Workwear allocation campaign: the complete method

A successful workwear allocation campaign is won before it launches. Most sizing errors, reminders and post-delivery exchanges come from incomplete preparation. Here is the method we follow with our clients, from scoping to the next renewal, with a model schedule, the role of each party and a checklist to copy.

In short. A workwear allocation campaign equips a group of wearers in a single operation: you build the wardrobe by job, collect each wearer's size, have each site approve, then order and deliver one parcel per wearer. The model schedule allows 8 weeks of preparation before the supplier order, including 2 weeks of size collection, to be adapted to your lead times. The two things that make a campaign fail: incomplete size charts and sizes guessed by the wearers.

What is a workwear allocation campaign?

It is the operation through which a company, a public body or a school provides workwear and PPE to a group of wearers in one go. It differs from ongoing allocation, where each need is handled case by case.

Employee clothing campaigns are launched in four situations:

• Periodic renewal of the company's workwear allocation.
• A change of uniform: new range, new supplier, new brand guidelines.
• A site opening or a whole team joining.
• A new intake of students or apprentices to equip before term starts.

In every case, the difficulty is the same: knowing the right size for each wearer, for each item, before ordering.

Who does what: the roles in an allocation campaign

A campaign involves five parties. Name one person per role from the scoping stage: most delays come from a decision nobody feels responsible for.

The wearer has only one thing to do: respond. The shorter their part, the higher the response rate.

Planning the allocation campaign: the model schedule

The model below counts back from the date of the supplier order, noted W0. It applies to workwear as well as to a PPE allocation campaign. Adapt it to the manufacturing lead time announced by your supplier and to the number of sites.

Size collection can be shorter than planned: a school collected the sizes of 988 students across 7 campuses in one week. What stretches a campaign is rarely the wearers' response, it is missing preparation.

Step 1: build the wardrobe by job

Start from the jobs, not the catalogue. For each job, list the mandatory items (set with HSE), the optional items and the quantities. For example:

• Workshop and maintenance: work trousers and jackets, T-shirts, safety shoes, gloves.
• Logistics and loading bays: high-visibility clothing, parka, safety shoes.
• Reception and stores: polo shirts or shirts in the company's image, light jacket.
• Construction and outdoor work: hi-vis outfit, protection against cold and rain, PPE specific to the risks of the job.

If your wearers choose from a catalogue themselves, set a points allowance per profile rather than a fixed list.

Then gather reliable size charts. A recommendation can be no more accurate than the size chart it relies on. For each item, get the full chart from the supplier: the measurements for each size (chest, waist, hips, inside leg) and, where available, height. An incomplete or approximate size chart produces approximate recommendations. This is the step you should never rush. The pitfalls specific to PPE are covered in our article on the most common mistakes in PPE size charts.

Step 2: prepare the list of wearers and their access

With a list of wearers, each person receives personal access and you can track who has responded. Without a list, a shared link is enough: the wearer enters their name when they respond, and results remain named in the dashboard.

Wearers are more willing to respond on a page that looks like their company. In WeeFizz PRO, each site has its own mini-site, in your colours, with your visuals and your logo, reached through a link or a QR code, from a phone or a computer. Test the journey internally before launch: a few wearers with different profiles are often enough to spot a forgotten item or an unclear instruction.

Step 3: collect sizes without fitting sessions

This is the step that decides how many exchanges follow delivery. There are four ways to do it:

• The fitting wardrobe that travels from site to site: reliable, but slow and costly to organise.
• The spreadsheet or paper form where everyone declares their size: fast, but a person's usual size varies from one brand to another and from one item to another.
• Tape-measure measuring: accurate when done well, rarely consistent from one site to another.
• The size recommendation questionnaire: the wearer answers a few questions and receives a calculated size for each item.

With WeeFizz, the wearer enters their height, weight, age and gender, then chooses their body shape from images. No photo needed. The engine derives 14 girth and length measurements, then the size in the real size chart of each item. The method is explained in detail on our page about remote body measurement for workwear.

On the communication side, one message is enough if it contains three things: the link or QR code, the closing date, and a reassuring line: “a few questions, no photo needed”. Plan a mid-point reminder for those who have not yet responded: the dashboard shows you who to chase, site by site.

Step 4: approve site by site

Decide who approves orders, site by site. The manager knows their team: they spot an absent wearer, an item that does not match the job or a forgotten new joiner. In the approval area, they approve their employees' orders online, whenever suits them, and you are notified at each approval and when the campaign closes.

Set an approval deadline separate from the response closing date, two to three days later. It leaves time to handle special cases without delaying the order.

Step 5: place the order with no re-keying

Once orders are approved, quantities by item and by size go to the supplier with no re-keying. The consolidated export contains exactly what was approved: wearer, site, reference, size and quantity, with an export by employee number and by reference for the supplier. It is a clean file, ready for your ERP.

WeeFizz does not manage stock and does not replace your ERP: the order is still placed by the buyer or the distributor, through your usual channels. What disappears is the manual consolidation of spreadsheets sent in by each site.

Step 6: organise named delivery

One parcel per wearer, in the right size. Individual sheets allow preparation per wearer and per site: the distributor labels each parcel with the wearer's name, and the site manager simply hands them out. On delivery day, everyone opens their parcel and the fitting wardrobe stays at the depot.

Provide a single point of contact for questions on receipt, and a clear rule for exchanges: who requests them, from whom, and within what time.

Step 7: follow up after delivery and prepare the renewal

Two to four weeks after delivery, review the campaign: response rate per site, exchanges requested and why, actual time taken by each step. The campaign report in PDF downloads in one click.

If an item keeps coming back for the same reason, its fit is often the cause: a garment that runs small is corrected once, and the recommendation aligns immediately for the following campaigns. The dashboard keeps a history of sizes from one campaign to the next and the real breakdown of sizes ordered, product by product: enough to prepare the next renewal and equip new joiners without starting from scratch. To see how a tool runs this cycle from start to finish, read our page on workwear allocation software.

Allocation campaign checklist (to copy)

Copy this list into your tracking tool and tick items off as you go.

• Scoping: scope (sites, jobs, headcount), budget, allocation rules (quantities or points), W0 order date, one named person per role.
• Wardrobe: items per job, mandatory items approved by HSE, references and colours confirmed.
• Size charts: one complete chart per item, measurements for each size, height where available, known fit issues flagged.
• Wearers: up-to-date list with site and job, or a shared link if no list exists, named or anonymous access chosen.
• Access: mini-site per site, link and QR code, journey tested by a few wearers.
• Communication: a single message (link, closing date, “no photo needed”), relayed by managers, mid-point reminder.
• Approval: one approver per site, approval deadline, quantity check.
• Order: consolidated export, check of totals by size, sent to the supplier.
• Delivery: one parcel per wearer, named labelling, distribution by site, exchange rule.
• Follow-up: review at 2 to 4 weeks, fit corrections, history kept for the renewal.

Common mistakes

• Launching without a complete size chart: the recommendation inherits its approximations.
• Forgetting the closing date: without a deadline, responses drag on and the order waits.
• Multiplying channels: one spreadsheet per site means as many versions to reconcile.
• Asking wearers to guess their size: a person's usual size varies from one brand to another, and from one item to another.
• Building the wardrobe without HSE: a missing PPE item discovered after ordering means a second order.
• Naming no approver per site: orders wait, and the buyer ends up approving blind.
• Delivering in bulk per site: without named parcels, the manager sorts everything by hand.
• Discarding the data after the campaign: the size history is what feeds the renewal and new joiners.

Two campaigns run with this method

A network of 82 stores. Foussier, a distributor of PPE and industrial supplies, rolled out WeeFizz across its 82 stores in a few days, with a single internal communication and no technical resources on the client side. Wearers accepted more than 95% of size recommendations. Read the Foussier case study.

One intake across 7 campuses. A school collected the sizes of 988 students and ordered 3,861 garments in one week, without a single fitting session, with a mini-site per campus and a consolidated order sent with no re-keying. Read how 988 students were equipped in one week.

Frequently asked questions about allocation campaigns

How long does it take to organise an allocation campaign?

The model schedule in this guide allows 8 weeks of preparation before the supplier order, to be adapted to your scope, followed by the manufacturing and delivery lead time announced by the supplier. Size collection itself can fit into one week: that was the case for a school that equipped 988 students across 7 campuses.

How do you collect employees' sizes without fitting sessions?

With a size recommendation questionnaire: the wearer enters their height, weight, age and gender, then chooses their body shape from images, with no photo needed. WeeFizz derives 14 measurements, then the size in the size chart of each item.

Who should approve the orders in an allocation campaign?

The manager of each site, who knows their team and spots anything missing. The buyer then checks the consolidated quantities before the supplier order.

Can you launch a campaign without a named list of wearers?

Yes. A shared link or a QR code is enough: each wearer enters their name when they respond, and results remain named in the dashboard.

Does WeeFizz place the order with the supplier?

No. WeeFizz recommends sizes, organises approval and produces a consolidated export ready for your ERP. The order is still placed by the buyer or the distributor, and WeeFizz does not manage stock.