‘My passion has always been in operational HR. That's what I love doing’: Specsavers’ Gee Chima on how innovation and connection defines her HR leadership
For Gee Chima, human resources is less about rules and more about relationships.
"Unfortunately, there's a lot of HR professionals now that think you have to do everything by the book," she says. "But really, you can be innovative."
That belief — that HR should move in lockstep with business needs, not bureaucracy — has guided Chima from her early grassroots beginnings to her current role as Head of Human Resources at Specsavers Canada, where she’s helping shape a purpose-driven culture in a rapidly expanding organization.
"It was actually grassroots,” Chima recalls, reflecting on her early days.
“t was a private telecommunications organization, and shortly after I moved into HR, within the year, every other person had left, so I was kind of left to my own devices."
This unexpected responsibility launched her hands-on education, in more ways that one – not only was she learning the ropes in a sink-or-swim professional situation, she was in school full time as well, learning HR practices in the classroom: "I was doing everything from compensation, HR is onboarding, training, you name it, I was doing it."
With no choice but to adapt, Chima tailored her professional development to meet real-world demands. She looks back on those early days with gratitude: "I really do count my blessings, in the sense of everything lined up in such a beautiful way for me right from the onset."
Her career path next took her into the retail sector, where she built deep operational HR experience at Best Buy, Future Shop, and Staples.
Although she initially joined Best Buy’s rewards team, operational HR quickly called her back: "My passion has always been in operational HR. That's what I love doing."
When Chima transitioned into field HR roles, she encountered some initial skepticism, she explains, which taught her how to communicate the value of including HR into business workings.
For her, building credibility meant proving HR wasn’t an outsider but an integral business partner, and also a profit driver.
"What was really important is to demonstrate that ‘We're partners with you. We're not HR, we're operations together,” she says.
“That happened very quickly, because I think they were able to see the value that the retail HR folks were able to bring directly to them, to the front lines immediately, and really building that business relationship with those teams.”
Chima’s approach was clear: she had to understand the business first, including building a collaborative dynamic that developed between her team and other business leaders: "We really needed to know a little bit about each other's jobs so that we could be effective when we actually went into those locations."
Despite early challenges, they found their rhythm, even helping boost gift card sales during the holiday season by running store contests and coaching frontline staff.
“Gift card sales specific to Future Shop were a big deal around the holiday season. HR took that on and said, ‘We'll run that program. We'll drive it, and you'll see an increase in sales,’” Chima explains.
“So we were able to demonstrate immediate financial value with some of the things that we decided to tackle … a group of us developed this whole program, and then put contests in place, drove it, did the coaching with the front end staff in terms of being able to upsell to customers."
When Chima joined Specsavers Canada, she faced a very different but equally demanding challenge: building an HR function from the ground up: "Specsavers was a brand-new startup when I came to Canada. Although it's a large global organization, when I joined, there was 50 people."
Without established systems and amid rapid expansion, Chima led the way in building the fundamentals.
"It was a lot at that time, so part of the biggest challenges were trying to operate with a lack of systems," she explains.
Recruitment remains a unique hurdle, especially finding optometrists in Canada’s limited talent pool: "We've had to be creative in the ways that we can try to bring people over."
Throughout, Specsavers' purpose — “changing lives through better sight” — remains a central focus, she says.
"It really is about ensuring that our we are a purpose-led organization, ensuring that people can understand what we're about."
Chima’s team’s company culture efforts have not gone unnoticed. In only its second year participating, the company ranked 11th among large employers in the “Canada's Best Workplaces List for 2024” by Great Place To Work. It also received a Respect Award for its leadership practices.
Specsavers expanded its operations into Canada in 2021.
“We were so thrilled with the result in only our second year," she says, explaining that central to this out-of-the-gate success is Specsavers' strong communication strategy, always tied back to its mission.
"Your communication strategy has to be absolutely crystal clear and linked back to your purpose at all times," Chima emphasizes, noting that much of her team’s messaging is around intentionally including employees in Specsavers’ purpose and values.
Whatever an organization’s value is, she drives home that HR’s task is to pinpoint that value and translate it into engagement, however that looks for them.
“You've got to have really clear values, and that's how you can make that connection,” she says.
“Helping people understand that there is a connection to what you're doing that is having an impact on others in a positive way. Find that connection, and really communicate that out to the teams and help them understand that.”
