Dressing Business Down

The "business casual" dress code is becoming more and more popular, moving out of organisations’ back ends into the face-to-face customer realm.   In part, the gradual shift towards business casual has been a response to greater flexibility in working conditions.  The move towards business casual has long been led by the IT industry, following the example of Bill Gates giving presentations in open-necked shirt and casual pants. At internet company Yahoo!, there’s no such thing as a company dress code. Like Microsoft, Yahoo! was founded by university students with little affiliation with the traditional business suit.  Also becoming more popular are dress-down days, often run in support of a charity, which staff contribute to in return for wearing casual clothes on a given day.  A recent survey of 6,000 people by recruitment company TMP Worldwide showed that 51.3 percent of men and 60 percent of women valued being allowed to dress down on Fridays.  Dress casual days are most popular among younger employees, with 69.3 percent of those aged 19-24 and 61.9 percent of those aged 25-34 believed the practice is essential. Only 44 percent of those aged 45-54 valued casual days.  Casual Fridays are most popular in the construction industry (81.2 per cent), banking and finance (66.3) and amongst advertising staff (62.5). The legal industry is least likely to participate, with 38.5 percent.  

Setting guidelines — how casual is business casual? 

If your company makes the decision to go for a more casual dress code, it’s important to set guidelines up front, to ward off the risk of your employees turning up in thongs, singlet tops and shorts. When it comes to creating a formal policy, two schools of thought have evolved out of the move away from conservative dress. One school advocates the "one-line" approach, for example: "We expect our employees to come to work in neat and clean attire," which promotes an atmosphere of personal freedom and trust. However, most companies prefer to outline more defined rules. This means what business casual means for your organisation or department, as well as what is acceptable and what is not. This could mean combining the "one line" with qualifications like:No shorts, no sandals, no thongs, no miniskirts. Also, it can be a good idea to qualify times when business casual is not acceptable – ie, when meeting clients.  Define your terms carefully – "appropriate" and "proper" are too unspecific.  If you are introducing "dress down days" rather than a general dress policy, reinforce that these days are a benefit, not a right.