For Amanda Uhlmann and Annabel Bone, resident engagement is their number one priority.
As a leading retirement village owner and operator, we have many internal teams that work together to ensure the best outcome for residents and employees. One of those teams is Resident Operations. Amanda Uhlmann and Annabel Bone have worked in this space for more than 10 years, and take us on a journey through what their day looks like.
How did you end up in the role you are in?
Annabel: Before joining Keyton, I worked in the finance industry and completed a Bachelor of Commerce. I joined the retirement living business as an executive assistant in 2013 and then took on the role of community engagement manager in 2018. before moving into my current project manager role in 2020.
Amanda: I started my career at Queensland Health, in the Queensland Minister and Director General for Health Office, before moving to an executive assistant role in Keyton. I supported our CEO Nathan Cockerill, Head of Sales Michael Dockery and Head of Resident Operations - and now my manager - Tamara Rasmussen, before having the opportunity to take on the project manager role.
Amanda: We are both interested and passionate about resident engagement, as well as working closely with the village teams. Our background positioned us well for the project manager role, and working closely with residents on other projects gave us valuable insight into programs that are relevant for our customers.
Tell us a bit about your roles - what does your typical day look like?
Annabel: We oversee around 15 initiatives throughout the year, many of which are ongoing each month. Our typical day starts with reviewing the initiative mailboxes and responding to or actioning any requests from residents wishing to participate in active campaigns. We have key milestones each week we need to achieve to keep the projects on track so this is what drives our weekly schedule.
Amanda: On top of that, we are also responsible for the entire process of ideas being created, liaising with different areas of the business for sign off or support and then creating the platforms for the initiatives to exist on - whether that’s a website campaign, a manual process, print campaigns etc. The resident experience is key and now we are moving to technology to facilitate initiatives, there is more user experience testing involved. Then finally, it’s about creating information and support packs to communicate and rollout the program to village and resort teams.
Annabel: In between these bigger projects, it’s ensuring the rolling monthly initiatives are well supported and planned for during the month while also taking advantage and identifying any short-term opportunities to jump on. For us, spending time with village teams and residents to get feedback and to collaborate with is so important to the success of these initiatives.
"Spending time with village teams and residents to get feedback and to collaborate with is so important to the success of these initiatives."
What do you enjoy most about your role and working at Keyton?
Amanda: We love seeking out opportunities and seeing them come to life through a new program or initiative for residents. For us, we enjoy seeing the way residents participate in initiatives and how they positively impact them. It is very rewarding.
One of the initiatives you are working on is the resident Art Trail. Can you tell us a bit more about this program?
Annabel: The Resident Art trail competition is an annual initiative open to all residents and consistently draws incredible engagement with nearly 150 entries each year. We introduce a theme for residents to draw inspiration from – last year it was a verse of a poem.
Residents can submit any form of artwork medium ranging from paintings to embroidery, woodwork and photography. Following the submission deadline, a judging panel, typically made up of Nathan and members of our executive management team as well as a resident judge, will evaluate each artwork by a scoring system to determine the top 13 artworks whose pieces will be the upcoming year’s calendar.
We gift a resident Art Trail calendar to every resident in Keyton as a Christmas gift. We also gift a hard cover coffee table book which features every artwork that was submitted, to each resident who entered in the competition.
Read more: Ross Aberlé brought his love for art to the village
What do you like about this project?
Amanda: Everything! Receiving the incredible submissions, engaging with residents on their submissions and hearing the stories behind the work and how passionate they are, and of course the best part is letting residents know when they have won and will be featured in the calendar!
What exciting new programs are you currently working on?
Annabel: We are super excited about the launch of the Resident Activity Program which just went live on 1 March 2024. The program provides residents with an opportunity to apply for up to $1,500 to create or pursue an activity or idea. We have been passionate about bringing the Resident Activity Program to life for a number of years now. Following a successful pilot in 2022 and now rebranded as Keyton, it is a perfect time to launch this program that we are so proud of.
Amanda: We also commit to improving our initiatives in some way every year. We celebrate what’s working well, change what needs to and think of how the experience could be better. So this year, we will be leveraging technology platforms to help us enhance the experience as well as introducing a few new ideas!
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