Success Story

Bene transforms team communication with Secure Messaging

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Benefits

What changed for Bene Aged Care

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Hours of time saved

Safer work environment

Stronger team culture

About Bene Aged Care

With over 45 years of experience, Bene provides both in-home and residential care services across South Australia. What began as a vision rooted in the cultural and lifestyle needs of South Australia’s Italian community has expanded to support independent living for over 2,500 people from all walks of life.

Because Bene’s team of 70 home care staff work out in the community—only coming into the office for team meetings or to collect supplies—the office staff faced significant communication limitations. Sharing updates or schedule changes over the phone proved inefficient, while relying on email raised concerns around security and privacy.

They needed a secure solution to streamline communications, enhance efficiency, and improve collaboration and camaraderie among their dedicated staff.

Industry: Home Care and Residential Care
Founded: 1978
Location: South Australia
Employees:

Interview with

Kelsey Preece

Community Customer and People Team Leader, BeneKel

The Challenge

“Our main challenge was communicating with our remote workforce, especially with some that might not be tech-savvy,” explains Kelsey Preece , Bene’s Community Customer and People Team Leader.

Feedback and major changes were shared at team meetings, which only occurred around four times a year. Bene needed a user-friendly communication tool to send real-time group messages, ensuring all staff received the same information simultaneously.

“Most of our daily communication was through the phone, which took a lot of time,” says Kelsey. “And emails aren’t a secure platform, so we had to be very careful about what information we were delivering.”

Communicating required 15-20 office staff to share the workload of contacting 70 care workers to deliver updates, including safety issues like bushfires and heat waves, as well as procedure and policy changes.

Ultimately, the Bene team needed to introduce a modern replacement for phone calls and emails that streamlined all communication for staff and reduced time spent on manual tasks.

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The Solution

Already happy users of AlayaCare Cloud, Bene decided to solve their communication challenges by upgrading their plan to access the premium Secure Messaging feature.

Secure Messaging helps teams communicate and collaborate more effectively. Staff can chat one-on-one or in groups and securely share files within each thread. Everything stays together, so updates aren’t missed and information isn’t lost.

Inspired by other successful rollouts, Bene took a careful and measured approach to implementation.

“We were a bit concerned at first,” says Kelsey. “We didn’t want it to be used as a social tool that’s not work related. When you have a group chat with 70 staff, you’re not sure what could happen.”

After the Secure Messaging tool was successfully tested by team members, Bene’s office staff developed clear, step-by-step instructions to support its adoption across the entire workforce including those less confident with technology.

Bene launched the tool at a team meeting sharing clear guidelines for responsible use.

“Once the staff got used to the layout and gained a bit of trust in the system, we gave it a go,” says Kelsey. “We embedded strong processes and it’s worked very well since then. Implementation was quick too. It took about half a day.”

Care staff are now using Secure Messaging to directly communicate with case managers about care plan and outcome changes, receiving time-sensitive information on the go so nothing is missed. It’s also used to schedule staff meetings, confirm training dates, and deliver safety updates.

Previously, the care team had limited opportunities to connect and get to know one another. Kelsey highlights the positive impact Secure Messaging has had on building team rapport and ensuring new staff feel welcome.

“When we provide feedback recognition through the group chat, staff can respond directly, like ‘Keep up the great work, guys’,” says Kelsey. “It’s been really successful at fostering a positive team environment.”

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The Result

Since implementing Secure Messaging, Kelsey has noticed several key benefits for both care staff and office staff.

The culture transformation has strengthened staff connections, boosted recognition and morale, and even sparked new friendships through clearer, more efficient communication.

The shift has also created a support system for isolated care workers in the field, improved onboarding for new team members, and reduced time spent on calls, allowing staff to focus more on client care and less on chasing information.

“We always have to prioritise client care first, and sometimes the staff come second,” adds Kelsey. “Secure Messaging has allowed us to keep on top of work and make sure everyone’s being treated the same, whether it’s staff or clients.”

Kelsey also emphasises the increased safety of using Secure Messaging compared to the previous practice of making phone calls via Bluetooth while driving, which staff often did to avoid disrupting client visits.

Overall, the Bene team has seen only positive results from integrating Secure Messaging.

“It’s very user-friendly and mirrors social platforms, which has made it easy for people to learn,” says Kelsey. “We’ve really expanded, with care staff all over the metro areas. It’s great that people can be so far away from each other but still feel connected, even if it’s through a messaging platform.”