Krys Group, the group takes 12th place in the ranking of companies with 250 to 1,000 employees.

The beginnings of the collaboration with Alphéa Conseil

We pushed open the doors of one of Monsieur Olivier's 8 stores for the first time in January 2020.

Following a presentation of his structure and operations, we launched the first 2 recruitments and helped him find opticians for all his stores.

We maintain a beautiful dynamic because we find ourselves in our common pillars, notably through the proximity, demand and of course the desire to put the human at the heart of our research!

So it was with great pleasure that we received the call from Mr. Olivier in December 2020 to tell us about his 2 plans to open by the end of summer 2021.

For big projects, big means!

His foresight enabled us to get to work quickly and contact qualified opticians and opticians in the region within the allotted timeframe of his store openings. After selecting 15 qualified opticians, we worked with our client to define the dates on which we would meet. We then contacted each candidate to optimize the meeting schedule.

These interviews took place over 4 days. Candidates met with our customer at his premises, for 2-3 hour interviews. Throughout these days, we were in contact with Mr. Olivier to make the bilan of the various meetings, reflect on the axes of progress of the people we meet and the design of teams: the soul of a store is also created by thecomplementarity of profiles!

At the end of these days, 6 hiring proposals were sent out, all of which were accepted. Our client also receivedinternal applications for Store Manager positions, and we integrated these candidates into our process to assess their ability to evolve into a position with managerial responsibilities.

Of these 3 opticians, one has taken up a position as Assistant Manager in another store in Monsieur Olivier's network. With regard to the other 2 candidates, our outside view and discussions highlighted keys to development in their current positions.

Integration: the hidden face of recruitment

But we don't stop there! We're continuing our exchanges with the candidates:

- Coaching for end-of-contract negotiations in their current stores,

- Accompagagnement towards a new position and a new team,

- Monitoring exchanges during integration into their new brand.

These exchanges support the integration of new employees by reassuring them and highlightingareas for improvement both in the relationship with their employer and in the integration process.

As for Monsieur Olivier, we're still in touch as we're now looking for an Audioprosthetist for his new Beaune store

A relationship of trust with Alphéa Conseil

Since early 2020, Matthieu Olivier has entrusted the agence Alphéa Conseil de Strasbourg the first step in recruiting its opticians: sourcing, shortlisting candidates, qualifying applications and preparing candidates for interviews.

He particularly appreciates Alphéa Conseil's qualification of candidates: "Thanks to the complete summary of their first interview with the candidate, we have a good basis for knowing what to build on or check during our interviews with the candidate. " A major time-saver!

Furthermore, the recruitment firm gives feedback to each new recruit to ensure that they're comfortable in their position and that it matches their vision. "This feedback is important because it provides an outside view of the recruitment process and purpose," concludes Matthieu Olivier.

Client, would you like to organize a day of interviews?

Here are a few tips:

- Contact the nearest Alphéa Conseil agency in your city far enough in advance to ensure the quality of the candidates you meet,

- Define your schedule in advance so that we can adjust to your needs for the organization of your interview day,

- Exchange with your recruitment manager : we are your partners and we will do our utmost to meet your expectations!