Casual Dress - dress codes have relaxed as a result of the Internet age - Brief Article

Training & Development, Nov, 2000

So, have you worn a suit to work lately? Once the uniform of choice for businesspeople, the Suit seems to be going the way of the Windsor knot. According to a survey this year by the Society of Human Resource Management, 87 percent of HR professionals polled said their companies offer the casual dress option one day a week or every day. In a similar SHRM study in 1992, just 63 percent of respondents said their companies offered casual dress codes.

What caused the 24 percent jump? We could thank (or blame) the Internet age. According to Ilene Amiel, author of Business Casual Made Easy, it's generally agreed that casual days started on the U.S. West coast, where computer companies allowed programmers to dress comfortably to encourage creativity. Like the Internet, the casual trend spread. Many companies are using casual dress policies to attract and retain employees, especially the high-tech workers who expect to dress down. There are many benefits to a casual dress code. In SHRM's 1996 benefit survey, HR managers cited increased employee morale and productivity and the opportunity to use casual dress as a recruitment and retention tool.

According to the Business Research Lab, a research and management-consulting firm, a casual dress policy can send the message to employees that the company is flexible and innovative, and doesn't want to control employees or favor affluent workers. Many employees also sing the praises of casual dress, listing comfort, lower costs for clothing and dry-cleaning, and heightened creativity. Many also believe casual dress makes them more effective. In a 1998 survey by USA Today, 64 percent of respondents said they work more efficiently when wearing casual dress.

Though it's easy to see the benefits of dressing down, doing so is harder than it looks. Much confusion exists about appropriate casual attire in the workplace, and relaxing the dress code often makes employees' morning routine harder. As one Training & Development staffer replied when she was chided for wearing a skirt on a Casual Friday, "It takes too much time to find something casual to wear."

What's more, people seem to interpret the meaning of casual differently. ABCnews.com reports, "Stodgy employees think casual means taking off your suit jacket. Others show up for work in weekend wear--hiking boots, sandals, tank tops, shorts, wet hair."

Some companies are now hiring consultants to teach employees about appropriate casual dress. The Conselle Institute of Image Management, for example, conducts seminars on "strategies to dress for appropriate impact in all situations." Strategies for casual dress?

Employees who aren't able to attend a seminar can get help from a copy of Conselle's Professional Style Scale, which identifies and defines four levels of dress in an attempt to ease casual confusion. Amiel's Business Casual Made Easy and a book by Sherry Maysonave, Casual Power, categorize and define levels of casual dress. But the best way to lessen employees' confusion is a written policy that spells Out exactly what is and isn't appropriate. A chapter in Amiel's book tells how to develop and manage a business casual policy, or you can hire her to write the policy or coach managers how to write it.

Like it or not, casual dress is probably here to stay. Many employees now list a casual dress code as a job requirement. Some people would, in this time of dot.com mania, pick the casual dress option over stock options. Tanya Kennedy, a Washington, D.C. product manager, says, "Stock options may or may not produce results, but casual dress will affect my budget immediately."

Businesses would do well to keep that in mind. Kennedy suggests that companies that want to retain professional dress will need to pay their employees higher salaries to justify their clothing investment.

Dressed to chill.

In a survey cited in Business Casual Made Easy, 80 percent of executives said the following items are "unacceptable":

* sweatsuits

* spandex

* shorts

* t-shirts with slogans

* bared midriffs, halter tops, tank tops

* flip-flops.