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Employee Dress Codes, Changes Besides the Clothing

Employee dress codes are something that is often debated.   Where is was once mandated in certain industries that  suit and tie were the dress of the day, casual Fridays introduced a new manner of dress.   Casual Fridays led to Casual Everyday, and in some industries employees can wear everything from decent casual wear to the ripped Mickey Mouse Shirt they had bought a mere eleven years ago.

As a background checking company, we find dress codes to be of interest.  We wonder if the axiom holds true, “Dress for the Job you want and not the one you have,”  just what jobs some of our sloppier employment candidates are aspiring to.    In all, we have seen a gnarly bunch of dressers over time.   In fact, perhaps as part of any pre-employment screening program, job candidates should be offered a job on the contingency that their appearance is palatable for the first month of a probationary period.  Not likely.   And in some industries, or sectors of industries, it really doesn’t matter what the employee dresses like.   Except maybe to those around him, and more often than not they are all dressing the same, anyway.

So much for digression.  Progress Business Audio Conferences is offering an audio conference on dress codes.   You may wish to check it out.  It may not matter to you.   But, just in case, find below some of the topics to be addressed.

Drafting Effective & Legal Dress Code Policies

** Crucial tips for building a legally defensible dress code policy

** Rule breakers: Strategies for saying the right thing at the right time

** How should piercings and tattoos be addressed?

** Strategies that will have every employee following your dress code

Enforcing Dress Code Policies: Whats Legal – Whats Not

** What you need to know on the basis of race, gender, national origin or

religion?

** Appearance expectations you can – and can’t – safely enforce

** Recent court decisions on dress codes and how they apply to you

** When do you call in legal counsel to confront an employee?

Solutions to Your Toughest Appearance Policy Challenges

** How much can an employer dictate styles of dress, hair, jewelry, etc?

** Can you force a woman to wear a skirt or dress to work?

** Must you allow men to have long hair if women can?

** Strategies for awkward dress code conversations you need to have

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.