Is your company looking for work uniforms? A recent study showed that half of Australians now wear staff uniforms, according to HCA Mag. Today the trend is towards more informal work attire versus traditional options like a shirt and tie, or a blouse and skirt. Studies also show that wearing uniforms like polo shirts can provide various benefits over options like traditional work clothes:
Comfort
The average summer temperature in Australia is 25°C (77°F). This is somewhat higher than room temperature. So it’s practical to wear a short-sleeved polo shirt versus a long-sleeved dress shirt.
Polo shirts also provide other benefits in terms of comfort. They usually have high cotton content versus button-up shirts and blouses with less comfy materials like polyester. One of the main drawbacks of synthetic fibres is they tend to be less breathable than natural ones like cotton.
Convenience
When workers are required to wear uniforms, it eliminates the need to sift through your closet to select work outfits. Research shows that over half of female workers spend up to 30 minutes getting ready for work.
The process becomes much faster when you just have to make sure you clean and dry your uniform shirt before the next workday. There’s no need to mix and match tops, bottoms, and shoes to create an ensemble.
In situations like long commutes, it’s especially important to make your morning routine as time-efficient as possible. Streamlining your workday morning can help reduce the chance of being late to work and dealing with angry bosses.
In fact, workers are often issued multiple work uniforms. This makes the process even easier since they can wait until their next day off to wash uniforms.
Teamwork
Another possible benefit of work uniforms is related to work performance. For example, consider how sports uniforms help teams work as a single unit. They cooperate to achieve the same goal of scoring points and winning games.
Employees can have a similar experience when they’re issued polo shirts with their company’s name and logo, for example. These are symbols of the company that show the shirt’s wearer is representing a particular company.
Sometimes the shirt is personalised with the worker’s name. This provides a connection of the employee to the company like a sports team player. It also provides other benefits like allowing customers to address the company employee by name.
Attitude
Various studies show that schools and companies that require a dress code can provide improved attitudes. This is in terms of their attitude related to their work and supervisors. It can also help in other areas like attendance.
Options like polo uniform shirts can help to prevent an over-casual atmosphere versus other options like T-shirts on casual Fridays. They are comfortable tops yet are still collared and buttoned-up shirts.
Evaluations
This might be a surprising benefit of work uniforms. When managers do employee evaluations, they need to be as objective as possible. This can be tougher when some workers can afford fancier work outfits than others.
Part of being a professional is indeed based on being neat and tidy. That said, the focus of employee evaluations should be on work performance versus fashion sense. Companies can reduce the risk of evaluation bias by requiring workers to wear uniforms.
When considering ways to improve your company, one of the easiest options is requiring staff uniforms. Options like polo shirts can provide benefits like improved professionalism, efficiency, and attitude. They can make better team members.
Steffy Alen is a copywriter and content strategist. She helps businesses stop playing around with content marketing and start seeing the tangible ROI. She loves writing as much as she loves the cake.