Aruma was once House with No Steps and The Tipping Foundation! We've got your questions about this covered with our FAQs.
These are some of the questions we thought you might ask about our new name. But if we missed any, just get in touch! We have a team waiting to answer any questions you might have.
There are a number of reasons behind our name change.
It wasn’t a decision that was taken lightly. After much research – and with input from a cross-section of customers, families and staff – we decided that a name change was the right move to help unite us internally and make sure we remain relevant in the rapidly-changing NDIS world.
Our customers mean everything to us, so yes they were involved.
To be specific, a cross-section of customers and families were involved in the research phase of our name change.
When we do research, it is impossible to talk to all our customers. We take a representative sample of people across different age brackets and from different services. This is standard research practice around the globe.
In April this year, we also let all our customers, and their families know that a name change was definitely on the cards.
Yes. It was the right time for a name change. And we definitely didn’t come to this decision on our own.
Since House with No Steps and The Tipping Foundation joined forces in March 2018, we took the time to carefully consider what we should be called.
We spoke with hundreds of staff and a cross-section of customers and their families. Feedback encouraged us to be bold and to look seriously at adopting a new name to unite us internally and make sure we remain strong and relevant in the rapidly-changing NDIS market.
When we spoke to families, they said there were two key things they were looking for in a service provider. One was that their son, daughter, brother, sister was happy. And the second thing was that they were growing and learning. They also wanted an organisation that was credible and trustworthy.
So, with this in mind, we looked at heaps of potential names. Some were part of everyday language and were words with immediate meaning. And there were some that the meaning was not immediately apparent, like Aruma.
The word Aruma means many things in many languages. Its literal meanings that really resonated with us were happy place – which is something which families told us they wanted, to plough – which symbolises growth, and being real and true.
We also wanted a word that was easy to say, and that was not an acronym. We wanted something short and sharp, and something which we could build meaning around together.
Aruma has a few literal meanings. It actually has roots in languages and cultures from all over the world.
It means a happy place, to plough the land, being real and true, and the calm time between sunset and sunrise – when the body and soul renews for a new day.
But we’re not focusing so much on its literal meaning. When you think about it, brand names on their own don’t mean much. Think about Nike – she was a Greek goddess. Think Apple – that’s a fruit.
For us, Aruma means being bold and brave. It means putting you – our customers – first, and raising the bar much higher than we ever have.
So, this one’s not really a question. But that’s okay, we’ll answer it anyway.
Everyone will have their own reaction to Aruma. You may love Aruma, you may need to sit with it for a while, or you may not like it at all. There’s no right or wrong.
We invested $180,000 into the design of our new brand. It’s definitely an investment in our future.
We have a responsibility to our customers and staff to make sure we are here for the long term. Updating our brand, and changing our name, is one of the ways we are making sure we’re doing this.
The disability support services sector is becoming more crowded – it’s becoming harder to stand out. Not doing anything to build and grow our brand is a short-term approach. It will save costs now, but it will have a negative impact over the longer term.
Landing on the timings of our rebrand was not an easy decision. Ultimately, we decided that yes, now was the right time for our rebrand.
Why? Because Aruma is so much more than a name change – our staff also launched our new Beliefs, our new Purpose and our new Values. All these elements bring us together under one common banner, and will help us have a united front when the Royal Commission comes around.
We also don’t know how long the Royal Commission will take. We didn’t want to wait years to be able to launch this important piece of our puzzle.
We remain committed to putting our customers first. Their safety and wellbeing are incredibly important to us. Now and always.
Our new brand is not replacing any investment we are already making into other areas of our organisation – including our services.
We did ask some families and customers – both current and prospective – what they thought of the name.
But can you imagine trying to land on one name that everyone liked when we’re an organisation of over 5000 staff, and we have over 5000 customers? It’s a pretty tough ask.
While choosing Aruma as our new name was the task of a select few, staff and customers were involved in many other aspects of the new brand. This included both research, and the development of the foundations of our new brand – our Beliefs, our Purpose and our Values.
As an organisation, we believe:
Our revamped Purpose is:
“Supporting people to live a great life, the life they want, the life they choose.”
Our new Values spell out BRAVE. And BRAVE stands for:
Bold – we speak up Respectful – we respect each other Authentic – we do what we say Value teamwork – we do things together Excellent – we do things well
Absolutely not. Our histories are strong pillars of our new brand, Aruma.
Staff and customers have been very clear – you want to make sure we honour and celebrate our histories. And we will definitely do that!
Yes, absolutely. Members of both Founding families are actually also Members of our organisation.
They are aware of the reasons behind the name change, and they also know that our new name is now Aruma.
Nope. Our services will stay the same. The staff that support you will also stay the same.
Any improvements we look to make overtime will always be done hand-in-hand with our customer and with our staff.
No, all the agreements we have in place will still stand. You don’t have to sign anything else because of our name change.
There has been work done recently to simplify Service Agreements. You’ll have more information on this soon – ultimately, all customers will need to sign a new, and much simpler, agreement.
Summerland House Farm and Aussie Biscuits will continue to operate as Summerland House Farm and Aussie Biscuits.
All our other businesses have generic names – for example Packaging, Commercial Laundry etc. These businesses now sit under the Aruma umbrella.
We love that we employ nearly 500 people with a disability. This will remain the same – there will not be any changes to the work our Supported Employees do.
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