5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Proper Dress Code in Work Place
The way you dress shows your interests, status, attitude, and personality and communicates a lot of non-verbal clues about you to others. Society expects you to conform to a dress code whether it is at home, office, social function, picnics, parties, beaches, school, college or academic institutions. What may be acceptable in one country may not be so in another. Culture, tradition, and socio-economic factors have an influence on the way you dress.
Depending on which industry your company operates in, having an appropriate dress code has an important bearing on your firm’s brand image, productivity, and employee morale.
Here are 5 reasons why workplace dress code is important
1. Corporate Identity
Just as your brand gets a good visibility through appropriate colors, shades, and fonts used, the way your employees dress help in creating a corporate identity for your firm which helps your stakeholders recognize you easily. In some companies, all employees including the CEO follow the same dress code and that helps in creating a positive image for the company.
2. Keeps Employee Distractions Away
If employees wear different styles of clothes – some will be wearing casuals, some formals, and others may wear blazers or suits. In such a scenario, those wearing colorful casuals may attract glances or cause a distraction to others. Moreover, customers who come to the office will also not feel any uniformity about the company’s operations. Clothing that reveals too much of cleavage, back, chest, arms, and legs is considered inappropriate and if a company follows a uniform, such issues can be taken care of.
3. Creates a Healthy Work Culture
Having a dress code for different categories of employees can create a healthy work culture in the office. For example, the administrative staff may be having a particular color combination for their work dress, while those in customer service or marketing may have a different style. This helps in team building among departments and also helps customers identify the functionalities related to each employee better. Those adhering to a dress code report positive outcome on productivity and team building.
4. It Displays Professionalism
Adhering to a dress code at office enables the company and its employees to give the impression that they are professional in their work. Managers may have to wear suits, ad full-sleeve shirts, and black shoes, while creative people may be allowed to wear a slack shirt. On weekends or extra working hours, some companies allow employees to wear T-shirts and bermudas. That helps prevent monotony and it gives creative freedom to employees to dress in a way they like for a day in a week.
Professionalism is also valued by shareholders, the media, and investment analysts.
5. Undesirable Perfume, Makeup
Dress code is not related to dressing alone but the use of perfumes, deodorants makeup, and beauty enhancements. Use of beauty enhancements may be attractive at social functions and picnics but not in an office where it can be offensive to some. It can also convey a poor image of your company to your customers and stakeholders.
Having a dress code with or without uniform can help companies to make employees happy and focus on their work. It improves productivity and helps develop a healthy work culture in your organization. Many successful companies have judiciously used dress code for their various categories of employees with a positive impact on employee performance and bottom line. Conforming to the company’s dress code helps employees feel confident and perform better. It also reduces the costs associated with buying and wearing dresses to work.
