Aspiration
The go-ahead for evaluation of a new uniform – based on the new DELTAgroup brand environment – was given just over a year ago. Right from the start, the aim was to give DELTAgroup field staff a purposeful and highly functional uniform. To this end, the uniforms used by comparable professional organisations such as the police and the army were also evaluated. Two separate project groups, which were formed to ascertain the needs of employees and clients, developed two separate concepts and then presented these to the management team.
Development
One of the submitted proposals was chosen as the final uniform concept, and the individual garments were then further developed together with various producers. The result is a cleverly designed uniform based on the layering principle, which meets the very latest requirements for textile products. Women’s and men’s versions of all the garments have been produced for the first time in DELTAgroup’s history. This is designed to add value in terms of wearability and appearance for all field staff.
Testing
Six employees from various personnel divisions at DELTAgroup tested the newly developed uniforms in practice over a period of around two months before completing a feedback form containing 70 questions. A few final adjustments were made to the uniforms based on this feedback before the go-ahead for "mass production" was given.
Rollout
Introducing a new uniform for around 1,100 employees is no mean logistical feat. A lot of space is needed to take back old uniforms and also store and distribute over 6,000 new pieces of uniform. Completing the whole process for such a huge number of employees requires additional coordination. The DELTAgroup logistics team is currently working flat out to distribute the new uniforms to the two branches in Bern and Ticino.
Sustainability
One important aspect of the concept was reducing the number of garments required. In the past, employees received three different polo shirts for specific jobs. The new uniform concept reduces this number. In future, employees will have one "basic shirt" that can be adapted to the personnel division or job by means of a batch system. This also reflects DELTAgroup’s strategic orientation, meaning that the DELTAgroup umbrella brand will be the main focus, while the individual products (ServX, BASIC, DELTA) appear more in the background. For the sake of the environment, the old uniform items will be passed on to partner companies, where they will be reused wherever possible.