then business success will follow. The
business journey starts with integrity;
If we cannot help, then we say so.
At Connor we are always interested to hear from talented individuals with values that match our own. If you feel you could make a great contribution to our growing business please get in touch.
We are looking to work with self-motivated and pragmatic consultants all over the UK who share our passion for delivering quality work that makes a difference to individuals and organisations.
If you are planning company change or restructures that will affect your people or simply require some initial HR advice, we would love to help. Get in touch to discuss your requirements further.
As an individual, we may invest a lot of time thinking about what to wear and what it says about us. So why should organisations be any different? As with any person, the way an organisation presents itself is key to its culture, and dress code is at the heart of that. Below, I explore this controversial topic, considering why organisations would look to relax a company dress code and provide some tips to consider for anyone that wishes to embrace the change.
I recently worked with a retailer who was on a journey to digitally transform their organisation, they wanted to break away from a traditional process led organisation to one that led the way in Digital Retail. A powerful strategic move for them, was to introduce a dress code that aligned to their desired culture. It enabled colleagues to feel more comfortable when interacting with organisations such as Google and Digitas LBI, and helped to change the external perception of an organisation once viewed as old fashioned.
Similarly, you wouldn't be surprised to see casual and individual people in Apple – as it matches their brand. Yet in a bank branch you would expect suits. Sir Richard Branson embraces a relaxed dress code, yet still has certain guidelines for those that are customer facing: "I would go further than that and encourage staff to wear any clothing they think will help them to work most productively and enjoy their day. If that means shorts and a vest, then that’s fine, and not just in baking weather. The only exception should be places like airlines where it is important for guests to know who are passengers and who are crew."
3. Can you help your employees to choose what to wear?
By working with the senior team on something that was fit for purpose and driven by the right people in the right way, we successfully landed new guidance across the organisation. I've given some tips below to help organisations with similar challenges, consider how to make this change.
3. Show the links to business strategy
For culture change to be successful it must link to the organisations vision and strategy. If you can clearly show tangible links between what the business is looking to achieve, how the culture needs to support that and therefore the connections to employee perks, specifically dress code, then you are more likely to gain traction. Having a dress code that conflicts with the strategy or brand will not be successful.
At Connor we can help you to establish a variety of policies and procedures to support and enable your culture.
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