As much as you might like to do away with donning uniforms at work and think uniforms are only for schools, some workplaces and certain occupations require employees to be sporting uniforms at work.
HR managers further emphasise on the need for uniforms in certain occupations to maintain uniformity in the workplace culture and decent dressing of individuals at work.
Startup companies normally allow workers the leverage to dress the way they like and some employees do take advantage of this casualness to become a fashionista at work. While good dressing does motivate employees to feel more confident and focused, an uniform dressing code on the other hand helps establish discipline, reflects workplace culture and as generally believed, does not curb creative expression at work.
An employee’s uniform can profoundly communicate company’s branding message to customers, motivate employees to feel sense of pride to be working for the brand and sense of ownership with the job role.
Take the example of white coat of a medical professional, or the black robe of a supreme court judge, or the uniform of an air force officer, the park ranger with a stiff campaign hat. All of these professionals clearly exhibit their pride by donning uniforms provider by their respective companies.
Minute changes in workplace culture to begin with inculcating a sense of discipline, belonging towards the organisations by enacting rules for employees to sport uniforms, goes a long way to influence positive working, hold higher self-esteem and makes each employee feel responsible to represent the face of the brand.
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Uniform etiquette in customer-service oriented jobs helps build the employer brand promotes increased confidence levels and higher productivity at work.
If you still hold your doubts true, and are of the belief that uniform culture does have it cons and isn’t right for your business needs, then these pointers below might help your decision-making process easier:
Uniforms designed for employees are made to embrace the company’s brand values and associate their core beliefs with the brand. Corporate logos, colours, and name printed on the shirts helps the company to communicate a strong brand mission statement and create a distinguished identity for themselves in the competitive industry.
In most cases, employee uniforms are used to advertise and propagate the brand mission statements or make a mention of the products and services offered by the company.
The company’s promotion on the work attire will continue as long as the employee is a part of the brand family. Everywhere they go, their attire speaks about the brand they work for.
This means HR managers have to be further careful in their recruitment strategies to choose the best fit that represents the company culture and can carry the brand on their shoulders with a sense of ownership and pride.
Establishing a uniform dressing style as a part of workplace ethics and culture, helps foster team spirit and creates a feeling of oneness at work. This leads to higher employee engagement, better work performance and improved productivity.
The office attire makes employees set aside their inherent differences and the backgrounds they hail from, to position everyone at par as an integral part of one big family.
Flame Resistant workwear can help prevent injuries caused by accidental electrical arc flashes or flash fires. However, employees working for other industries still follow the uniform code of dressing. Why? Because sometimes these colours attract customers, leaves a remarkable impression on customer minds about the brand to be easily identified. Also the light, comfortable fabric and sweat-absorbing material of uniforms, help employees to function optimally during work hours.
An employee with a company uniform in specific colour or badges allocated, grants them priority access to certain prohibited areas within the company, that are out of reach for employees with uniforms varying in colour.
In other words, uniforms allow people to be more exclusively identified, protected, and be differentiated from those who do not belong to the company. Visitors or outsiders can be easily recognised.
Some employees might be contented to dress in the most professional manner at work, while some might prefer to be modest, while there are others who just cannot afford to sport new clothes all the time. Office uniform helps maintain uniformity in dressing, promotes equality and results in effective work performance.
Customers can easily identify the company’s representative through their uniforms. One of the strategical approaches to promote equality at work and inculcate disciplined sense of working in employees, is to encourage employees to sport the uniforms and make them feel a sense of belonging to be a part of the brand family.
By donning uniforms, each employee is entrusted with the responsibility to be brand ambassadors of the company, ingrained with a willing to serve attitude and meet customer requirements to their utmost satisfaction.
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