Planning Your Company’s Corporate Uniform

As far as global trends go, the shift in workwear clothing seems to be moving towards garments of comfort, practicality, and casual style. At Gina@work we understand that work clothes in South Africa have a tendency to veer towards the more traditional side of things, because of the country’s conservative corporate culture. However, we have the resources to make sure your company can still achieve the utmost in professionalism, while keeping relevant to current fashion trends if you take the time to consider the most important factors in planning corporate uniforms.

Before you begin…

• Know your brand: Corporate clothing South Africa should be nothing less than an extension of your brand identity. How can you express your brand in clothing, you ask? For starters, you can look at matching colours of clothing garments to that of your brand identity guide. Making functional and image choices on specific items is important eg. dress shirts instead of t-shirts, or jeans instead of slacks are important considerations when defining what image to portray. At the end of the day, your goal should be that your customers receive a positive and accurate brand experience when dealing with your employees.
• Decide what you need to achieve: Deciding on corporate workwear is simplified once you can answer a few basic questions, namely – Is daily wearing of the uniform compulsory? What message must the uniform convey to your customers? Is it a formal or more relaxed culture? Will the uniform be an extension of existing marketing campaign? Knowing what your corporate uniforms need to achieve will make it easier to make a decision about what they need to look like.

Going forward…

• Design: The type of workwear clothing you choose should be informed first by your brand identity, and second by your industry and its unique requirements. The main idea is to have corporate uniforms that are comfortable and practical for your employees in their specific roles. For example, nurses and surgeons have specific functional requirements for their jobs
• Involvement: A good idea to cultivate team spirit is to involve employees in the uniform decision making process. After all, they are the ones who will be wearing the clothing you decide on. Put together a shortlist of three or four choices of workwear clothing, and then have employees vote for their favourite one. Not only will this make your job easier, but it guarantees employee satisfaction as well.

Here at Gina@work we work closely with our customers to ensure that their vision is enhanced through the image their uniforms present. You can be assured of the best in fashion (where relevant), garments manufactured with care, and the very best in quality.