Fresh Hope Communities

About Fresh Hope Communities

Fresh Hope Communities is the welfare arm and Public Benevolent Institution entity of churches of Christ in NSW and ACT. For almost 90 years, they have been providing quality support and lifestyle choices across retirement, residential and respite settings, as well as conference and outdoor adventure experiences for school and community groups, and more recently, affordable housing. 

Repositioning Strategy & Goals

In mid 2022 Fresh Hope Care rebranded the entire organisation to Fresh Hope Communities.  

This rebranding project involved all facets of the organisation; from communications, technology, marketing, to operations and internal systems with its staff being the integral core of this. 

The care staff across the various services at Fresh Hope Communities are diverse, ranging from nurses, clinical care teams, administrators, hospitality and maintenance team members, to lifestyle and wellbeing coordinators, through to cleaners and all the administrative team members who dedicate their days in service to the residents in their residential care. 

The Importance of the Uniforms

In upholding the key values of Fresh Hope Communities—kindness, connection, optimism and integrity—uniforms were deemed very important and an integral way to unite all staff, across all departments and sites, aligning with the mission and values of the organisation. 

The Process of Working with Uniformity to Find the Perfect Solution 

A review of the previous uniforms found that there was a lot of room for improvement. There was opportunity to create uniforms that would be optimal for purpose, weather appropriate, fit for all the staff needs, and more comfortable or functional. 

The objective when updating the uniforms was to ensure the above criteria were met, as well as engaging staff in the process to ensure they were involved in the decision making and that each of their personal choices were respected. 

A “Uniform Committee” was established comprising of various departments, including Procurement, Property, Corporate Communications, Residential Care, Retirement Living and People & Culture to oversee the roll out of the new uniforms. They wanted to ensure every individual at Fresh Hope Communities felt valued, respected, and was provided with a personal choice of colour selection and style so they could express their unique identity. 

The People & Culture team led the consultation process; Fresh Hope Communities understood how important uniforms are to all staff and wanted to create the best uniform possible, that was fit for everyone in the organisation.   

The new uniforms needed to coincide with three of the new brand colours (which closely matched Hunter Green, Royal Blue and Wine), and “off the shelf” styles, rather than a bespoke design.  

“In the consultation phase Uniformity was really helpful in providing us with lots of options to consider, including multiple styles, fabric and colour selections. As we wanted a uniform colour that was “off the shelf” rather than a bespoke design, they were able to source fabric colours that were very close to our brand colours, thus making the procurement process efficient. We truly valued their partnership. It was wonderful to work with people who knew what they were doing.”  Katie Ta’ala, Brand Manager  

Upon understanding the requirements, Uniformity initially came back with visual concepts for review and feedback. Once these were agreed to, physical samples were provided. Further changes were then made based on the Uniform Committee’s feedback. A final samples range was then distributed by Fresh Hope Communities across their various site locations over a 6-week period.  

Further tweaks were then made to the samples, taking on board staff feedback; imperative to this was listening to staff so the end result was fit for purpose and something they would enjoy wearing to work. 

The self-service ordering portal was modified to include measurement guides by each product, making it easy for staff to self-navigate and order what they needed, as a detailed description was provided for every garment. All compliance requirements stipulated by the Procurement team were met seamlessly by Uniformity, including an additional security feature required by the ICT department to protect staff’s personal information.  

“Uniformity really understand the workforce and bring their expertise, knowledge and experience to the table and immediately understood what would work best for our organisation.” Alex Ehmcke-Kennedy, People & Culture Business Partner 

The Final Results 

In early 2024 the new uniforms were finalised and available for order, comprising three colours, Hunter Green, Royal Blue, and Wine and a broad range of styles. The uniforms are readily available and a stock service line means each staff member can order via the self-service portal. 

Uniformity was instrumental in the self-service platform/ordering hub plug-in enabling staff the flexibility to select their uniforms – making it easy from an operations perspective to manage inventory. Staff have their own log in and can self-select. 

And as for the most popular colour? Hmm that’s a tricky one. Such a great selection to choose from however Wine appears to be a popular choice, but it does vary across all the sites. 

Outstanding Benefits

✔ Off the shelf 

✔ Colour range of Hunter Green, Royal Blue and Wine coincides with Brand Colours 

✔ Self-Service Ordering Hub 

✔ Multiple Styles 

✔ Staff can choose colours to suit their personal preferences 

✔ Fit for Purpose 

✔ Lightweight and breathability