Dress Code Issue

Hey Guys-
Thank you for your suggestions. What i did to handle the situation was i called in a joint meeting with all employees at 1400Hrs yesterday and identified that:
1. People were more wanting to wear jeans and the reason stated were basically that there were rains and formals dont stand a chance if they are commuting via bikes.
2. They were unhappy / offended with the fact that they were reminded everytime they wore casuals while entering office by the receptionaist / admin exec.
3. Some of them hadnt realy bought / invested in formal clothes for a year and they never had time to buy a fresh pair.

How i resolved the situation was as under:
1. Gave them a waiver on dress code till the rains subside. But also made it clear that once rains are off they will have to adhere to the code. Recurrent voilations would attract 'Notice to Improve'
2. Gave them a relaxation to wear casulas for 2 days in a week (Thursday and friday) with other weekdays being a compulsory formal dress code. Again applicable (w.r. to pt1 above) during and after rains.
3. Explained them by giving example that casuals are usually worn on fridays and are generally worn and is a fashion in college and not in a professional world. Gave them expample of the IT setups in our vicinity.
4. Explained them that we need to have a professional attire especially when we are intervieing and are presenting ourselves to anyone when in office premises, then be it a vendor, prospective employee, co-worker, client etc.... In short told them that they are the comapny's brand ambassador.

I had to be firm and fair while dealing and apprently on of my jr. had shot a mail earlier in the day which really upset the employees. I believe that was something that triggered the employees to form groups and talk to me about the issue. I spoke to my Jr and have ensure that the communcation be decent going forth.


Let me know your view on the above. really looking forward for it.
Thanks a ton for your support.


Regards
Trinity-Morpheus

Dear Trinity-Morpheus,

I completely understand your view point and can see that your Hold HR's role really high in any organization, as HR is the impression of any company. I myself am a graduate from a reputed B School and have been placed abroad. Once I joined this firm, I realized that people simply do not care for HR and they give a damn to policies and procedures and for me being an expat it became all the more difficult for me to make them understand the value and importance of HR policies be it coming in formal wear or following office timing.

In the first few months I was very agressive and simply had a moarchial sort of attitude that either you mind the policies else we will take disciplinary measure, but to my disappointement, poople started taking HR in a more negative manner. Then I realized that any human being is quite reluctant to come out of his confort zone.

I organized an office seminar wherein i showed them PPT presentation with very nice pcitures and graphics wherein people were wearing smart formals and smart casuals, I made them understand the fact of "If you look Good, you feel Good" and after tah I organized one to one meeting will each staff member and tried to understand their point of view. Thnks, tha after a hard of few months, pepople have started coming in smart formals nowadays. Patience is the key to anything...

Cheers!

Sunita

HOD-Human Resource

Hi,

You can discuss this with the Management and then prepare a circular with the name of employees on it. You can write in the circular that dressing sense will be a part of their appraisal. Get it signed by the management and then circulate it. Also make a column of signatures, where all the employees will sign after reading the circular.

Believe me i did it in my organization and it is worth.

Regards,

Azina

Ravi i try to help the people rather then abusing.

Rupesh

Hi
Dress code matters a lot in today's business world. Be it Small scale or Large scale industry ur working in.
My suggestion would be to continue with your policy implementation and its obvious that a HR guy is someone like a mediator between the management and the employees. We HR guys stand on the needle point. Jus see to it that you dont OVER-DO. If you are working 6 days a week, probably you may Casuals on Saturday's alone or both on Friday & Saturday. But make sure that A BIG NO TO SANDALS. Sports shoes are accepted, but that should be only during weekends.
In contrast bring out some welfare activity side by side.
If you have the experience in HR field, I believe you need not worry about it, irrespective of you joining one month back or one week back. That doesnt matter.

Cheers
Aravind K

Dear Trinity,

Do you allow Dhoti kurta ??????

Why not ?????

Dada

Dress code is limited to org practice & culture they want to promote. Generally Client facing ( F@F) org have strict dress code as they want to display real good image and frankly speaking every pne would like to see a dashing male/female representative who comes and share/ sell his or her solutions/ idea/ product.

Exception is given to call centers or employees working as clearks (low staff), office boys etc are exceptions. But in my view formal dressing creates a formal atmosphere and if companies business need such envornment then one should strive for it but don't try in ad agancies al your staff will run away.

To enforce the rule/policy, its very simple, please inform your security not to allow person/ employee who is adhering to the dress code guidelines inside the premise untill its a vendor or client.

NS

Hi....
Ofcourse, dress code should be in industry. nobody should be allowed in casual.
I am agree with the statement of awarneck, you can take the initiative on the basis of Audit, I think this is the only way through you can remove the hindrance whatever you have to face during implementation.

COMMENTS INVITED



Hey Guys-
Thank you for your suggestions. What i did to handle the situation was i called in a joint meeting with all employees at 1400Hrs yesterday and identified that:
1. People were more wanting to wear jeans and the reason stated were basically that there were rains and formals dont stand a chance if they are commuting via bikes.
2. They were unhappy / offended with the fact that they were reminded everytime they wore casuals while entering office by the receptionaist / admin exec.
3. Some of them hadnt realy bought / invested in formal clothes for a year and they never had time to buy a fresh pair.

How i resolved the situation was as under:
1. Gave them a waiver on dress code till the rains subside. But also made it clear that once rains are off they will have to adhere to the code. Recurrent voilations would attract 'Notice to Improve'
2. Gave them a relaxation to wear casulas for 2 days in a week (Thursday and friday) with other weekdays being a compulsory formal dress code. Again applicable (w.r. to pt1 above) during and after rains.
3. Explained them by giving example that casuals are usually worn on fridays and are generally worn and is a fashion in college and not in a professional world. Gave them expample of the IT setups in our vicinity.
4. Explained them that we need to have a professional attire especially when we are intervieing and are presenting ourselves to anyone when in office premises, then be it a vendor, prospective employee, co-worker, client etc.... In short told them that they are the comapny's brand ambassador.

I had to be firm and fair while dealing and apprently on of my jr. had shot a mail earlier in the day which really upset the employees. I believe that was something that triggered the employees to form groups and talk to me about the issue. I spoke to my Jr and have ensure that the communcation be decent going forth.


Let me know your view on the above. really looking forward for it.
Thanks a ton for your support.


Regards
Trinity-Morpheus

Really valuable sugestions from all the members.

Thanks Sunita,

That was really nice you share.

I do agree with your point that enforcing policies dont have positive impact on the employees. I too have experienced it.

Office seminar was really an good idea. Indirect enforcement i would say, highliting the positives and benefits of any policy or method can do well.