Why your dress code policy might be the problem, not your employees
If you’ve got a thick file titled ‘Dress Code Reprimands’ the chances are that your dress code isn’t quite the clear policy you think it is. If you go through the file, are there consistencies in the reprimands that can be backed up by the handbook, or are you looking at different reprimands issued by different managers on different teams for different things?
If they're all for one thing, then your policy is likely to be the problem. Or maybe you've got a group of particularly contrary employees who are pushing back on one particular rule.
If they're all for different things from different managers on different teams, then you've likely got an implementation or interpretation problem, not necessarily a policy problem.
So how do you know if you've got a policy problem or an implementation/interpretation problem?
Identifying a policy problem
As I've mentioned, if the reprimands are all for one thing, it's likely the policy that's the problem.
For instance, if your policy says that staff must wear 'ties that are workplace appropriate', and they're showing up with ties that are all kinds of jazzy patterns and that's not considered appropriate in your workplace, you need to actually specify what 'workplace appropriate' means.
It may be obvious to whoever wrote the policy that 'workplace appropriate' means plain coloured ties and no, you can't wear a tie with tiny spaceships on it to the office, but to the person who's wearing it, that may be entirely appropriate and a way to show their personality. They may think that as the design of their tie doesn't contain any profanity or otherwise adult-rated content, their tie is fine.
The term 'workplace appropriate' is non-specific and open to interpretation. If something is not allowed, name it. Change your policy to have, for example, the following wording:
"Ties must be plain in colour. The following patterns are permitted (if you want to allow patterned ties like paisley and tartan). Tie designs must not depict cartoon characters, vehicles, or any of the following (and list what's not allowed)."
Yes, you'll end up with a longer policy, but that's far, far clearer than the previous 'workplace appropriate' wording.
Once you've updated the policy, circulate it amongst all employees and get them to sign it to say they've read it. If you're still issuing reprimands after the new policy is issued and signed, then you likely have got an employee problem and they can be dealt with according to your workplace's disciplinary policy.
Identifying an implementation or interpretation problem
Dress codes should be implemented consistently across the entire company. If a dress code is unclear to staff, it's going to be unclear to managers. And if it's unclear, then they can implement and interpret it however they please.
For instance, if the dress code says 'hair must be a natural colour', you might think that's fine. But imagine you've got an employee who leans rather alternative in their look, and they dye their hair black. They're dressed completely within the dress code. Black is a natural hair colour. Sure, it's not their natural hair colour, but then neither is blonde for some people.
Imagine this alternative employee ends up on a team with a manager who honestly couldn't care less about the fact they dye their hair. Doesn't even notice when their natural roots come through. But this employee gets a promotion and shifts to a different team, where there's a manager who really, really doesn't like the visibly dyed hair. That's the manager's personal preference. The employee has, according to the handbook and their previous manager, done nothing wrong.
The employee gets pulled up by their new manager on their 'unnatural' hair. The employee says, quite rightly, that the handbook states 'hair must be a natural colour'. Black is a natural hair colour for millions of people across the world. Your employee has chosen to dye their hair black, and their previous manager had no issue with it. This goes back and forth until HR gets involved.
HR pulls out the policy, which reads 'hair must be a natural colour'. This puts HR in a dilemma, because black IS a natural hair colour, and the employee's previous manager had zero issue with the dyed hair.
So HR has to make a choice - say to the employee that their dyed hair is suddenly not appropriate for work because of how the manager interprets it, or realise that the employee, who has quoted their own policy at them, is not in the wrong.
It's a situation which could have been avoided by either making the policy wording clearer, or running a short training session for all managers company-wide to explain how to implement the dress code fairly.
What can you do within your company
If you have got that file of dress code reprimands, go through it and identify the kinds of reprimands that you're issuing. Once you've done that, you'll be in a much better position to take action.
If it's a policy problem, you can rewrite your dress code so it's clearer for every employee and isn't open to interpretation.
If it's an implementation and interpretation problem, you can review your dress code and run a training meeting for all managers across your company to ensure that the dress code is implemented the same way across all teams. And when you run this training, make sure that your managers understand that their personal preferences are not a valid reason to reprimand someone for 'breaking' dress code.
oOo
If you think your dress code has one or both of the problems I've talked about in this post, I offer a dress code policy review service for companies of all sizes.
Visit the Consulting page here to book your free discovery call and find out how I can help you make your dress code clear, inclusive, and reflective of the modern workforce.
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