Company workwear serves many functions, from protecting your staff from hazardous conditions to making the right impression with prospective customers. Therefore, careful planning is required to ensure you get all the benefits from your investment, while avoiding the pitfalls that are all too common. Here are 10 essential attributes that should be factored in when placing your order.
1. Legally approved – This is the most important attribute of all. Make sure the workwear you choose meets any legal requirements that exist for your industry. Not doing so will endanger staff and place your business in a vulnerable legal position.
2. Practical – Your next step should be to ensure the clothing is practical for the type of work your staff will be performing. If it makes their job more difficult, productivity will fall and so too will your profit margin.
3. Staff buy-in – For your new workwear to have the desired effect of helping staff to perform to their best, you’ll need their buy-in. Talking to them before you order may help you to understand their concerns and preferences before you spend money.
4. Comfort – If your team feel comfortable, they are more likely to respond well to the new workwear and work to their optimum level. Whereas, a member of staff who is uncomfortable is far less likely to work to their best and may cause problems by refusing to wear it.
5. Style – Another factor in achieving buy-in and helping you promote the right image to your prospective customers will be the style of the clothing. There’s a wide range of options from embroidered and printed polo shirts to sweatshirts and fleeces. You need to choose a style that best fits with your culture and represents your business accurately.
6. Choices – It’s important you give your staff options. If you choose printed polo shirts, for example, make sure you also provide printed or embroidered sweatshirts for when the temperature drops. Not doing this could impact negatively on productivity and staff morale.
7. Corporate colour scheme – When thinking about style and options, make sure they remain consistent with your firm’s branding. If a colour scheme exists and it is featured in your logo, carry that through to your workwear – it could help with increasing awareness of your brand.
8. Branded – To take full advantage of your clothing from a branding point of you, your clothing should include your logo and name. You could reach a point where someone sees a sky blue printed polo shirt and immediately thinks of your business.
9. Contact information – If you then want people to find you, it will be important to include all relevant contact details for the business on the workwear – be it your telephone number, web address or email.
10. Durable – It’s also crucial that the clothing you choose will last and represents good value for money. Consider the cost of replacing workwear that falls apart after a few wears and it’s likely to make more sense to invest in quality, durable workwear now.