A Guide to The Perfect Dress Code
A company’s dress code often defines the culture, productivity and morale of a company. When it comes to deciding on a dress code, you must find the perfect balance that fits with your company’s field of work and culture. It’s important for employees to feel comfortable, but you also important to promote a professional atmosphere. You may come to realize that it’s a harder balance to find than you think. A work place that is too casual can cause employee’s to relax and productivity would then suffer. The opposite of that would be an office that is too strict, which would bring down employee morale and could negatively affect productivity.
An important thing to note is that every business cannot have the same dress code. There is no benefit in modeling your dress code from another company. Every office has a different culture and group of employees. It’s best to set a dress code that fits your company, instead of having a company that fits your dress code.
Dress Code Names
Dress code names can often be quite confusing. Today, there are so many different dress codes; one could easily get confused on what to wear. With Business Casual, Smart Casual, Business, Casual and Street Wear, there’s no telling what they all mean. When it comes to deciding on a dress code, it’s best to stay away from traditional dress code names. After all, when you create your own dress code, it gives you the ability to name it!
Finding the Balance
The first thing you should do is decide what items you don’t want employees to wear to the office. This way, employees will know exactly what they can’t wear and still feel like they have flexibility in their wardrobe. No one wants to be stuck in one category, i.e. business casual, every day of the week. You need to give employees flexibility to have some variety and change with the seasons. Of course, you have to be careful with how much flexibility you give some employees. No one wants employees coming to the office in beach attire or the outfit they wore out the night before. However, employees that are comfortable with what they wear on a daily basis will be much more pleasant and productive.
Dressing to the Occasion
I believe the most important factor when it comes to a dress code is how much face-to-face interaction you have with clients. The more interactions you have with clients, the nicer you should dress on a daily basis. For example, the standard for a salesman who is constantly meeting with new and existing clientele should be higher than a programmer who sits behind a computer for the majority of the day. Bottom-line, if you are aiming to inspire confidence in your clients, it’s best to dress to impress.
The Truth
The truth is that there is no real guide to finding the perfect dress code for your company. Although you want your employee’s happy and comfortable, you must enforce some type of “code”. Finding the perfect balance will be an ongoing process, however, once you do you should see that your employees are much more productive.
Written by Nathan Brown, Enhancement Coordinator at DSD Business Systems
