In the days of cutbacks and wage freezes, companies often look for low cost morale boosters. Consider giving everyone on your staff custom logoed apparel.
There are a lot of reasons to create apparel for your company. Employees feel more like a part of the team when they are wearing a logoed item. They also are advertising for you when they wear their item. Additionally, it gets around the 'casual Friday' problem giving office works something acceptable to wear without having to think about it. And finally, it makes small companies look a lot larger.
Uniforms are also powerful items. They can distinguish your staff from customers in a retail store. They can also help identify the various types of positions at a construction site. Foreman are often dressed differently from laborers or skilled tradespeople. In hospitals, various scrub colors are often used to distinguish different types of staff members. Nurses dress in royal blue, physical/occupational therapy in black, surgeons in green, assistants in gray, for example. And don't forget to personalize the doctor's lab coat with all that alphabet stuff. Chefs also like to have their names added to the uniform wear as it helps them build their personal brand along with yours.
If the thought of providing frequent free clothing items to employees scares you from a financial standpoint, you can ask the employee to supplement the cost. Many restaurants provide a small number of uniform shirts when the employee first starts, but the employees pay for any replacements. This encourages employees to launder them properly as well as keep track of them. I also have some clients that allow the employees to choose their own shirts, while the employer pays for the embroidery. This gives the employee some input to what he or she wears, within reason.
And finally, consider uniforms or staff polo shirts as part of your brand. This way, you may be able to consider the cost as part of your marketing budget. (Be sure to consult your accountant.) And if you have any certifications from manufacturers you represent, you may also be able to get them to help defray some of the cost. For example, one of my roofing contractor clients adds a GAF/ELK logo to the sleeve of their shirts. The cost of this embroidery is subsidized by the manufacturer. That's one of the perks of being certified.
If you would like to learn more about a custom uniform or logoed polos, I would be happy to help.
(repost of my blog at EmbroidMeAustinSW.blogspot.com on 3/16/11)
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