Do you feel like you spend a good bit of time policing what your employees wear to work? While more employers are allowing workers to wear casual clothes to work, doing so may create confusion among them. With more than half (fifty-six percent) of employees preferring to wear more relaxed attire, four in ten (forty-one percent) are sometimes uncertain about whether their clothing is appropriate, according to new research from staffing firm OfficeTeam.
According to the research, most employees (86 percent) reported they like casual dress codes because they enable them to dress more comfortably. About one in four respondents (23 percent) said their company policy isn't always clear about what attire is acceptable, however, which may lead employees to wear clothing that contravenes management expectations.
If your work team is struggling with dress code compliance, these three steps may help get workers back on track:
- Review and Update Your Policy: The less information you provide employees on dress code expectations, the more likely it is that they will wear clothing that does not comply with your requirements. If you are going to allow employees to dress casually, you need to specifically articulate what "casual" means. If you do not, employees will apply their own definition of the term. To build employee engagement and buy-in, consider forming a committee of employees to identify areas of confusion and develop policy language that is clearer. You should also run your policy draft by an HR professional or legal counsel to ensure that it complies with all applicable laws, including those prohibiting discrimination due to sex or gender identity and expression, as well as those requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodation based on religion or disability.
- Train Employees and Set an Example: Once your policy is updated, you should communicate the organization's expectations to your employees. This can be done at a staff meeting, by issuing a written communication, or by taking the more creative approach of hosting a company-wide fashion show of appropriate workplace attire. In addition to updating your policy and educating employees on company expectations, managers can also communicate the company's dress code by wearing clothing that meets its requirements. Employees do not only pay attention to what managers say, but also to what they do. If you fail to comply with the dress code yourself, you lose credibility with your staff when you attempt to enforce expectations with them.
- Uniformly Enforce Requirements: Once your expectations are communicated, managers must uniformly enforce them. If some managers allow employees to wear clothes that do not comply with the dress code while others require workers to conform to it, the company sends mixed messages that may lead to unnecessary confusion.
Because employee appearance impacts customers' impressions of your organization, requiring workers to comply with a dress code makes sense. As Brandi Britton, a district president for OfficeTeam, notes "As work attire skews more casual, the rules about acceptable office wear aren't always clear-cut." Time spent fleshing out and clearly communicating those expectations to workers will go a long way to ensuring that they conform to them.