Hi
My organisation is opening up a new visitor attraction and while in the long term we may look to introduce a uniform, in the meantime we are looking at various ways of ensuring everyone is dresses smartly.
We have guidance on dress and it's importance to present yourself in a professional way but I've been asked to look into whether or not we can ask everyone to wear a certain colour e.g. black.
Does anyone have experience of introducing anything like this?
Many thanks
Jennifer
Replies
I had to introduce a 'black dress' policy with my team in the past. And I mean a dress that was black so it was a battle and personally, I didn't agree. Anyway, I positioned it against a worse alternative. So I said we looked at a dress made especially for the business, one style for everyone with the logo on BUT that we (their managers) had fought hard with head office to make sure they had more choice. So instead we were 'allowing' them to choose their own plain black dress to suit their shape etc and the 'only' restrictions were length and neckline etc. A lesser of two evils approach. Then I got them into a shared email thread and got them all to reply to it showing what they were ordering and where from to help ensure everyone was on the same page.
Clearly the business was allowed to impose quite a specific dress code but I don't know about current rules.
Thanks Nicole, good idea offering a range of styles
Jennifer
Morning Jennifer
Yes I can think of a couple of instances of businesses which although they don't have a specific uniform they do ask employees to wear a certain colour for smartness, I think as long as it applies to everyone this should not be a problem. Especially as the business justification is that these are customer facing roles and you are trying to achieve a smart professional look. I think the only problem you may face was if employees were asked to wear a specific branded colour e.g. black with a lime green top which may cause a problem if they had to buy these specifically! and in my opinion it would be unreasonable to ask employees to do this.
Kind regards
Sarah
Many thanks Sarah!
Jennifer