UNIFORMS: FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER

First impressions matter

Uniforms can project a lot about your pub in an instant. Proper consideration can help you carefully craft and control that message.

UNIFORMS MIGHT seem like a small consideration for an operator when looking at the overall offer of a pub, but it’s one of the things that instantly help inform patrons about your venue. First impressions matter, and first impressions of people – rightly or wrongly – can be made through their attire. This is true both of individuals and of groups of people, such as the staff of a hotel.

A professional uniform will likely send a positive impression, but it can do more than that. If well thought out, it can enhance the impact of your brand, as well as convey a sense of the identity of your venue. So what makes for a good pub uniform?

KickOn Group ensures that BOH staff are also given branded uniforms

“First and foremost is staff comfort and functionality. That’s right on top of the list, making sure that staff feel good in it and that it’s functional,” states Craig Shearer, founder and director of KickOn Group.

“Clearly the next one is that it looks great and presents the way we want it to, and is on brand for the particular venue or space that they’re wearing it in.”

Practical matters

While there’s a lot to consider for venue uniforms in terms of design, aesthetic, colours etc, staff buy-in and comfort is also a huge consideration that shouldn’t be overlooked. If your team find their uniforms uncomfortable, impractical or downright ugly, this will be reflected in their demeanour and presentation on the floor of your pub. Collaborating with staff on the uniform can increase the team’s buy-in to the uniform and allow them to project pride in what they wear. Felicity Rodgers, founder and creative director of Cargo Crew, says this is essential.

“From a practical perspective team members need to feel comfortable in their uniform and it’s often a valuable initiative to involve key staff in the selection process to gain insights and support for the new uniform.”

Cargo Crew Uniforms

With decades of experience on the subject – Cargo Crew celebrated its 20th birthday earlier in the year – Rodgers has plenty of great advice on the practical considerations of a hospitality uniform, particularly around fabric choice.

“Fabrics that are easy care and withstand frequent washing are always popular and best suited for hospitality. Colour shades of classic black, navy, tones of greens and tobacco bring modern, translatable looks, whilst also being suitable for hiding marks and stains,” she suggests.

“We have created our Cargo Crew proprietary Fight The Fade fabric to resist against fading with frequent washing. We designed these fabrics to specifically address the pain points of our hospitality customers and to meet their durability requirements.”

Brand building

Alistair Flower of Flower Hotels has understood the importance of uniforms to a pub brand for quite some time, starting with his own presentation. For several years now – beginning with the inaugural Pub Leaders Summit in 2016 – the pub director has been wearing a custom-made branded blazer to industry events such as conference and awards nights. It projects a sense of pride in the business.

“Something that is important to our core values and is evident from top to bottom in our organisation is a sense of pride for where we work. Yes, I’m number one promoting the brand, but I’m also showcasing pride for what we represent.

“That’s something that obviously starts with me, but we want that to infiltrate right down to our gardeners – making sure they have a sense of pride in their presentation and where they work as well.”

With several hotels in the Port Macquarie region under the Flower Hotels stable, the uniforms for each venue differ to help signify the type of venue they represent.

The uniform at Settlers Inn, Port Macquarie

“Every individual hotel is different in their uniforms, from different types of cuts to colours, and that all works in with the brands for each of those different venues. We’ve got a coastal type bar where the uniform is a t-shirt, and then in our suburban hotels we have collared shirts,” explains Flower. The one unifying element at Flower Hotels pubs is an apron. “Universally I like my staff to wear aprons, as number one it tucks everything in, but number two a pocket within an apron allows them to have additional coasters or bottle openers handy, it just allows them to be prepared when they’re working the floor.”

At KickOn Group, Shearer also ensures that the uniforms – or lack thereof – reflect the locality and atmosphere of the venue.

“It ranges from waistcoats and ties in Barlow down at The Continental Hotel on the Mornington Peninsula, through to t-shirts and aprons in Townsville. It’s got to match the environment that it’s in.”

At the Terminus Hotel in North Fitzroy, the uniform rules are far more relaxed to reflect the creative, inner-city demographic of the pub.

“Here in Melbourne, my team at The Terminus who are an amazing bunch, they almost wear what they want. So it’s not quite a designed uniform, more than it is a cultural choice of making sure that they fit what’s required. We’ve got a Termi t-shirt that they all wear, but there’s a fair bit of individuality given that it’s in Fitzroy North, but we do try to celebrate that as well,” states Shearer.

Regardless of the type of uniform you land on, the essential branding factors are that it clearly showcases the venue name or logo somewhere visible to patrons, and complements the general aesthetic of the venue.

The team at Cabana Bar in Sydney’s CBD. Image courtesy of Cargo Crew

“To deliver a memorable guest experience, the uniform should be curated to support the visual handwriting of the venue,” states Rodgers.

“The colour tones selected for the uniform should complement the interior and venue design, whilst consideration of individual roles may require variation of the uniform styles to meet practical requirements. For example, teams working outdoors may need additional layers such as a sweater or jackets for warmth.”

Uniform selection really can have quite an impact on the patron experience of a venue, and thus should be given the same consideration you give to any aspect of your pub.

“We take them as such a significant part of the overall brand and personality that you’re trying to project in your venue. It’s one of the first things that people see. We put as much time and effort into ensuring that they fit the personality and the positioning of the venue as we do picking wall colours, furniture, lighting, bar fronts and backs and so on,” states Shearer.

The humble uniform can have a bigger influence on your patronage than you might expect.

“It’s such a huge impact. Sometimes a $15 apron can change the way the staff feel and the customers feel. It can be a small expense for a big impact to your business.”

New launch? New uniform

Craig Shearer says the Kickon Group always assesses a uniform when they buy a new venue, redevelop an old one, or launch a new part of the business within one of their pubs.

“It’s an excellent way of letting the customers know that there’s some change here, there’s a new operator. And it also lets the staff know that we do care about them and we want them to look good and feel good, so it’s usually around that time.

“Also, whenever there’s some venue redevelopment we always look at the uniforms as part of that overall redevelopment. And also typically if we look to rebrand a space like we did with Cinder [restaurant] at The Terminus. One of the key things there was to bring in a uniform to ensure that the staff felt, like we did, that it was a new venue, it was a new part of the business.

“It’s not the sort of thing that you diarise to do on a certain timeframe, it usually coincides with another activity for the business.”